Senior Year~ Blog Challenge #1

I missed you Project SEED! Remember me? I'm Marissa De Fratti, senior at Sto-Rox High School, which is in Mckees Rocks. Last year I worked in Dr. Pintauer's lab with Carol and Matt studying the Opitmization and Parameterization of IR and GC for Simple Reaction Mixture Analysis in ATRA. That all sounds quite fancy, but really it's very simple. Basically all I did was study the reaction of ATRA (Atom Transfer Radical Addition) with the Gas Chromatographer and the Infrared Spectrometer. Most of the research was conducted on the GC though, because the IR was broken for the majority of the summer. Actually, the GC broke pretty often too, but it was easier to fix. I really hope that doesn't happen this year...
The first few days of SEED weren't nearly as bad as last year. I remember walking into my lab, see everything and everyone, and then wondering what I got myself into. The whole first week I struggled to comprehend that there were even such things as ATRA, halogen atoms transfer agents, or different mol% catalysts. It felt like there was no way I could understand all of this and present it at the end of the summer. But after the first week things started to get clearer. Slowly I began to understand all the jargon and reactions. Eventually I could even run my reactions on my own (well, Phoebe was there too.) By the end of the summer I could say the ATRA reaction in my sleep. Everyone I worked with, students(undergrads, grads and high schoolers) and professors alike all ended up contributing my success and I miss everyone who didn't return this year...
In a lot of ways though, this years a lot better. Its more comforting to come back to the lab that I was already in last year, instead of starting over new; though only three people were still there since the rest had graduated. I got a new graduate student(Raj), who was there last year. The project we're working on, is loosely related to my previous one with ATRA, but the jargon and advanced technical terms have become familiar. This year we're working on Coordination Copper Complex Polymers. Technically I'm only working on coordination copper complexes since in order to make the polymer I would need to use AIBN, but I can't since it's too explosive. Overall, making the complexes is pretty simple. The difficult parts are waiting for the solutions to precipitate(assuming they do) and hoping that there's a good yield. My first one didn't go to well; we only got a 37% yield. I'm hoping the next ones I make will go a little better?
Anyway, the first weeks always the hardest and I know it gets easier after that. I'm kinda sad that Matt, Ash and Sean are gone and that Will will be leaving at the end of the week, but the new people are fun. I still have Raj and Carol comes back at the end of the week anyway. :D
And so...I hope this year ends up being even better than the last one.

Blog Challenge #1

For our first blog challenge write about the following:

1. Identify yourself, your high school, and the neighborhood where you live.
2. Write a paragraph that describes what you hope to accomplish this summer.
3. Write a paragraph that describes your initial impressions of Project SEED, the work you will be doing, and the people you've met so far.

If you are returning SEED student adapt the above.

Best written, most reflective wins.

Make sure you label all blog entries with your name.

Judging will be by close of business Wednesday.

First thoughts

Overall science is a pretty intimidating idea. I mean, how can you even grasp that you're dabbling in something that took our race hundreds of years to come up with? That is why initially I was frightened at the idea of SEED. However, as i sat down at the conference table to meet my fellow participanta I couldn't help but also be excited. This seems like it will be a fantastic oppurtunity and something that will help me not only in my future, but the here and now. I can honestly say that I think I'll flourish under these conditions. I find that I'm at my best when I'm hard at work, putting my nose to the grindstone. This in no way should detract from the complexity of what we'll be doing here though. I yawned while Dr.Aitken was explaining something and was lost in the huge void that is my ignorance for the rest of her explanation. I think it will suffice to say that I'm genuinely excited for this program and looking forward to the days ahead. +

First Day!

My first day is going well so far, learning new things is always interesting. I'm excited to see what else project seed has in store for us for the summer. I was kinda nervous because I'm really not good at meeting new people I'm kind of shy as everyone can see but once I get to know everyone better I'll let loose a little. This seems like an early college life experience, I hope for the best & hope that this helps me in later life.

First day

Coming into project SEED today I was very nervous. I didn't know what to expect or who I was going to be meeting. Once we had the meeting and everything was explained to us what was going to be going on my nerves calmed down. Now I am very excited to start working in the lab and learn a lot of things I am not aware of. During this experience I think I am going to benefit from many things. This will show me how ready I am for college and to figure out how capable I am of handling things on my own. This will also help me become more comfortable with speaking in front of people because im not that good at it.

Project SEED Calender

Countdown

Only 13 more days until Project SEED starts up again. Can't wait to meet the new students!