michaelkim's blog

Turn on the sand bath right away after entering the lab keeping the temperature under 40 degrees. Phosphoric acid will be used however the measurement does not need to be exact. Amount of cyclohexanol used however must be exact, this can be done by taking rb flash 30 mL beaker upright then balance set it to zero. Measure about 2.0 grams of cyclohexanol using a pipet. Then use a buret in the hood to add 85% phosphoric acid (0.5 mL). Set up fractional distillation, can be done by using black plastic connector. Heat it up at a slow constant rate rather than a fast rate, the drops should be about 20-30 seconds per drop. Do it until only 10% is left. In the vial, there should be 2 phases of liquid which are water and cyclohexene. Pipet the contents of the vial into a test tube adding water (~1 mL). Mix the two liquids and then remove the lower aqueous layer and place it in a waste beaker. Add 1M sodium hydroxide (1 mL) then mix well to remove bottom layer again. Then add brine (1-2 mL) to mix and remove lower aqueous layer once again and place in the waste beaker after. Using a dry pipet, transfer organic layer, it is organic because there should not be any more water in the liquid. Add several spheres of calcium chloride and mix it well but not crushing the spheres. Repeat it until the spheres are no longer clumping together. Transfer the dried product then sign up for GC / IR analysis. Calculate the percent yield showing hand-written calculations on a separate piece of lab notebook paper. Chemical test will need to be done to distinguish alkenes from alkanes. Run the test reactions on the product that was formed and the cyclohexane. Dichloromethane is toxic so when using avoid touching. Rinse if it touched. Bromine is reddish-orange and it reacts with alkene to form a colorless dibromide. The solution will decolorize until all of the alkene has been reacted. Take cyclohexene (0.5 mL) and cyclohexane (0.5 mL) adding together, then take 3% solution of bromine in dichloromethane and add 3 to 4 drops. For potassium permanganate which is purplish color, add cyclohexene (0.3 mL) and cyclohexane (0.3 mL) together then drop about 2 or 3 drops of an aqueous solution containing 1 percent potassium permanganate and 10% sulfuric acid. Things to look out for in this lab is cyclohexene as it is very flammable. Handle phosphoric acid with care it is very corrosive to tissue. If the skin touches phosphoric acid even a little, immediately wash the contaminated area with water using soap. Clean up spills using sodium bicarbonate in the hood and rinse all the apparatus in the waste hood with a small amount of acetone. Dispose it in the organic liquid waste container after. Make sure to save copper wire, sponge, and aluminum foil for future use.

Many people who involved themselves with physical activities often live longer than those that do not. The fact is, playing sports is good for our physical health. Not only is it good for our health, it is good for our body as it will benefits our cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness. It is scientifically proven that playing sports can increase our life expectancy and better our bone health which is critical for our life expectancy. I grew up playing sports and my mom always said that playing too much sports was bad for me. I would always be sore because I would either play too much sports or be at the gym for too long. I would play basketball everyday for about 3 hours at least in high school and I almost forgot how being sore felt because my body got so used to it. Playing sports is one of the best ways for weight maintanence as well. But due to the dangers of playing some sports, I wanted to play something that didn't put me in a great risk but also was physical and competitive to play. I chose to play basketball tennis and track in high school and I still play them in college as I enjoy playing. I don't regret picking up basketball as my main sport and I will continue to play.

I thought of 10 possible jobs or fields I can enter as a Pre medical biology major after I graduate from UMass. I hope to continue school by getting into medical school.

1. Surgeon (South shore plaza / Mass General Hospital, trying to get into the medical school)

2. Dentist (Dental school after college, doctoral)

3. Researcher (Job right after college maybe?)

4. Nurse (Need to get volunteer hours?)

5. Pediatrician (Always been interested, grad school maybe?)

6. Musician (Love music, maybe grad school for music education?)

7. Biology teacher (High school)

8. Professor or assistance in some sort (College)

9. Banker (Makes bank)

10. CEO (Business school after college)

Michael Kim

204 Sunset Ave.

Amherst, MA 01003

(781)708-1552

michaelkim@umass.edu

Peter Houlihan

352 Morrill II South

North Pleasant St.

Amherst, MA 01003

peteh@bio.umass.edu

Dear Dr. Houlihan,                                                                                      March 1, 2018

            I am writing to you to apply for the conservation biology research lab that you offer over the summer for my internship. Many of my friends have worked with you in the past and they said it was an unforgettable internship experience. I have taken your general biology class my freshman year about two years ago and it was one of the best biology class I have ever taken. It would be my very first research internship and I would be very interested and willing to give it my all this summer. My mom who works at Mass General Hospital and South Shore Hospital told me to get an internship with you since I had you as my professor already and it will be a great opportunity for me to work in the fields of biology. I am trying to get into the medical school after I graduate from college, so this internship really would help my resume. I am hardworking and am a fast worker, not only will I get my work done, I will get it done fast and well.

