Week 6:
In The Routine of Things

July 9, 2021

If you haven’t caught on by now, my weeks are in a generally set routine, for the most part. It starts off with working on the sensor and then moves to working on the covid lab. It usually ends with working on the sensor again. This week just like the last few, was pretty much the same. On Monday, instead of going into the lab to work on the sensor, I went to the Maritime center from 5:30 pm to 7:30 to take hourly measurements with the YSI to collect data to compare the sensor to. It was a beautiful day out, and it was nice to just sit on a dock alone for a few hours. I took many pictures and tried to look for some fish, but the tide was very high, so I could not find any. When I was out here, Chandler fished a baby string ray by accident, and a shark took his bait. I didn’t realize those kinds of species live in rivers and not just oceans; it shows how much more I need to learn about marine species.

Bright and early Tuesday morning, Chandler and I went to the maritime center to take a few final measurements and retrieve the sensor. We were there for only an hour and a half before the weather soured and it started to rain; we decided to take out the sensor prematurely and return back to the lab to look at the data. Before the sensor stopped taking measurements during the night, we are still unsure why this is occurring. Hopefully, we can solve this problem soon. We often talk about his coral growing business and different fishes that can be found in this area. Marine biology is not one of my strong points, so it is nice to learn more about it while in lots of rivers and islands.

Wednesday was another busy day; I started my morning by working on the sensor with Chandler. We worked on calibrating the EC or conductivity sensor using river water. That actually worked perfectly, and we wish we had done that sooner. Using the river water, we calibrated the EC sensor to a higher range than the calibration fluid. The higher range is important as before, the EC sensor was having trouble reading the higher values of the river, we test the sensor on. Later, I moved to work in the covid lab. We did the RNA extractions. Many of my covid lab members are currently studying for the MCAT, and we spend a lot of the time talking about future post-graduation plans. As the only senior in the group, we often talk about my options and whether I should go to graduate school or enter the workforce. I am currently still undecided, but these conversations have been very helpful in learning about new paths that I didn’t about before.

Thursday was another early morning for me. I made a trip to urgent care for my allergies and then returned to the lab to continue working on the sensor. We tested the range of the EC sensor by using calcium chloride at different levels mixed with water. I should mention we did the same range test on Wednesday but instead worked on the temperature sensor with four beakers of water at different temperatures.

Friday was a day I had been looking forward to for weeks. One of my close friends was coming to visit for the weekend. So instead of doing a lab, I drove to Hilton Head and picked her up from the airport. We spent the weekend exploring Hilton Head, Savannah, and Beaufort. It was nice having a friend come to visit and introduce her to the south. After picking her up from the airport, we went directly to the beach and spent a few hours there before leaving to get food and visit some thrift stores. Later that day, we returned to the beach to watch the sunset and walk along the shore. We have many exciting plans for the weekend.