Goal 1.2 states that “students will be able to analyze critically and apply the major principles of cell and molecular biology.”
Since the beginning of my freshman year, I knew that cell and molecular biology would be one of my favorite things to learn about. This has continued to stay true, and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to take a variety of cell and molecular classes.
BIOL 250 was the first class that I took that really focused on cell biology. In this class we learned a little bit of detail about a lot of different things. This was definitely an essential class that helped me build the foundation I needed to be successful in higher level classes. In this class, I also completed my first semester research project and poster presentation. This was a big achievement for me and made me more excited to work in the labs in my next classes. For this project, my lab partner and I tested water samples and identified the bacteria in it. We learned many basic lab techniques like PCR, gel electrophoresis, and DNA extraction. I used all of these techniques in future lab classes, and having done them so early in my college career made it much easier every other time.
At the end of my sophomore year, I took cell biology (BIOL 326). I enjoyed this class in the beginning, but halfway through the semester we moved to online class because of the pandemic. I ended up struggling a lot for the first few weeks of being online, and found myself dreading the work for this class. Before the pandemic, I really loved the lab project that we started. My lab partner and I started a project focused around yeast cells, and we were going to swap a specific protein with a glowing protein so we could compare the locations in different cells. The week that we submitted our primer sequence was when we got home, so unfortunately we did not get to finish it. We substituted this project with writing a mini research paper about flocculation in yeast. Even though this semester was cut short by the pandemic, the things I learned were still very important and interesting to learn about. We focused a lot on the central dogma and by the end of the semester, I felt like I could teach other people about how our bodies make and use proteins.
In the first semester of my junior year, I took microbiology (BIOL 305), which is my most favorite class I have taken at Longwood. This class gave me a newfound love for working in a lab because I learned so many skills, and was able to continue a lot of the skills I learned in BIOL 250. I enjoyed learning to use a microscope and staining to identify different types of bacteria, as well as learning all of the technical lab protocols like sterilization and plating colonies above a bunsen burner. We did a group project focused on researching the effectiveness of different types of masks, since this was in the middle of the pandemic. This project was very different from other projects I did because most of the research was so new. I liked reading all of our sources and seeing new information come out almost each day about the masks. Our results went along with what many other scientists found, and it was great to see that.
BIOL 250 Final Paper https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YCXx3k0_97NoYeB8Mpv1TfdatxEW6V8eO5wn82uaexk/edit?usp=sharing
BIOL 305 Final Paper https://docs.google.com/document/d/151xqDZHXN8z2e3MDKVAiok3SYkPRQkUVXmlvsAEDu5w/edit?usp=sharing
BIOL 326 Final Paper https://docs.google.com/document/d/17rP0bCuUUXyrMlMsv-Bg1ANkFGZ3e5ewk7_oyDjJU-Y/edit?usp=sharing