Lisa CoeSophomore Microbiology student It’s midway through Spring semester, I was stressed, physically tired, and mentally exhausted. Between classes, diving practice, work, and club involvement, I had a lot going on. All I wanted was for Fall scheduling to go smoothly, and it did—mostly. There wasn’t much freedom with the classes I had to take, as they were all for my major and certificate, both of which are on a fairly strict timeline. I managed to work out a schedule with all the classes I needed without having time conflicts with practice. Amazing. The only thing about my schedule that agitated me ever so slightly was the Bio II Lab I had to sign up for. Of all the sections offered in the Fall semester, there was only one that fit, and it was a Wednesday night section of Pathways Over Time. Prior to scheduling, I had read the descriptions of each of the research-based labs and ordered them most to least preferred. I’ll be honest, Pathways was at the very bottom (sorry, Natasha and Jess). But, I thanked the scheduling deities for allowing me to take the classes I needed to take, and got over it. At the very least, I could keep a positive attitude and an open mind. Come September, not even a full month into the class, and I absolutely loved it. Wednesdays were certainly my longest day of the week. I was up early for practice at 6:00am, followed by two classes and another practice, followed by two more classes, and finally lab, which ended at 10:20pm. But no matter how drained I felt prior to lab, my energy was restored upon arriving. The Pathways course is designed to introduce students to lab research and scientific thinking. If you decide to take the class, the project you’ll be working on is investigating whether genes involved in the methionine biosynthesis pathways of two related species of yeast have been functionally conserved. You’ll learn important lab techniques, such as different plating methods, preparing a PCR reaction, loading and running an agarose gel, and restriction mapping. You’ll also learn a bit about the research process, like how to plan a proper experiment that includes positive and negative controls. Additionally, there is a computational component of the course, in which you’ll learn how to navigate a couple of genome databases (which can be very overwhelming to a new user). To end the course, you will present your findings at a poster session to other undergraduates and staff and faculty in the department. For any future scientist, Pathways will be an extremely valuable experience. Even if you don’t plan on pursuing a PhD and a research career, the course is enjoyable (in my opinion) because you get to apply what you’ve learned in class, and you don’t have all the answers given to you. You’re going to have hypotheses and perform experiments, but you don’t know for sure what results you’ll achieve. Piecing together what you already know and the results you see to form conclusions is really exciting (and maybe even satisfying). And who knows? This class just might spark your interest in a research career.
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January 2022
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