Round Two... A week of re-do's, learning from mistakes, and asking questions.

So this week started with me doing my very first gram staining and trying to identify my unknown. However, I ran into a problem when identifying my unknown the first time. I thought I had gram + cocci, but it turned out that was not correct. I tried gram staining a second time to identify my unknown from the same petrie dish as the first time, but ran into another problem. I had too much of my unknown sample on the slide and it still came out looking like cocci but this time around it was negative. After confirming with Josh that I still did not have it correct. Josh suggested I start again from the very beginning and re-doing my lawn streaking. All this took place on Monday (10-28-2013).

I actually did not re-do my lawn streaking until Wednesday (10-30-2013). The reason behind it was Josh suggested that I incubate this sample over a shorter period of time (one day) rather than a long period of time (three days) like beforehand. After re-doing my lawn streaking and incubating, I started to think about what could have gone wrong with my first sample to keep on coming up incorrect. The first error I thought of was when I was gram staining I was scooping up too much of my unknown on to the inoculating loop before applying it to the slide. Making it hard to find a spot where I could identify my unknown clearly. The second error that could of effected my findings was when I was gram staining; over using the crystal violet and the decolorizer. And the last error that I thought of that could of made a difference was time. Over timing how long, the chemicals stay on the unknown sample on the slide.

Therefore, when I did my gram staining today (10-31-2013) I made sure I only gazed the inoculating loop on top of my unknown. Secondly, I made sure not to over use the crystal violet and the decolorizer and kept a close eye on the time. With making these adjustments, I finally got the correct result. My unknown was gram – bacilli. Once I had the correct answer, I moved on to the next test, which was the oxidase test. My sample came out positive, which led me to do a glucose fermentation test. On Monday (11-4-2013), I get my results for the glucose fermentation test. Blow are pictures of the oxidase test and the glucose fermentation test I did today (10-31-2013).

First week as s-stem intern!

So it begins I started my very first internship this week with the Bioscience Department at Phoenix College. Once I found out, I was accepted into the program I was excited. My first day was on Wednesday (10/23/13) and I begin by watching the safe videos. The videos were very long but full of information. I did not get to do anything else on my first day besides watching the safe videos. However, today Thursday (10-24-13), I did my first experiment. I first had to look up information on isolation streak, lawn streak, and gram staining. Once I understood what isolation streak, lawn streak, and gram staining I got my first chance to try isolation streaking. With the help of Josh, I did my first isolation streak on a petri dish using an unknown sample (unknown # 2). After I did my first attempt, Josh gave me some pointers on how to isolation streak properly. For example when I first attempted to isolation streak I totally took off the lid and placed it on the counter. Josh corrected me to keep the lid on so I wound not contaminate the sample. On my second attempted on isolation streaking I followed Josh’s advice and left the lid on while I zig zagged the loop across the second petri dish. Below are two pictures of my attempts on isolation streaking. After I was done with my second attempted I incubated my two samples. Tomorrow (10-25-13) I get to work on figuring out what the unknown sample is. I have to say that my first two days as an intern have been great. I got to try something new and meet some new friends.

The bottom petri dish is my first attempted and the top petri dish is my second attempted.

A side view on the experiment I did on 10-24-13.

Embarking on a Exciting New Journey

Hello, everyone some of you like me just made it through our first week in the S-STEM program. True we have not done too much just got our blogs set-up and waiting to hear about our internship placement. But so far the more I look around at seasoned S-STEM scholar’s blog pages and I even got to talk to one too (Deeda Webster). The more I realized that we are about to take part in a one of a kind program. Excitement is running through my veins knowing that I am about to start this journey. However, just like when I start something new and unfamiliar I am feeling a little nervous. I hope that I am not the only one out there feeling this too. Well I wish everyone good luck on this journey we are about to embark on.