Drafts

In genetics labs plasmids are a very valuble tool. Plasmids are circular strands of DNA that are found in bacteria. Plasmids must contain an origin of replication (where DNA polymerase binds), a multiple cloning site (where you can add any gene you want), and a selectable marker (usually an antibiotic resistant gene). These plasmids are used to inserted a selected gene into any cell. If you want a cell to contain a certain gene, you place that gene in the plasmid, then place the plasmid in the cell. The selectable marker is usually an antibiotic resistant gene because this allows you to select for cells that contain the plasmid. You place the cells you believe to have taken up the plasmid on a plate with an antibiotic of your choosing. Only the cells containing the plasmid, with antibiotic gene and the gene of your choosing, will be able to grow on this plate. 

The Methods project was a really interesting project. I was a bit confused in the beginning on how it would work and what I needed to do, but once I got the hang of the assignment I was really into it. This project helped me tremendously in my other classes, because I had the ability to practice writing a methods and collecting/presenting images. I also enjoyed the presentations; it made me work on my ability to present in front of a class. I really enjoyed this project and I think it aided in my research writing.

The Perfect Paragraphs left me with the same feeling as the drafts assignment. Initially, I thought it would not be a difficult assignment but I did struggle. I think that I started completing this assignment more thoroughly toward the middle of the semester. I would set up notifications and rewrite this assignment in my planner to help remind me. I found that this assignment did not really help my writing. I realized that I wrote my drafts less as a stream of conscious writing but more as a perfect paragraph. I wish I had changed how I did this assignment. I was actively editing while I wrote which left my draft and perfect paragraphs being quite similar. I do think this gave me the ability to work on my organization and be more aware of grammatical errors.

Cohesin is a protein that holds chromatids together. Cohesin is established in cell division during S phase and persists through G2 phase and early mitosis. In anaphase, cohesin along the entire length of the chromosome is broken down by an enzyme called separase, allowing the sister chromatids to separate. It is important that separase functions properly so that both the mother cell and daughter cell each get the appropriate number of chromosomes. Forms of cohesin differ between mitosis and meiosis. In meiosis anaphase I, cohesin along the chromosome arms is broken, allowing the two homologs to separate, and cohesin at the centromere is protected by a protein called shugoshin in order to keep the now separated chromosomes to stay together at their respective centromere.

The Drafts assignment was one in which I found myself struggling. I initially thought that posting multiple times a week and commenting on other people's posts would be a simple task. I found that it was much harder than I expected. I found myself frustrated on Fridays, realizing that I had not completed any posts or comments. This meant that if I wanted to complete this assignment for the week, I would have to put more effort into organizing my time. I set up notifications during the week to try and remember to do this assignment. This did lead me to having a better outcome and I learned that if I want to consistently do something throughout my week I have to make more of an effort to remember. I also learned that spreading out my writing does not necessarily benefit my writing. I write when motivated by my anxiety of needing to complete an assignment. In those moments, I write my best. Therefore I realized that when I did write throughout the week, I ended up deleting all the writing because it wasn’t good. It did help me organize my thoughts, but as for content, it was not necessarily beneficial.

Firstly, the methods was extremely interesting as it forced us to get out of our shell, walk on campus, and observe the nature on our campus, something I do not do too often. I was able to walk around and look at the ground rather looking at my phone in fear of being late to class. Before this project, I thought it would be very tedious as it required some detailed work on a computer using the app that was similar to Photoshop (forgot the name!) However, I loved using this app! It was like an art project. As I did the project, I enjoyed looking at the map of my school, as that is also something I do not do often enough. I also enjoyed following someone else's methods, setting this project up like a scavenger hunt and a challenge. It definitely meant a lot to us as a class because we all got to interact with each other and see the cool findings after the methods were followed by another student. In the future, I now know how to approach scientific figures!

In developmental psych we started talking about morality and when it develops in children. Different psychological experiments have found kids as young as 3 months old have a sense of morality. Multiply psychology labs at colleges all over the country have conducted pupet shows for young children in which one pupet is the "good guy" and one pupet is the "bad guy. The researches show the pupets to the children after the pupet show and over 80% of children chose the "good guy" to play with. With young infants, the amount of time they looked at the "good guy" was more than double the time they spent looking at the "bad guy". This study suggests that we have an innate sense of what is right and what is wrong. A similar pupet show was conducted in which the "bad guy" struggled to open a box, the "good guy" would either slam the box shut, or help the "bad guy" open the box. Children prefered the pupet who slammed the box on the "bad guy", showing that they believed the "bad guy" should be punished for his actions. 

Overall, there is a trend of increasing activity with higher temperatures and a decrease in insect activity with decreasing temperature (Fig. 2). We used T-tests to determine whether the experimental means differ significantly from the hypothesized means. In the arena where the temperature was increased, we observed a linear increase in insect activity count from 0 at 10.6°C up to 10 at 21.8°C, persisting at 10 above that temperature (Table 1). Similarly, in the arena where temperature was decreased, we recorded an activity count that decreased from 10 at 26.0°C to 0 at 10.2°C, persisting at 0 under that temperature (Table 1). Figure 2 shows similar trends in activity count for both arenas, with increasing activity being correlated with increasing temperature. This increase in activity is strongly linearly correlated in both groups with an R2 of 0.8874 for the decreasing temperature group and an R2 of 0.8893 for the increasing temperature group (Fig. 2).

Drafts: Before the project started I thought it would be challenging to sit down and write so frequently. I found that is wasnt that difficult to do. Although it wasn't really that difficult, I still prefer to write in larger blocks of time. I don't necessarily want to write an entire essay in one block of time but I like to write large sections and not step away from it until I feel satisfied with the amount of work I put towards something. I found that when I wrote in shorter blocks my writing was more choppy and it was really hard to bring all of my thoughts together in a cohesive way so the assignment was organized. To me it felt a little like busy work trying to write in shorter periods and frequently rather than just once or twice weekly. The drafts may have helped me think about writing more frequently and breaking up the work over the week, however I will most likely still write in larger blocks of time on fewer days a week since I feel like my writing is better organized that way.