First Two Weeks of the Spring Semester

As promised, here's a little update on how my classes are going after the first two weeks of the Spring Semester. I don't remember if I gave out my schedule in a previous blog, but I'll go ahead and type it out again for all of those who don't already know:

Intermediate Spanish II - MWF 8:30-9:20 AM
General Chemistry II - MWF 9:30-10:20 AM
Ethics as Intro. to Philosophy - MWF 12:30-1:20 PM
General Biology II Lab - MW 2:30-4:20 PM
General Biology II - TR 8:30-9:15 AM, F 1:20-2:20 PM
General Chemistry II Lab - TR 10:00 AM-12:50 PM

The first two days of last week were the "introductory days," since that was when all of the classes met for the first time, the syllabi were handed out, and the expectations of the class were laid out. Obviously, those first two days are the easiest, since there is not very much actual information presented about the material. The exception to that was in my Biology Lab, where we did an experiment on the very first day.

We were divided into groups of three, and we were given the instructions for how to perform the lab. This one involved PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), which is a process of amplifying a specific part of one's DNA. For all of you CSI and Law and Order fans, this is the same process they use to compare DNA in a crime scene or a paternity test. In this particular experiment, we were testing for the presence of a certain part of a gene on the 16th chromosome called the alu insert. For all that we know at this time, that particular part of our DNA is "junk DNA," which means that it doesn't code for anything important in our bodies. So, one member of each group took two hairs from their heads and the PCR was performed on the samples of DNA. Two days later the samples were put through a gel electrophoresis, which separates the DNA into segments based on size. Since the gene with the alu was larger than the one without, if the alu insert was present, a band would appear closer to the starting point, whereas a gene without the insert would move farther towards the end. The third option was that the person was heterozygous for this trait, which means that one parent was positive and one was negative for the insert, and there would be two bands of DNA. This turned out to be a fun experiment, especially since I do like to watch those medical shows on TV!

All of my other classes have also gone well so far, but I think that can be attributed to not having any tests yet. The only other story of interest regarding classes so far involve my Chemistry Lab class. We did an experiment this week involving separating a solid mixture into the different components. After the first component was boiled off, the solution was cooled down and filtered, and the second component was isolated. This component consisted of small white crystals that had to be left out to dry overnight for the next two days. As I was putting those crystals away in my drawer, the instructor said something to me and I spilled a bunch of them into my drawer! I didn't say anything right then, because I didn't want to make a big deal about it, so I just hoped everything would work out on Thursday. Now on Thursday, I opened up my drawer to recover as much as I could of my sample, and it seemed like everything would be fine. However, after I did the experiment again (we were supposed to filter our sample again to get a more pure sample), there must have been some contaminants in my sample, and my solution had some brown flakes in there. After I asked the instructor about this, she just told me to use my original data (since it was still reasonable) and just use another student's data for the second part. What an interesting experiment!

Outside of school, there's really only one thing I can think of right now to mention. On Tuesday it had rained all day and all night, up until about 10:00 PM, when it changed over to snow. The weather people had only predicted less than an inch of snow, but the storm shifted and dumped about 2-3 inches. This meant that no one was really prepared for the extra snow! This included the snow plows and the people who salt the sidewalks. So, on Wednesday morning when it was still snowing, the sidewalks were a little bit slick. I was running a little bit late that morning, so I was in a hurry to get to class. I walked over a slick area close to the Student Center, and my feet flew out right from under me! I landed on my left arm and kind of lay there for a second. But, not wanted to embarrass myself even more than I was, I got up and began walking to class again. Thankfully no one was around to see my fall, so the embarrassment factor was very low. Thank God for that!

Anyways, that's really all I have to report for now. I do have some homework and laundry to do now, so this will be the end of this post. Until next time, enjoy your weekend!