Week 9

This week we're working very hard on our poster in preparation for the BioSci Southwest Symposium at ASU Tempe. I actually submitted individually with the research that I worked on over the summer and was chosen for a lightning talk. I always forget how far I've come learning to work on the formatting and choosing poster content until I have the opportunity to help someone else. I think that I get so focused on moving to the next thing that I need to learn that I don't stop to appreciate all the work that I've already done. I'm going to try to work on that in the future.
I've done almost everything for the research that I will be presenting, but I was on high alert when I realized that I didn't have pictures of one of the plastics at the time point that we needed. I rushed to SEM and ended up getting good pictures, so it worked out. We also gathered and formatted some other things. Below is a picture of Ruben working hard to punch PVC. He's never punched plastic before! We had a bit of fun initiating him. :-)

Week 8

Tons of SEM this week. I finished the 7 day samples and the 28 day samples. Because the biofilms are so thick at 28 days, they mostly obscure the plastic except where they are flaking off after air drying. I cannot put anything that flaky into the SEM, so I'm making sure to spray it off thoroughly, but I'm not happy with the results. I'm going to be using different protocols going forward. I'm excited to be extending the time study, and I want to get it right before we get to the 56 day samples. Below is a picture of some of our plastic disks mounted on studs. You can really see the flaking.

Week 7

This week the STEAM club has been working on the musical bench. It uses electrical impedance to produce music. We hope to finish most of it by the STEAM Day event on campus.

I did some SEM this week and was able to find bacteria on all coincubated 7 day samples. The pictures came out great. I am really feeling more confident about my skills on our campus SEM. I am so curious to see if the SEMs at other places or very different and if that will affect the translation of what I have learned operating ours. I would like to continue to use the skill in my future endeavors.