last week in lab

Yaaayyy!! There is nothing I love more than having two tests the week before finals….. (crickets chirping). Well, now that those are over time to start cramming for finals. Words cannot express how thankful I am to not have any of my finals on the same day. Presentations for our semester projects are tomorrow (Friday) and I’m bummed out that I won’t have an awesome project to talk about L. My presentation will be short and bitter, oh I mean sweet… So tonight I will be working on my power point presentation so everyone doesn’t make me look bad… lol lol!! I’m excited to see some of the projects from my fellow S-STEM Peps! Good luck everyone!!  

 

 

"Its the Final Count Dowwwnn!!"

Monday I went to the lab to review the results of the different cleaners I tested on a table top last Friday. The following were used as controls: a non-cleaned portion, dust off with dry paper towel, wiped with tap water and distilled water. The following cleaners were used to test for their effectiveness: Hydrogen Peroxide, 70% isopropyl alcohol, Witch Hazel, Anti-bacteria Windex, Wet Ones, Lysol wipes, Vinegar, At Home cleaner. In order to measure their effectiveness each colony on each contact plate were analyzed. According to my results the most effective cleaner was a tie between the Lysol wipes and the hydrogen peroxide

This is a picture of the contact plate that was sampled on the unclean portion of the table.

Well... so much for that! PLAN B!

Monday I went out to Rio Salado to pick up the traps I most recently set and sure enough… all nine of them were gone. Each trap was clearly labeled and that it was for experimental purposes as property of Phoenix College. The weather has been decent lately so I don’t think it was from change in water levels or anything environmental but there is a number of things that could have happened to them. I met up with Matt briefly to discuss an alternative project and we decided that I will be testing different cleaners and determining how effectiveness. This should be a good project because one, no-one can steal it, and two, there will be distinct results which will be helpful for my final presentation. So on Wednesday I started making TSA plates and I will start testing different surfaces ASAP!

ROUGH DRAFT...

My main focus this week was to get my rough draft done. As much as I “love” writing papers I know I will be glad that a majority of it is already done at the end of the semester, especially when it hits crunch time for finals in my other classes. The data I’m going to use in the analysis section is going to be from the trap I most recently collected but I will not use it in my final paper. Friday will be two weeks that the new traps have been out and I spoke with Matt on Wednesday decided to head out and start retrieving my other traps on Monday. 

First One Down

Nine new traps were set at the same location at Rio Salado, and on Monday I went down to retrieve one of my traps I set earlier this semester. (Thankfully all of the new ones were still there). To retrieve the traps I brought a bucket with me and added a bit of pond water to it so the pack wouldn’t dry out. Then I brought it into the lab to label it and separate into plastic bags. Wednesday I was finally able to go through the first one and so far I have identified dragonflies, mayflies, snails, and a very high amount of scuds. Scuds are crustaceans which are a close relative of crayfish and shrimp. I’m going to finish going through the second half of the trap on Friday.

Decided on Monday

I decided to have my new leaf packs set before I pull the other two so I have plenty of time to dissect them on Monday. As of right now there is two placed at Rio Salado Park off of Central and each trap has two bags tied together, so I essentially have four to go through. Wednesday I Filled 9 more with the same dried sycamore leaves from the tree at Phoenix College over by the green house. Josh and I spoke and we’re thinking of using stakes to anchor the traps down rather than relying on a stray tree branch that might break off. Also if I do this I won’t have to tie the traps together, so if I lose one trap I’m not essentially losing two.

No Bugs, No Glory... Can't Wait to Find Out!!

I didn’t do a blog post the week before spring break… So I’m on here to update everyone on my progress. Fortunately, two of the three leaf pack traps I placed are intact at Rio Salado Park. After the field trip on Friday (tomorrow) I am going to prepare some more traps with sycamore leaves from Phoenix College to hopefully set this weekend (maybe I will find someone to help me). It has been about four weeks since I placed them so I need to retrieve them sometime next week! I will keep everyone posted! Thankfully there is still enough time in the semester to continue placing traps so I can come up with as much data as possible. I wasn’t able to actually do a successful one last semester so this should be exciting. In the meantime I’m going to quiz myself on my aquatic macroinvertebrate knowledge so I’m ready for when pull them next week.

