Monthly Archives:: February 2013

The Metabolism lab. Imagine you just finished your exam yesterday. Class is 7am today. And then you submit your sleep deprived, caffeinated body to aerobic exercise. LOVE IT Science at work.

I thought this time around the exam was appropriate. I changed my study skills to more group discussions among my peers. I think it was helpful to have a solid foundation of the material and spent the days leading up to the test just synthesizing questions.

I had to change my strategies this time around due to time constraints (multiple exam preparations), and also I asked for a lot of help in trying to problem solve. Hopefully things will work out.

For the past exams, I usually study by myself and if I don’t understand some materials I ask one of my fellow classmates. For this exam I joined a study group which consist of almost half of the class. Instead of sitting in a circle and studying individually (which is what some studying groups do) we taught each other the materials that were being tested. Each person would take turns teaching the group until everyone understood the materials. After understanding the concept of the materials that was taught, we worked on practice problems. Everyone was willing to teach each other until the person understood the material, no one was left behind. I felt like the study session was extremely productive and helpful. I would like to study this way for the remaining quizzes and exams.

This class so has been an amazing experience unlike any other class I’ve been in. The class doesn’t use only a certain generic type of teaching method. We’ve been able to experience such a wide variety of different learning methods like teaching each other, doing activities related to the curriculum, practicing workplace related skills like developing curriculum vitae, and just so much more. I don’t believe any other class I have taken or probably will take in the future will attempt to help not only my class material, but also my real work applications of my field.

For the third exam, I try another strategy in studying the materials. This time I studied in a group and had ask and answer sessions. I find it pretty effective as I can have a big picture of the topics without spending too much time in reading textbooks. So I can use the rest of the time to get a deeper understanding.

About lab activities, I think they are interesting, especially the PCR lab. It is the first time I conducted an “sophisticated” experiment like this.

When in the course of great science, it becomes necessary for sacrifices to be made those participating it such events must be willing to make them. Therefore, we shall remember Nelson’s sacrifice.

R.I.P.- Nelson’s White Pants

P.S.- No pants were harmed in the making of this experiment.

I thought the animal lab was pretty fun and interesting. I had a feeling during the lab that there was something strange about it. Like how everyone was suppose to compile data but nothing was standardized or controlled. Everyone seemed to be more focused on playing with the different animal than the actual lab, which was probably a huge source of error. It turned that the lab was staged as a large experiment destined for failure. As far as what we were told the data collected is pretty much useless unless we are able to find out how much and how fast each animal was breathing. The day seemed like such a waste of time, but it was fun and i guess a lesson on controlling and standardizing experiment was worthwhile too.

Took Exam 3 today and left feeling more disappointed than ever. I studied consistently everyday and found that as I neared the day of exam I didn’t feel a fraction of anxiety as I usually would when I cram. At the study sessions I went to with my classmates, I found myself helping my peers and explaining things to them when i’d typically be the one getting the help. I went into this test with total confidence, I knew that I comprehended concepts to the extent that I could approach any synthesis question with ease. Even as I took the test, I was able to answer most questions with no problem. Of course, my anxiety caught up to me when I saw the little amount of time left and the pages of questions I still hadn’t gotten to. Giving my exam to Dr. Harman was the hardest thing I ever had to do- I looked at the last page of my test, which had only one question but was worth 14 points, that I didn’t get to finish. ALTHOUGH I KNEW WHAT TO DO. My mind scrambled, spread with panic and I left that last question unfinished. Aside from that I still felt pretty confident about my exam, but the more discussion my classmates and I had about different questions, the more I realized the absolutely stupid mistakes I made. For example, a question asked whether a certain reaction in front of us was exothermic or endothermic. I observed the addition of bonds on the products side, and automatically knew it was exothermic. BUT then i calculated the bond enthalpies and saw that the reactants had a larger value than products, indicating a release of energy and made me change my answer to endothermic. Lucky I caught that right?! NO NOT LUCKY. I WAS RIGHT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY BUT FORGOT TO SUBTRACT. YES SUBTRACT AS IN THE SIMPLE THING IVE BEEN DOING ,ROUGHLY, SINCE WHEN I WAS CONCEIVED. Example number 2: In the question regarding the PCR lab and transcribing and translating a genetic sequence we were given, and I kept getting genes that coded for a stop codon because I forgot to make complimentary base pairs for the DNA transcribed to RNA. By the time I realized that was the problem, I had to move on and hope I had time later to fix it. Which I did not. Again I made the stupidest mistakes, and they held detrimental effects. Also having 4 other midterms this week did not help. Most importantly, I need to learn to contain my test anxiety. It definitely affects my tests in this class more than any others because of how strenuous the content is and the pressure I have on myself to do well. Overall, I really am just feeling a lot of disappointment in myself because I know i’m not performing like I know I can. My spirits are definitely broken and i’m worried that the possibility of gaining an A grade as I had hoped to is vanishing… Rant: over. Peace out

I don’t remember things ever being this hard.
This is the first time I’ve shed tears for a class. I love it and I hate it. I cant believe I’m feeling so conflicted over it. Like all things, I’ll most likely regret that I’m saying this, but I’m struggling. I can’t believe that I’m struggling. I’ve always been able to say that all I’ve got to do is work harder, but right now, I’m at a dead end.
Things are just too frustrating right now. Right now, I don’t need to work harder, I just need to change. But how? I’ve asked and researched how to optimize my time and effort but like many others, I have to start my trial and error process… in college. How can I take the risk? I can’t afford to fail now. But right now, simply working hard isn’t cutting it.
Darn*, I want to cry. Cry until I can sleep my stress off. But still, even when I’m to the breaking point I can’t help but keep thinking.
How can I change?
What can I do?
But even with my self diagnosed PTSD, I’m sure I’ll just say “Life” and keep trying.
I think, it’s just a bit too much this time.

-I’m probably not making sense right now –

All I have to say about today is…..

After receiving my Exam 2 results, I decided to change my studying strategy as it didn’t seem to be working. So I tried studying in group for 1 or 2 sessions, to predict exam questions and also clarify my doubts. It was quite beneficial and I understood more concepts after that I was more confident of doing the exam after thinking about what kind of questions could possibly be asked. Group studying will be most effective if we come understanding the basic concepts and so we can just discuss “application” or “synthesis” questions during the study group

The PCR lab that we did was quite cool, as we get to know our genotype & phenotype. But there were a lot of things to be considered and we have to be really careful with the apparatus. I also thought that bringing a critter to school made the lesson very enjoyable. Most of us had to buy animals for the experiment and ended up having pets. I feel that we should have more of these experiments to make the class enjoyable, especially at such early in the morning!