First Week

 The first week of the internship went really well, I’m really excited for all the work we’ll be doing this summer! The first day we just had orientation, so we introduced ourselves a bunch of times and learned about the school. I met my mentors, Michelle and Tawnya, and learned more about what I will be doing for the summer. In the afternoon I measured RFU values of phytoplankton, then learned how to transfer the dying phytoplankton to new test tubes in order to allow them to continue growing. The next day, Tuesday, I did data entry of the phytoplankton growth, and then made growth charts from this data. Some of the phytoplankton did make perfect growth charts, others did not. We also started chlorophylls so that we could finish them on Wednesday. On Wednesday I read some background papers, did DNA extractions, measured RFU values on the phytoplankton, and then measured the chlorophylls. Thursday we went to the Beaver Army Terminal (BAT) to do sample collection. So we put buckets on the end of poles and put them into the river to collect water. Then we came back to school and processed the samples and set up a grazer experiment. And I measured RFU values. On Friday I learned how to use the Flow Cam, which is really cool. It takes pictures of all the particles in water you put through it. We then did PCR, and prepared a gel for electrophoresis, then put that DNA from the PCR into the gel and ran it. And that was my week.