This week was hard, but I made it to the end of the week. It was the last week of the quarter, but luckily I had stayed on top of my work throughout the semester, so I didn't have any late work to complete and hand in, on top of the other work we are given in class. That was really helpful, and I have only past Shubhangy to thank. So thanks past me. But I did procrastinate in studying for my SAT Subject Tests, so that wasn't good. But the good news is that I didn't have a lot of work to do in capstone this week, so I spent a lot of time studying for the exams. I also didn't have as much homework as I did in the past few weeks, so I spent a lot more time studying for the exams than I was able to last time. This week I also finished two of my college applications and submitted them. One was Johns Hopkins University, which was my first choice school. I am really hoping all the research I have done over the past few years with scientists from the School of Medicine will give me an edge over the competition. My statistics are pretty average for their standards, which is good in my case because I am applying early decision, so the acceptance rate is higher. I also have a lot of extra-curriculars, so I am hoping all of this gives me an edge over the competition. I also applied to University of Chicago. I hope my essays and extra-curriculars will give me an edge there as well. Overall, I am glad I got two of my applications done, as it was a huge relief to finally be done with those. I am also glad this is my last standardized exam tomorrow. After this I will be done with standardized testing and SATs and will be fully committed to myself, my health, and my schoolwork.
In regards to the capstone project, I did receive some preliminary data from my mentors, as I think I mentioned last week. I spoke with my mentor and discussed the data. The data showed that the transfection didn't work and the cells did not express the gene the way we wanted it to. We will have to go back and redo the transfection in order to get the proper gene expression. This is the only data I will be receiving, so for now, I will have to write my results on this. It sucks that I wasn't able to complete my capstone experiment properly, because at first, I was truly excited to be doing this project and was fully invested in it. But sometimes life doesn't go the way you expect it to. You can do everything right, but sometime the unexpected happens. When that happens you have to make the best of it. This week I was much better at being flexible, since so many things were going on, but I managed them well and didn't have a mental breakdown. Next week I want to work on my productivity, since my results section is due next week. This week, Ms. Crudale challenged me to be more positive in my blogs, which I said I was going to do at the beginning of the year, so that's why this blog sounds more positive than usual. I am hoping next week will be even better so my blog is even more positive. Tags: Productivity, Reflection, Project, Results, Planning, Time Management
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Honestly, this week was pretty dull. Nothing much was accomplished all week, I didn't do anything on Monday. I didn't do anything on Tuesday. I didn't do anything Wednesday. Wednesday was a half-day and we had to do that stupid exhibition day that the school makes us do. I had English first period and we had nothing to present. A lot of students didn't want to come that day. I have been so tired lately, so my mother said we could stay home from school on Wednesday. I didn't want to go to school on Wednesday either way so I jumped at this opportunity to stay home. I slept in and relaxed all day. I did do some homework, but I tried to take it easy. I didn't do anything Thursday. I didn't do anything today besides this blog post. So this week has pretty much been a waste. It was so unremarkable, I don't even remember what I did earlier this week. I did help my friends with their abstract and introduction for their paper because I was so bored. That was the most notable thing I did all week.
The only other remarkable thing is that I got sent some data by my mentors at Johns Hopkins University. Although there is some valuable data that I can use, they didn't send me the results of the NMR-Spectroscopy. They did send me the western blot results, so at a worst case scenario I would just have to forget about the NMR-spectroscopy and move forward with the western blot as my primary source of data. They also have it as Trials 1,2, and 3, but they didn't specify what the levels of estrogen are and whether the levels of estrogen were even used in the first place. The saving grace is that my uncle is coming today, so I can ask him about the data and get his feedback. From my understanding, Trial 1 is 50 ML of estrogen, Trial 2 is 100 ML of estrogen and Trial 3 is 250 ML of estrogen. I am probably going to use that as the basis for my result write-up. My results are due in two weeks, so I have a lot of time to do it. I will probably start some time next week. This weekend, I have to study for the SAT Subject tests (again!) and I have to finish some of my college applications. Tags: Forward, Communication, Planning, Results This week was productive for Capstone, surprisingly. We started presenting our presentations on Monday. For every presentation, we had to provide feedback on their delivery, presentation, and organization. I thought everybody did really well. Our classroom is in the hallway though, and at times students were making quite the ruckus, making it harder for the class to hear the presenter. If these background noises were not present, most of the presenters would have been quite loud. My presentation went really well. I presented on Wednesday. I made a lot of people laugh with the jokes and puns I put in my presentation. People seemed to be giving me their undivided attention. I spoke really loudly, almost close to a scream for most of the presentation so that way people in the back could hear me, even if the lunch crowd was creating a disturbance. I tried to use my hands and relax my body so that way I looked relaxed and ready. I also smiled throughout the whole presentation because I thought people would be more likely to pay attention if I looked happy.