            For my high school senior year project, I researched about breast cancer in depth. To raise the awareness, my two friends and I set up a volunteer fundraiser work with the South Shore Hospital called the Moonlight Gala. We ended up raising about 12,000 dollars for the patients. I like to take pride in the work I can do and take pride in something I love, helping out others and doing the research that are needed. From hiring me, not only can I bring a positive attitude and vibe, but I can promise the good outcome. I have done many volunteer work and I have taken many laboratories so I believe that I can help your summer internship in the conservation biology research lab.

            As it is my first internship opportunity, I would like to pick the best one there for me for this summer which I think is why this internship would fit and benefit me perfectly. In the laboratory settings, I believe the hard workers can succeed which is why I ask that you look into my diligence and hire me. I would like to contact you within 2 weeks to give you more information if you guys are in need of them. My phone number is 781-708-1552 and my email address is michaelkim@umass.edu. Thank you so much for your time Professor Houlihan, hope to hear from you soon.

Much appreciated,

Sincerely,

Michael Kim\

This is the first formal organic chemistry lab experiment report that we are required to do as a Biology major. Procedures were pretty straight forward and simple as we had to basically practice everything we have learned so far in the class such as recrystallization, distillization, thin layer chromatography, and more. It took about 3 hours to get the graph of my cyclohexene that displayed how it was affected by the other liquids that we have used. The whole point of the lab was to compare the color of the cyclohexene with this types of liquid. The first one was bromine in dichloromethane and the second one was potassium permanganate. Some of them were unaffected as some turned light brown, violet, dark brown, and reddish-orange. Now I'm in the process of writing the post lab results, discussion and the post lab questions. Procrastination at its finest this whole spring break, I haven't really gotten anything done.

This was an organic chemistry lab experiement. First was given an unkown, unkown #5. FOr the first part, having to mix it with water after taking exactly .250 grams of the unknown. Then turned it into a crystal which .098 gram out of the .25 grams turned. When neutralized and recrystallized the product, I was left with only .009 gram when .098 gram was given which is about 8% recovered. It melted completely at 120 degrees. For the second part, had to do a very similar work as the first part. The only difference was that hexane and TBME were used instead of water for the second part. More crystals were formed than with the one with the water. Our of .098 grams, .039 grams crystals were formed which is about 40%. It melted or dissolved completely at 123 degrees. So on average, the melting point of the unkown 5 was 121.5 degrees. With 48% recovered including both water and hexane &TBME. Which makes the compound benzoic acid with melting point of 122 degrees.

Playing sports is good for our physical health. Not only for our health it is good for our body as it will benefit our cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness. It is scientifically proven that playing sports can increase our life expectancy and better our bone health. I grew up playing sports and my mom always said that too much sports was bad for me as I was always sore. I would play basketball everyday for about 3 hours at least in high school and I almost forgot how being sore felt because my body got so used to it. Playing sports is one of the best ways for weight maintanence. But because some sports are dangerous to play, I wanted to play something that didn't put me in a great risk but also was physical and competitive to play. I chose to play basketball tennis and track in high school and I still play them in college as I enjoy playing. 

I have caught up on my sleep ever since I have been back home for spring break. How does sleep affect human's body? It is found that sleep affects two levels of our hormones. They are leptin and ghrelin. They are in charge of controlling our feelings of hunger and fullness. You release higher level of insulin after you eat if you are sleep deprived. Insulin can control your blood sugar level so it is very important for your body. Lack of sleep affects your brain as well as it may trouble the brain with ability to solve problems. The study was found that humans need at least 7 hours a day to properly function the next day. 7 to 9 hours are the best, teenagers and kids need a little more. Oversleeping was found better than sleeping less to humans.

Comparing Gender, GPA, Hours studied per week, and hours slept per week. I think that hours studied per week and hours slept per week has to correlate with their GPA. Also, it would matter what their major is and what kind of classes they are taking because some people with high GPA might be taking easy General Education classes while some people with lower GPA might be on Pre medical track with Organic Chemistry or something hard like that. I don't think Gender really matters when it comes to GPA because it is about how well you do on your exams and classes and how much school work time you are willing to put in. There are many outliers in this data such as some kid that sleeps only 11 hours per week and some kid that studies 50 hours per week. There was also an "O" for other for gender. Highest GPA was 3.99 and lowest GPA was 1.01. Highest hours studied was 50 and lowest hours studied was 4. Most hours slept was 60 and least hours slept was 11. So as you can see there may or may not be correlations in each category.

I took AP statistics in High school and it was honestly one of the hardest class I've ever taken so far in my life. I don't remember much to be completely honest other than means, median, and mode. I guess general terms I know are how the graph is determined and described. Unimodal, bimodal, and multimodal all describe the data. It can be in uniform as in symmetric, skewed, and also it can include an outlier which means that it is far off from the other points. I also remember having to calculate for IQRs for an exam. Z scores were also a huge part in Statistics class, I honestly couldn't tell you how they are calculated or what they are exactly. In college, I took Resource economics in place of Statistics so I wouldn't have to go through Stats again. I personally liked Resource economics better. I have no idea why introductory to statistics is required class for biology majors.