This week was my first week at the Natural Science Museum. All of the fellows met at Prairie Ridge on Monday. We met with all of the post-docs and doctors associated with all four Student Discovery Projects. In addition, people from the Friday Institute and Citizen Science were also present. We also discussed our fears, hopes, and expectations. I enjoyed participating in a Citizen Science Project associated with identifying dragonflies. We also had an opportunity to go out into the field to catch actual dragonflies. This was quite challenging and I did not catch any dragonflies.  We had a very great lunch from the Neomonde Café and went over to the museum at 1:00pm. At the museum, we learned a little more about some of the equipment we will be using in the Genomics laboratory, listened to an awesome talk from Dr. Dunn, and toured the museum. I am so excited about working at this museum and cannot wait to bring my students back for a field trip. I am a little sad that I will only be there for three weeks. Everyone is so friendly and there are so many awesome things to learn.

On Tuesday, we learned more about gel elelectropheresis. For my project, this will involve looking at ribosomal DNA. In addition, we reviewed the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which is used to replicate DNA. Also, we learned about gel electrophoresis. This involves placing DNA in a gel  and determining the length of the strand. The is mainly for identification purposes. We also learned how to use a micro pipette and went out to get more soil samples.

I really like that we are able to hear talks from the other three post docs and tour their labs. Today we heard a talk from Dr. Jones on paleontology and collected shark teeth in his laboratory. How cool is that. During my lunch break, I visited the technology laboratory and was thrilled to know that they were using augmented reality. I cannot wait to bring my students to visit the museum this school year. On Wednesday, we learned about Other DNA replicating methods. We also listened to a talk by Dr. Stevens on Genomics and Dr. Argus, dealing with mites. Any Lawson was interviewed by Frank Stasio from NPR Any, Dr. Dunn, and Dr. Urban did a wonderful job explaining the Student Discover Projects. Here is the link for that talk:  http://wunc.org/post/supergluing-your-face-science. We also talked with graduate students about the teaching profession and plated soil samples. Another Awesome day. I forgot to mention that I got my mites removed from my face today. On Thursday, we went to hear Dr. Danielle N. Lee of Cornell University give a talk entitled:”Exploring Animal Personalities and Individual Differences in Wild Rodents”.  Her research was done on bomb sniffing rodents. This talk was extremely interesting and she described her findings usings statistical analysis.  We also made up a mixture of nutrient agar and poured them in plates. In addition, we started working in our first Display for the museum and listened to Dr. Stephanie Schttler’s Biodeversity talk. I enjoyed having lunch with Dr. Dunn, Dr. Corn, Liz Baird, Susan Perry, my fellow Kenan cohorts and other Friday institute members as we discussed the highlights of my first week. Again, this week was filled with excitement and lots of learning. I realized how much I missed working in a laboratory setting. I also enjoyed hearing talks from the post docs and touring their labs. I am truly excited about taking everything I am learning back to my coworkers, students, and anyone who will listen!!!! Continue reading Week 1: June 30-July 3, 2014 →