The feedback from people was mostly positive, with two people saying that I was reading off the slide. Some more people said that at times I should have spoken louder, but I think that it was just because of the room we were in. Most people gave me a perfect score, with only the same two people taking off some points in delivery. Other than that, my presentation was really good. I forgot to include a rationale for my experiment, so I got some points deducted off for that. I didn't really practice for this presentation because I was pretty busy, so next time I would like to practice a little bit more before the presentation, that way I don't have to look at the slides that much. This week, I obviously worked on my communication skills. I had to communicate my project description, my methods, the science behind it, the materials, and the problems I was facing. I thought I did that pretty well, as evident by my presentation and my rubric and feedback from my peers. Next week, I would like to gather some data from other sources on the effect of estrogen and GDPD6 expression on GPC levels in breast cancer cells. In other news, I am supposed to get my data within the next few weeks. The head of the lab said that she would ensure I at least get some preliminary data for my project, so that's good. Hopefully next week is easy on me. Tags: Forward, Planning, Presentation, Reflection, Projects This week was productive for everything outside of Capstone. On Monday, we had no school, which I celebrated only shortly. I had a lot of work to do, especially because the SAT was on Wednesday. On Tuesday, I was studying for the SAT. I didn't have a lot of work to do that day because I had finished my methods section and all the revisions I needed. I decided to study for the SAT. On Thursday, we were assigned our first formal presentation for the semester. The topic was on our methods. It needed to include your topic, question, materials, methods, problems you are facing, and solution to those problems. I decided to add some background information to my presentation so that way people could understand my project. I tried to dumb it down as much as I could for my classmates, because last time it felt like some people didn't understand the science behind my project and what my project is about. I included some diagrams about metabolism and the Kennedy pathway to help people understand it. I tried to insert some humor into my presentation so it was more lighthearted.
Other than that, I am still waiting for data from my mentors, which is not fun. I don't really have a lot of work to do, so I've just been sitting around, sometimes doing work for other classes, sometimes doing work for one of my clubs. I have been working on being more flexible, which I think I've been doing pretty well on. I have done work for my other classes, while keeping up with the work from this class. I have switched my schedule around to make sure that I can complete my tasks in a way where I don't have to jeopardize my mental health for it. I think that I am doing pretty well considering everything. Until next week. Tags: Forward, Independent, Planning, Reflection This week was pretty productive, but not for capstone. You see, tomorrow I have the SAT subject tests in math and biology, which I have admittedly left to the last minute to study for. Next week, I have a calculus quiz, which I really want to get a good score for. I also have to take the SAT next Wednesday, which I need to study for. I finished my methods on Monday. Since I didn't have much else to do for the rest of the week, I was spending most of the class time studying for the subject test. I can't go further in my project because I need the data to come through from Johns Hopkins. I don't think that studying was a waste of time per say, it was just off-topic work. I wouldn't have had enough time to study had I not studied during class. I knew it would be difficult for my to study, so I just substituted work for capstone with work for the SAT. I could have also worked on college admissions, but this is a much more immediate matter.
