Ode to Mod. 1

Greetings and salutations to the 20.109 community! Below is my poetic reflection on Mod. 1 (followed by a more substantial one):

Ode to Mod. 1

I wasn’t sure what I would find

On Mod. 1’s starting day.

We’re told to “keep an open mind”

With Comet Chip Assay.

By Day 2’s end, I realized

I’m thrilled for what’s in store.

Our Comet Chip was optimized,

Cell loading times galore.

And, oh, day 3 was quite a ride.

We damaged all the cell,

Induced with H2 peroxide.

It really was quite swell.

The Coriells allowed us to

Assess variation

(On day 4, in our lab coats true)

In the population.

Day 5 took quite a different path:

We learned a new technique.

And got to feel the IF*’s wrath,

As pictures we did seek.

And on day 6, the end in sight,

Wrapped up our IF life.

Made sure conditions were all right

And wouldn’t cause much strife.

Day 7 was a sullen time –

The last day of Mod. 1.

And to our timer’s shrill, quick chime

We’d finished what’s begun.

* immunofluorescence

In all seriousness, I had a blast with Mod. 1. I’d come in having familiarity with the biology techniques we’d be using in lab, but really liked getting to apply them in a way I was unfamiliar with (i.e. in assessing DNA damage using Prof. Engelward’s Comet Chip Assay). I also found the “flow” of the first module to be quite interesting, because Leslie/Noreen/Maxine/Prof. Engelward constantly stressed that this module is experimental, and we were effectively guinea pigs for it. Honestly, I found that this made the pace of the class seem a lot more genuine (i.e. similar to a real lab experience), because we didn’t necessarily know – and could only speculate – what would happen at certain steps in the experimental/scientific process. I really appreciated this aspect, and didn’t find this “not knowing” to be very daunting. My sole “critique” of the module would be that it seemed like we ran out of time in our experiments often, and Maxine/Leslie would have to finish our work for us; I would definitely agree with Aria in that I wished these accessory steps/techniques we didn’t get the chance to do in class were covered in prelab…

That being said, thanks very much to the teaching staff for a fabulous start to 20.109!

-Nicole