Week 13: The Last Two Weeks

Figure 1: Extraction method 

        I would just like to congratulate everyone for staying strong and getting through the semester! I would also like to congratulate everyone who presented at the Arizona-Nevada conference! Two of our TRIAN scholars won awards and that's such an incredibly achievement. Now it is time to get ready for the final presentation at Metro Tech, hopefully there will lots of people and lots of questions. I am really looking forward to continuing my project during the summer and finishing all three extraction trials. I am really excited to see my results and create a lovely poster filled with data and graphs for next semesters conferences. 

Week 12: ASU West Conference

     I was able to attend my very first science conference today and let me just say, It was not what I was expecting at all. There were very few people and the questions being asked were not as intimidating or difficult as I was expecting. I did get to present my poster and I feel like I did well.  I was very nervous about this conference but I know It was likely first time jitters and I will become more confident over time. I think everyone did such a wonderful job today! There were so many interesting posters and a large array of topics; I look forward to attending more conferences with the TRIAN program.

WEEK 11: Creating a Poster

Research Poster Image: Container
filled with 25g of sediment,
~.5g of microplastics, and 50mL
of DIH20.

This week I was able to perform extractions on two more microplastic-sediment containers. I performed 4 extractions on the first container, and 22 on the second container. The rest of the time I was polishing up my abstract and methods; Matt was kind enough to give me feedback on my poster before I submitted. I made sure to add images and to not add too much information since Its essentially supposed to be an overview of our project. I am a bit nervous for the symposium and I am certain I am not the only one. But this is a learning experience and I am excited to be able to further develop my research skills.

WEEK 10: SLOW AND STEADY

Container 1 & Its 8 subcontainers 

This week wasn't as great as I anticipated it to be; recently I have been feeling upset with myself because of how slow my project has been progressing.  I have spent most of my time shredding plastics and because this process takes time, I am not where I wish to be with my research. I have been incredibly busy with my classes and have been struggling to complete my hours and balance my schoolwork. It felt like I was making too many mistakes, but I suppose life is comprised of trials and errors; so I can't beat myself too much about it.

container 1 sediments after 23 extractions    

Today, I was able to begin my first extraction of microplastics, which felt great because I have been anticipating it for so long. I used DI H20 as a floatation medium and extracted plastics from the surface by simply pouring off the floating particles. Some of the microplastics would not float or often got trapped under the sediment, so I had to tamper with the sediment using a stirring rod. I performed the extraction 23 times on my first container, collecting a total of 8 subcontainers which had the extracted plastics inside. I am writing down the weight of each container and keeping track of the number of extractions I perform on each sample. I extracted the plastics out of container one and have 29  more containers left to go. I also have my protocol developed and will hopefully shred enough plastic to commence trial 2 once I finish.