While I am waiting for that though, Ms. Crudale suggested that I look into some other research as a back-up plan in case the data from Johns Hopkins doesn't come through. I would then take that data and present it as my research. It would be difficult to meet the capstone requirements, but I think I can do it. I plan on looking more into estrogen and its links with GPC levels and GDPD6 and its links with GPC levels. I will probably connect the two after that. When I was writing my literature review, I didn't find many sources on these, so I will probably have to dig deeper. I plan on doing it next week. In between, I will probably work on my college application. Honestly, most of my stress is not even due to capstone. It's just college application and the fear of the unknown. I have been trying to work through it because I just feel bad for not doing any work. Through Ms. Crudale, I have been able to get into contact with an admissions officer in Johns Hopkins and will be ale to ask him questions. I think this will take away some of the unknown for me and I am hoping that this will help my mental health. Until next week! Tags: Forward, Problem Solving, Reflection, Projects, Planning Last week, I realized I was not as productive as I should have been due to poor mental health, anxiety, and procrastination. I resolved to better my work ethics, even if only marginally, this week, but alas, the universe conspired against me. This week, I was all but ready to start working on revising my capstone paper, which I received back on Monday with edits I need to make. Unfortunately, this was also the week where the school decided to issue standardized testing to determine our reading and math abilities. While in years past this would have been a one day thing, this year they switched the standardized tests and we had to test out of every grade level starting at kindergarten. This was excruciating and annoying, as the test were extremely long. Usually, I can blow through this test in about thirty minutes, but these tests took me two days each. With the reading test, there were so many passages and questions. There were moments where I couldn't think properly and just chose an answer which I believed made sense. This exam was draining and after the testing, I felt lethargic and annoyed. I could not force myself to do any other work around this time due to how draining the testing was. While the math had less reading, the questions were more complex. They took more time to answer and had more layers to it. While I like math more than reading, the math section was still draining, albeit not as much as the reading was. After finishing the reading section, which I did today, I just couldn't refocus my mind to my paper.
On the topic of my paper, there were some grammatical issues with the APA formatting in my paper. I was able to fix them on Wednesday painlessly. However, there was some content issue, with some clarifications needed to be made at places and safety information for the chemicals in the methods section needed. I was able to address some of the clarifications needed throughout my paper, but I still have a few more. I unfortunately was unable to start looking into the safety information for the chemicals. Although some progress has been made in my paper, much work is left to be done. Although I should have done some of the work at home, I was unable to for the most part. I had a lot of work to do for my other classes, especially my ECE English and Calculus classes. I also did procrastinate, but not as bad as last week. I just tend to do my work extremely slowly so work that should take me an hour takes me two hours instead. Likewise, I also tended to get distracted on YouTube at home. While I was making strides to improve my work ethic, misfortune struck again! Since my home laptop was not responding as I wanted it to, I kept restarting my laptop which caused it to crash. Now when I start it, it takes a while to load and when I log on, I can't do any type of function as as soon as I click something, my computer freezes and crashes again. I have spent the past two days trying to alleviate this issue, which took some time away from my school work. But I do know I need to change and better my work ethic, not only for the sake of my grades but for the sake of my anxiety and mental health as well. As soon as I fix my personal laptop, I will address the concerns in the capstone paper and move forward with the rest of my school work for now. Let's see how this plan goes... Tags: Blogs, Independent, Forward, Reflection, Planning, Lit Review, Problem Solving, Time Management Since I posted a blog on Wednesday, this blog will be pretty short in comparison. This week I was pretty productive, although I think I can improve. I was able to update the website and submit my draft of my paper. I began reading through my paper, making mental notes of what I might need to change. But I feel that I could have been more productive. I was side-tracked for most of the week. I think the main reason I tried to avoid doing my work was a combination of senioritis and anxiety. I have worked so hard the past three years, at times, I just don't have the motivation to do any work. During the summer, I didn't work as hard as I do during the school year and was travelling and having some fun. I feel at times, I am stuck in that mentality of trying to take it easier than I should. I also feel that I am anxious for the future of my project, of this class, my grades, and my own future. I don't know whether the data I need will come through in time. I don't know whether I will be able to write my final paper and make my final poster and present my final presentation. I don't know whether I will be able to pass this class with the grade I expect from myself. I don't know whether my college application will be any good. I don't know whether I will be able to do well on the SAT and SAT Subject test. I don't know how I will pay for college. I don't even know whether I will get into the colleges that I want to go to. I am just filled with so much anxiety.
