1. Reflective Essay
The Seminar in Biology course (BIOL 4997) helped me a lot in gaining both
practical and theoretical knowledge on how to do scientific research. Before the
course I have not done any research projects nor was familiar with a few lab
techniques. Now that I have completed the course work I have gained various tools
that will help me to achieve my academic and professional goals.
The first thing that I will like to mention is the practical part, the lab skills and
techniques I have learned. During the course we were introduced to various lab
techniques of which I hardly new. For example I could mention the phage isolation
workshop, in which we learned about aseptic technique and bacterial and phage
behavior. We also had workshops about electron microscopy, water analysis, solid
state synthesis and membranes. The big project for me was working with Dr. Vibha
Bansal, doing a mini research project which was called “Protein Separation Using
Magnetic Nanoparticles”. During this project I worked in the lab doing various
experimental procedures of which I knew very little or perhaps nothing. This makes
it a little hard at first but then further on as I gained knowledge of what I was doing I
felt more comfortable and proceeded with my project very well. Doing this project
helped me to learn about different lab techniques that will be very useful for my
academic and professional goals.
The theoretical part helped me to gain knowledge about scientific writing and how
to give presentations. Before the course I have never read a scientific paper, and I
have not written one. So it was a very helpful part because we had to write reports
about our projects, in which we learned the correct format, what to write and how to
use references in your work. Also from reading scientific papers we became
familiar with scientific literature, which is very important, being a science student.
With the oral presentations we learned how to correctly express our ideas so other
people can understand the ideas that we want to deliver. At the same time it
helped us with our language skills.
This course helped me a lot since it introduced me to a variety techniques and
topics in biology that amplified my knowledge. I am sure that the techniques and
skills I have acquired with this course will help me achieve my academic and
professional.