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.

Week 5

This week we did the PCR for our experiment and double checked the dates for all of our media additions and quantities. I'm going to think about if it is possible to UV degrade the plastics for part of the experiment. This should have the effect on oxidizing the plastic and increasing carbonyl groups that will make the plastics more biodegradable. I'm not sure about the availability of an appropriate UV light source. That includes the amount of time that I am able to use it. We've started SEM of samples from this semester. We have been attempting to use alcohol treatment for the removal of biofilms on the plastics post coincubation in order to better visualize plastic biodegradation. Preliminary SEM indicated that this is ineffective. We also have a specific detergent that we are thinking of adding to the protocols but probably just for SEM as we worry about its effects on FTIR. We'll see.

Can you see the bacteria and biofilm? This is one of the best pictures that I've gotten of it on our samples which is exciting. Unfortunately, it's not really what we were hoping to see. 

Week 4

This week I continued monitoring the growth of our new bacteria. It hasn't grown on any of the first agar plates that we used. It's really disconcerting. It does seem to be growing in the broth media, so it could be that we just made the plates before giving the bacteria long enough to grow in the broth. We made some more plates including a blood agar plate this time.
We did the DNA purification for PCR. It was fascinating to see the DNA strands when re-suspending them in alcohol. They looked exactly how I had imagined, like a little ball of tangled string. I'm excited for the qPCR.
I applied for some scholarships for the spring. I got good feedback at a scholarship workshop that was held in the college library, but we'll see. I wish the people who decide would give you some feedback after you submit.

Week 3

This week we moved our 7 day plastics from co-incubation to agar media to test for contamination before storage for instrumentation. We got the new bacteria, plastics, and hole punches. We re-hydrated the new bacteria in a variety of broth media so we can see how it grows. The scholarship workshop for PTK was extremely helpful. One of the things that I really struggled with was writing about myself for the personal statements and what not. Shout out to Amy McPherson who is next level awesome and gave us some very useful feedback about potential answers and how to best frame answers. Also in STEAM Club, Nicole Spenser told us about RaiseMe. It's a website that allows you to use your accomplishments and participation in community college to accrue scholarship money towards transfer to university. It looks amazing.

Week 2

This week I took our filters from waste water to Dr Beth Polidoro's lab to be analyzed. We also got our new bacteria, plastic, and hole punches ordered. We started the co incubation of plastic and bacteria as well. The Field of Interest meet and greet on Wednesday was great. I wish that I had taken some pictures of that! STEAM Club is collaborating with the art department to work on a musical bench! It seems like it's going to be the coolest thing ever. We're thinking of displaying it long term on the first floor of the Dalby building which I love because the building is beautiful but the decorations down there not so much (aside from the interior design display section-I see you guys). Next Tuesday, we are planning a scholarship workshop in PTK! It's just on time.