I need to fix this if I want to be more productive. I need to buckle down and just do my work. If I can start chipping away at my work, I do think part of my anxiety that this class contributes to will diminish. I just need to start but that is easier said than done. In addition to this class, all of my work for my other classes, especially ECE Calculus tends to take up most of my time. I feel like I just don't have enough time to do my work. I need to start managing my time better and working harder, smarter, and more efficiently. If I can do that, I think I will find more time to study for the SATs and do my college application. I think my overall anxiety levels will diminish as well. By the beginning of next week, I hope to have my paper with revision suggestions, which I will work on next week. Hopefully, next week will find me in a more productive and overall positive and healthy head space. Tags: Blogs, Lit Review, Planning, Problem Solving, Reflection, Forward A new beginning, new classes, and new goals. Since this is senior year - which I still can't believe; it feels like yesterday that I started high school- goal setting is imperative to success. Goal setting allows you to see what you have to accomplish and work on in order to be successful and reach your dreams. It allows your dreams and aspirations to be more attainable by outlining your steps to reach your destination. This year, I want to maintain my GPA, which will be a challenge since I am taking ECE Calculus. For my career goals, I want to get into a good university and major in biomedical engineering or bio-engineering that will prepare me for either a master's degree or for medical school. Personally, I want to be more productive and optimistic. The lack of both of these things last year really hindered my mental health last year and led to an increase of stress and anxiety for me. Since this is my last year of high school, I want this to be the best year it can possibly be, and I can't do that if I am stressed out. Even though I know that I will stress about college applications, I want to try to limit all other sources of stress. Last year, I would feel unmotivated and procrastinate. This led to an increase of stress, and led me to have a pessimistic attitude at times. I want to try to be more optimistic and productive to improve my mental health and allow me to be the best version of myself that I can possibly be.
As I mentioned before, I have not one, but three mentors. Dr. Kanchan Sonkar is helping me with the experimental part and the paper, Dr. Balaji Krishnamachary is helping me with my paper, and Dr. Kristine Glunde is the head of the lab. I needed a mentor to review my paper and help me with the experimental part. I would ask for help on running the experiment and reviewing my paper. One critical skill I want to work on this month is being flexible. I feel like last year I set unrealistic deadlines for myself on my assignments and when I received extra work from my other classes, I was unable to stick to my deadlines and would stress out. By being more flexible and rolling with the punches, I hope to improve my resolve and mental health. The next 2-3 major tasks I need to complete for my capstone project is:
Tags: Blogs, Planning Reflection When I first arrived, we started growing the GDPD6 over-expressed cells. We (my mentor and I) changed the media every other day, and checked on the cells everyday. Things were going fine. We were even able to split the cells a week and a half ago as well as on Friday. The cells seemed to be thriving and we were even going to start treatment soon enough. But, when I went to check on the cells Monday, they didn't look good. The media they were suspended in was cloudy and you couldn't see the cells properly under the microscope. The cells somehow died over the weekend. We confirmed the cells were dead with two other people and both of them said that it seemed like there was a bacterial infection. Unfortunately, we had to trash the cells; one month of work down the drain.
After we figured out why the cells died, we began to try to figure out how and where the bacterial infection even started. We checked everyone's cells, threw away our media in case they were contaminated (even though we started using new media Friday). We cleaned the hood and the incubator we were using with 70% ethanol as well. We felt it was still not enough, and the lab technician cleaned the incubator with a solution specific for incubators. It turned out, someone spilled media in the incubator and didn't clean it, thus causing a bacterial infection. I have plans to start over Friday, but to save time, I will be growing parental, empty-vector, and over-expression at the same time. Hopefully, these cells grow faster so I can start treating the cells. Other than that, I have been studying for the upcoming school year, but I still have a lot of work to do. I also have been doing a bit of traveling, which was fun. I will try to update the blog next week to check on the progress, but this is my vacation so the update might be postponed just because of my laziness. :) I said I would post a blog 2 weeks ago after I arrived in Baltimore to do my Capstone experiment. I lied. There was nothing going on so I just didn't update. I had some personal matters to deal with as well when I came so I did not do much. I started the cell culture for the cells over-expressing GDPD6. The cells take a long time to grow, so I haven't split them yet. I will probably do that in a few days. I did not start the cell culture for the cells that are empty vector for GDPD6 because since this was my first time doing cell culture, my mentor thought it would be better to start off slowly. I will probably seed the cell line in a few days.
Other than that, I have a meeting tomorrow with my mentor to talk about my progress. I have been trying to fill in some paperwork for the Volunteer Office here at Johns Hopkins as well as looking at colleges and trying to start my application. I have a lot of work to do, which I didn't realize before. But don't worry; I've also been enjoying my vacation. |
AuthorShubhangy Raghavan Archives
January 2019
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