Thursay Update!

So we're all shaking our heads at how fast this week has gone by. Almost every minute of our day is planned and its just flying by. We're learning so much each day, and today was no exception. This morning we split into two groups again and went to the session that we didn't attend Tuesday morning. I saw the lasers in medicine on Tuesday, so today I went with my group to Bacterial Genomics with Dr. Freyermuth. This was a really interesting biochemistry presentation (considering how thrilling biochemistry typically is...). We actually prepared spliced DNA of a certain bacteria (which had been placed inside plasmid strands in E. Coli). Oh excuse me, we did a "plasmid preparation to obtain the DNA for sequencing".
Then we checked other pre-prepared samples of the DNA to check for a certain insert in the plasmid, by taking some really cool pictures. Lastly we used computers to sort through previously obtained DNA data to find what organisms (in this case, bacteria) shared certain DNA. While it was two hours of A LOT of information, Dr. Freyermuth did an amazing job of explaining to half-dead seventeen/eighteen year olds the more complicated aspects of our lab and walked us through every step. I really hope my biochem professors are as helpful as she was.
We left the Life Sciences Center and went to Hulston Hall, which is in the Law School, for a pizza lunch and a short discussion on some law school options. Michelle Heck opened up some doors that I personally hadn't even considered. She talked about duel degrees, shorter law school scholar's programs, and the admissions process for Law School. She definitely cast a new light on Law school for me, and I think, my fellow campers.
We once again split into two different groups (an obvious attempt by our meddling counsellors to prevent absolute anarchy) and attended two different sessions. One group went to a discussion about microbes in the food we eat, with Dr. Azlin Mustapha, during which I was told they spent a long time discussing the microbes that are "everywhere!"
I went with eight others to a session on Why fertility is important in Farm animals and Humans, with Dr. Peter Sutovsky in the Animal Science research center. We spent a lot of time talking about, looking at, and making slides of ah... sperm. It was enlightening to say the least.
After this we left for the Thomas Jefferson institute, which although it sounds like a library with some old crone stalking book shelves and shooting scathing looks, was actually an educational farm. The goal is to provide education for urban people and farmers on how to run a farm successfully while being friendly to the environment. The farm is relatively new and with all of the ... "FUN" weather we've had lately, many of their crops were just beginning to peak above the soil. It was really cool to see the beginnings of an orchard, with several different types of each plant (from blueberry bushes to peach trees). There is a 7+ acre man-made lake that contains various water plants and a couple of types of fish. They also have a lily-walk that has more than 100 types of lilies planted next to a path that tours some of the smaller vegetable and fruit crops. They also have a small barn which had two halflinger ponies (which slobbered over my hands for a solid ten minutes searching for treats), a couple of sheep, and some young goats. There are plans to soon have a couple of cattle. I really miss my horse, so this was pretty much the highlight of my day (other than jumping on top of my suite-mate this morning to wake her up :)
Once we arrived back at the dorms, we had dinner at the Plaza 900. From here everyone but me went to a discussion on Insect Diversity with Dr, Richard Houseman (i had a migraine and missed out). I heard the bugs were "cool."
Later the counsellors treated us to some ice cream with multiple, sugar-rush-inducing toppings (not sure they know what they got themselves into). After ice cream we played a game of catch-phrase, and then attempted to play a game Chrissy uh... sort of explained called connections. It was really noisy and fun. So that brings me here, at 10:31 wrapping up my second-to last blog. We're all having a lot of fun, even the two boys (i think; they don't talk much...). I'm really looking forward to visiting the college of vet med tomorrow morning, and then we have a pretty full day after that, so I'd better work on our project (which the lady at walmart assured me is designed just so that the counselors can laugh at us... we'll see).
Allison