July 3rd YSU

Today Michaela and I had to take a couple vials out of the oven to check for precipitate. Yesterday I had to filter one of my vials because it had precipitate in it but since it was only a day old, Dr. Lovelace had me redo it and leave it to be checked in 3 days. Today, two of my Iron vials had precipitate but it was too dry which led us to our hypothesis that the Ethanol was being dried up because of it's boiling point. The boiling point of Ethanol is around 79 degrees and we had the oven at 100 degrees celsius so all of our vials with the 50% water and 50% Ethanol solvent were too dry and had to be remade. We remade these vials and then placed them into an oven set at 80 degrees where we will check them again in 2 days for precipitate. Today we also filtered those too dry vials, 2 of mine and 2 of Michaela's, and are currently waiting for them to air dry. One kind of cool and off topic part of this project is that we are actually making friends. One girl that is also doing research for YSU went to the school both Micaela and I go to so it's kind of cool to see how far she's made it and it's kind of inspiring. Back to the real topic, we are now in the computer lab researching what materials have already been reacted so we do not repeat experiments. So far both Cobalt and Manganese have but we haven't found anything on Calcium yet. Until next time when I can update you on my vials, Happy Fourth of July!

Youngstown University SEED intro

My name is Alyssa Blosser and I am participating in SEED at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. I was scared to do this internship because chemistry is definitely not my cup of tea but I knew I had to face my fears if I wanted a career in any science field which is why I'm here today. Also interning with me is a girl who graduated a year ahead of me from my school so I'm not alone which really helps because I feel comfortable asking for help when needed. Together we are working on Metal Organic Frameworks or MOF's. We are working with a professor named Dr. Lovelace and a graduate student named Samuel who are there every step of the way to guide us and doesn't get frustrated with us which is nice. I'm interested in a science career I just don't know which one yet but I have my whole senior year to decide that and I also have to decide where I want to go. Today I had to work by myself which was really nerve racking because I didn't have my partner to double check my work. Sure enough, I had to redo one of my solutions. I'm starting to really like chemistry and YSU more and more every day that I come and I'm excited to see where this research project goes.