My internship this summer has been at the labs of Dr.’s Paul and Amy Maddox at UNC, Chapel Hill. This has been an awesome experience. It really made me feel like I was in undergrad again. The most interesting moment of the program was how much research went in to studying C. Elegans. As well as the detailed images from the microscopes we used. We also got a chance to look at a micro-organism called Tardigrades that look like something out of a science fiction movie. The first day was probably the most challenging because the scientist were using vocabulary that I had gotten out of the practice of using because of the level of science I teach. I quickly remembered the terms and caught on. Also watching one of the scientist code. I was completely lost. I realized that coding is something I need to learn how to do. The biggest take away from this experience so far is something that I already say to my students, that science is always changing. What you learn today, may be totally different in 10 years. Learn to work collaboratively and be willing to learn through failures.
Month: July 2018
Blog 3
You are creating a product that transfers your internship experience into educational resources. Please describe the challenges and successes you are experiencing.
So far this is my 3rd day at UNC. I have seen quite a few very interesting things in the lab. Some of the things I have seen are how centrioles make spindle fibers which are used to help embryo’s divide. Many of the things that I have seen will be visually interesting to my students. We were able to take some cool images of flatworm embryos as they divide. This would grab my students’ attention. I also spoke with another scientist who studies genetics and biotechnology and that was spot on for what I wanted to do. The challenge that I would see coming from this is, it is over my students’ head. Some of the things I heard either made me dig back into my memory to remember or I had to ask for a reminder.