Dr. Urban, Dr. Dunn, and Me
This has been a very eventful two days! Yesterday and today we got into our labs to learn how to use all of the different tools, and we even got to use some of them! Team Dirt got to make our own Nutrient Agar Plates, collect soil around downtown Raleigh, add soil to Phosphate buffered solution (PBS), centrifuge the mixture, pipette the solution with bacteria cells on to the agar plates, and incubate the bacteria! We can’t wait to see what is growing on our Agar tomorrow!!! We have also been taught by our Mentors about how we are going to extract DNA, duplicate it, and sequence the DNA with next gen technology.
Practicing my pipetting skills in honor of the USA Soccer Team!
Our nutrient agar plates.
Me pipetting out PBS solution and soil bacteria mixture.
Me, Laura, and Arthina at work in the Genomics Lab!
We have also be able to listen to the Post Docs present their projects to the Museum and all of the Kenan Fellows. After the post docs presented their materials we were allowed to get a behind the scenes tour of their labs. Yesterday we got to visit the Paleontology Lab, where we saw many dinosaur fossils and shark teeth. I found it fascinating to see how carefully the fossils were cleaned and exposed. It reminded me how science is a craft of patience. I also thought it was amazing that a new Dinosaur was discovered by Dr. Gates, and he is getting to name it! I can only dream that Team Dirt discovers new bacteria or fungus. That would be an amazing story to tell my students.
Dr. Dan Fergus presenting his lesson on face mites.
Carefully separating plaster, rock, and fossil from dinosaur bones!
We got to test out the debris that our students will get to use in the paleontology Student Discover project.
Today I was also given the opportunity to be a guest on the NPR show, “The State of Things”, hosted by Frank Stasio. I accompanied Dr. Robert Dunn the lead investigator on our grant and Dr. Julie Urban the Assistant Director of the Genomics Lab. This was an amazing experience! I’ve never been on the radio before, and I was glad that I got to represent the 12 Student Discover Kenan Fellows.
Mr. Frank Stasio removing his mite from his face before the radio broadcast.
Mr. Stasio, Dr. Dunn, Dr. Urban, and Me.
Me being projected up on the big Globe Theater Screen inside the Museum!
What a great 2 days!