Making Medium & Extracting DNA from Strawberries.

Another week has passed us by.

This week in the lab was really interesting. Josh, Matt and I discussed changing up the method of identifying bacteria.We are now testing for coliforms! Coliform bacteria are typically used to test for food and water sanitary quality. Fecal coliforms, E.Coli and K. Pneumoniae, are good indicators of fecal pollution and can be differentiated from other types of coliforms by incubating in certain media at around 45 degrees C.

For one to test for coliforms, there are three steps to take, the first being the presumptive step where a lactose broth medium (I used Lactose Lauryl Tryptose broth) which will allow for potentially stressed coliforms to be recovered and grow. The positive tubes from the Lactose broth will then be inoculated into a more selective medium EC Broth (which I prepared yesterday) and will be using it next week for the next process of identification. I feel that this method of testing is really cool and can't wait to go back to the lab tomorrow to see what the results turn out to be. I am still sampling the doorknobs every Tuesday and Thursday and counting the CFU's (colony forming units) but my main focus for the second half of this semester in the lab is to identify bacterial types.

In other STEM news, as many of you know, I am also a STEM Scholar and this week we hosted our first ever "Teach Me about STEM" event on the courtyard outside of the cafeteria. Myself and other STEM Scholars taught students about strawberry DNA extraction and they really seemed to find it interesting and took the DNA home with them in a little closed test tube. I really enjoyed putting this event together and participating in it as I enjoy interactive activities. Here are a few pictures from that day :)

 These are pictures of the EC Medium I made. I haven't made medium or agar plates since the beginning of the semester so I was really exited about doing it again. I can't wait until next week as I will be using the medium that I made for the next process in identifying bacteria types.

Drum Roll please!!!

Picture of the Week is another one of the sunset! I absolutely love the sun so I was really happy to see the beautiful sunset this week on my way out of calculus class. So beautiful!

I hope you all had a successfully productive week and an even better weekend! Remember to treat yourself to something nice, you deserve it!


Greetings,
Khadidja M.

March Madness: Khadidja Edition

I wasn't expecting the week after spring to be super busy but it really was. In the lab, Josh and I decided to start taking samples from the door handle experiment only on Tuesdays and Thursday as this time around, we are tracking if there is a point where the number of colonies would stabilize and not have drastic increases/decreases. On the other days that I am in the lab, I am gram staining and preparing to learn the techniques I need to use to be able to identify the bacteria. I had a few samples prepared to look at under the microscope today but had a few issues being able to distinguish whether they were gram positive or gram negative so I shall redo those samples on Monday :)

Gram Staining Process. 

Fire.

Apart from my internship I'm also a STEM Mentor with the STEM Program at Phoenix College and we are having an event on Monday titled "Tell me about STEM." Myself and fellow mentors will be teaching students about biology through a strawberry DNA extraction experiment. I was really exited when I did this short experiment at an ASU Science event a few ago and am exited about being able to share it with other students as well. Apart from the strawberry experiment  myself, Kodjo and Melina are also planning on presenting our posters from the previous conference as well. I have a lot of students asking me about my experiment as they see me taking samples so I'm exited to share my findings with them all!

On Wednesday at Phoenix College, STEM hosted an amazing women's expo! I was able to assist in planning this event and volunteering during my free time as well! There were free food samples and many vendors from campus and beyond talking to students about health balance and eating healthy. There was also a blood drive, free mammograms as well as free STD testing too! I had a really good time meeting students and talking to them about the importance of health and shared personal tips on staying balanced.

I also had two midterms this week, calculus and physics (which I just got done a few hours ago) and a few other things due before Saturday but I'm glad it's Thursday. I look forward to coming back next week, being in the lab and learning how to identify bacteria! I'm also looking forward to hearing back from summer internships :)

Photo of the Week:

Beautiful lake by my house I visited earlier this week. Beautiful

Hope you all are having a productive and happy week. Take care,
Khadidja

Post Spring Break Syndrome

Welcome back from Spring break! I was busying cleaning my room and reorganizing my closet. I missed school and being in the lab. I also missed my blog post accidentally and didn't remember it the entire week until I was on my way to school this morning.

So the week before Spring Break was the research conference at ASU! First off, I was semi-intimidated (which I don't tend to be for the most part) because of the other students' research but realized that it was my first conference and it was learning experience for many of us. Once I got registered and ready, I met up with the other lab interns where we had breakfast and distributed our posters. Everyone helped one another to post our posters up. After a brief introduction, the under-grad students were directed back to their posters. I got the opportunity to speak with other students in my area to learn more about where they're from and what their academic and career goals are. There was a guy from Tucson, another guy from New Mexico and a woman from  Puerto Rico! It was interesting to see the diversity in science as I myself are a minority. I only had one judge ask me about my experiment and I was able to answer all the questions! :) I know a couple other interns had more than one judge. After presenting, we had lunch and listened to a few presentations given by various ASU professors who spoke about their experience to get to where they are as well as the importance of attending graduate school and beyond. It was nice to see someone I can relate to. One of the professors grew up in New York, went through the struggle of being an inner-city kid and overcame that through education and persistence. Inspirational to say the least.

My poster posted up :D I was so proud of myself.

This is the mars explorer replica that a group and I got a chance to check out at the ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration along with other cool events that took place. This event happens the first Saturday of March if you're interested in going in upcoming years. 

On Wednesday, STEM hosted an outdoor event for 5th-graders where we taught them how to make paper rockets and had a launching competition between the groups. The kids really seemed to enjoy it and it was fun working with children! 

On another note, if you didn't know already, I got offered a summer internship at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. I was extremely exited to find this out but unfortunately this last Saturday, I found out that the program had to get cancelled because of lack of funding etc. I was really sad but thought to myself that it was an honor to get offered in the first place and hopefully I get offered something similar. I applied to 7 internships in total so I still have yet to hear back from the other 6 so I'm looking forward to that!

On a happier note however, I had a good spring break and am back to school refreshed and ready to tackle the second half of the semester! It's good to be back in the lab and look forward to updating you all on the shenanigans of being a lab intern :)

Have a fabulous week,
Khadidja M.


Surprise Photo of the Week:

My nephew Zakaria was born on Pi Day at 12:46 am :) YAY!