Two out of Three... Not bad

At Rio Salado today (02/27/2014)

 

These last few weeks for me have been very intense and stressful so I have not been able to spend as much time in the lab as I would have liked to. Although I did go and check on my traps today, and I was relieved to find that two of the three I set are still there. Unfortunately one of them is missing, and it looks like someone had cut the rope it was attached to which was set at the most polluted part of the pond. However, I was not expecting any of them to be there at all, so was relieved that I don’t have to completely start over. I’m going into lab tomorrow (Friday) and I will probably prepare a few more traps so I can compare my results. For the next few traps I set I would like to see if I can get some white or clear rope so they won’t be as noticeable.  Last Friday I had a blast attending the field trip to the Wildlife World Zoo at Litchfield Park. There was a lot to see and plenty of activities to keep us entertained.

 

 

Our convoy at one of the exhibits

 

 

TGIF! Well... almost

Hey all! I’m planning on heading over to Rio Salado Park to check on my traps to make sure they are still intact so I will update everyone on that next week (cross your fingers!!). This week was definitely short, though I can say I’m glad it is practically over. I had a Calculus and a Biology test, one after another so it feels good to put my flash cards back in their box, well… at least temporarily. What a better way to unwind than by going to the Wildlife World Zoo at Litchfield Park on Friday with all my S-STEM buddies! Can’t wait to see everyone!

 

Rio Salado Park

Unfortunately I missed lab on Monday I had some stuff I had to take care of for my biology class. So I went in on Tuesday to write up my research question and to develop my hypothesis for my leaf pack trap project. Originally I had planned to place traps in three different water locations that we had checked out last semester at Rio Salado Park. I was hoping to place one at the river and the other two, at two ponds near the river. Well, of course when I got there I realized the river had dried up so since I need to get the project started I had to make some last minute decisions. I decided to place all three in the same pond of which I found three different areas along the bank. The first was a very polluted area with dead trees and such, the second was several yards down and was clearer, the last one was on the other side of the pond that was the clearest of the three locations. There are several things I can test for so I’m going in on Friday to go over my protocol.

The pictures make it look much worse than it actually was

 

Clearest

 

Most polluted

 

 

What a busy Bee!

Last Friday (1/31/14) I went into lab and ran my extraction (Bee DNA) to make sure I actually got DNA. It was ran through electrophoresis gel and sure enough there was a bright yellow band (yaay!!). Monday I went into lab to run a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), used to amplify a specific DNA sequence.

The DNA is apparent, however it did not migrate down the gel, which could be due to a number of reasons. To get a start the process of elimination, we decided to run the electrophoresis gel through a machine were we can control the voltage. In the meantime, I am planning on setting my leaf pack traps on Friday. I'm anticipating setting them at two different locations, one set will be at Encanto Park and the other at Rio Salado. PLEASE DON'T LET IT RAIN!!

Solution for PCR

As you can see there was no movement, however the bright bands indicate the presence of DNA.















The second run... I didn't have time to check it so I will  find out when I go in on Friday.

I'm BACK!

So the first official week back on the scene has been very productive. The plan is to pick up where I left off last semester with doing my leaf pack trap. Since this involves a lot of waiting, Matt and Josh suggested that I work on a side project so Monday I went into lab and started a new project. So far we decided that I would determine the genetic similarities of bees from different locations. Prior to this I had never done a DNA extraction, and especially not with some old dried bees. The first try was not a success ( I had messed up a few steps). Let’s just say I've learned to read, re-read and read again any protocol I’m going to be using in the future.  This is a picture of the fresh bee I did and extraction on on Wednesday.