Week 1 Spring 2019: Back to School

Winter break time study sample (PVC)

It’s the third week of classes and we are finishing up our time study from winter break. Yes, we worked over the break. The entire break. Our project is a time study so we really had no choice. I have three classes online this semester and one in person class. I am extremely worried because in the past I have only done two online classes per semester and three seems like too much but once again, no choice. I remain hopeful. Tomorrow we get to take some of our winter break time study samples over to the FTIR.

Week 14 Fall 2018: End of the semester, New beginnings...

We have been hard at work this week, preparing for our Metro Tech presentations this Friday (tomorrow). We are officially done with the poster board now but Kassy and I still have to finish up some things for WAESO. I am so ready for winter break, I'm so tired but we will continue to work on testing our experiment over winter break with the help of Amber our lab tech. Thank you Amber!!!! We will be running a small mock version of what our longer time study will be. Have a wonderful break guys! Can't wait to see you all in the spring.

Week 13 Fall 2018: Always. Read. Your. Syllabus.

(https://tenor.com/view/kermit-typing-study-finals-gif-5440223)


So I have so much due this week it is insane but the light at the end of the tunnel is that next week should be a cake walk. We have not done any lab work this week for the project. Our main focus has been to finish up our final reports and our slide presentation. I am almost done with my report, I am only waiting on my SEM images. The title of my post is in reference to my hellish week. This week happens to be when all of my finals are due. I personally scheduled two of them for this week and I could of avoided all of this pain and stress by reading my syllabus and making an agenda that included these important dates. Lesson learned... I hope.

Week 12 Fall 2018: TRAIN field trip Oak Creek Canyon

On Friday November 16th some of the TRAIN students went on a field trip to Oak creek canyon to survey the areas wildlife. Unfortunately there was large amounts of people out hiking the area. The weather was amazing so it made sense but it was horrible for us since the wildlife was actively hiding. Regardless we had a great time. The hike was easy and the air was fresh. I can not wait for the next cohort field trip!

Week 11 Fall 2018: Finally FTIR

So this past Tuesday we finally went to the FTIR. It was surprisingly easier than using the SEM. The SEM can take almost an hour to process one sample but the FTIR yields almost instant results.  I think I favor it more because it gives us quantitative evidence vs qualitative with the SEM. We had great results. I was surprised to not see alcohol signatures since we sterilize our plastics in alcohol. It was so interesting and honestly an exciting boost to the project. Can't wait to work with it more.

Week 10 Fall 2018: Weight, Alcohol, Club, and ALZ

So this week we weighed out our plastics and alcohol treated them. PVC and PP show no contamination for now which is expected. I want to mention that today my Cohort and former partner is coming in to speak to STEAM Club today at 1230 in the c building room 322, please come and get information on scholarships, internships, and transfering. Ibrahim is full of good tips and tricks so come get some knowledge. I would also like to mention my weekend event, my family and I do the walk to end Alzheimer's and please save the date Nov 2, 2019 for next years walk. Please consider joining! Thanks guys!

Week 9 Fall 2018: The weak handed and Repetition

Well it's been an extremely busy week. I had to help run STEAM clubs activity at the fall festival on Monday. Then Wednesday was the Halloween market and I set up and stayed long enough to sell 3 jars of honey and of course we were out late trick or treating, the boys got so much candy so be ready cause I'm bringing some in guys! I had an exam this morning and honestly I was so foggy I wouldn't be surprised if I bombed it, so it's been busy to say the least. To explain this image and my title you have to know we are basically in the process of replicating our project for better consistency while using the FTIR. Our task this week and next is to punch out uniform peices of plastic with this heavy duty punch plier weigh them out and get statistics on the sample and then decontaminate in preparation for co-incubation. Well my hands are so weak and dainty that I could not get through our PVC, hopefully the workout I got today will help me get samples from our LDPE & PP. Big thanks to Josh, Amber, and Amanda for getting samples! (David got a couple as well) Thanks guys!