Virtual 20.109

 

COVID-19 20.109 or virtual 20.109 has been an interesting ride. When I told my friends that I would take 109 this semester (pre-pandemic), all the previous 109ers told me that lab is the best part of the class and that I should be really excited to take this class. So when I learned that 20.109 would be virtual this semester, I was devastated. I was debating not taking this class since I really wanted the lab component. While I’m sad that I couldn’t go into lab, I absolutely loved this class!

Luckily, I have previously worked in a couple of labs, so I didn’t miss out too much on learning lab techniques. So while I couldn’t be in lab, this class really helped my data analysis and scientific writing skills. I will be honest, I’m not a huge fan of data analysis, so I’ve tried to stay away as much as possible. Luckily or unluckily, however you see it, this pandemic causing 109 to be virtual forced me to finally sit down and learn how to analyze data. While I still love working in a lab more, my confidence has exponentially grown in analyzing data.

I had to write lab reports in high school but to nowhere near the level necessary for 109. While it was scary, and I went to many an office hour for help, I am now a lot more confident in my scientific writing. (Thank you to the Comm Lab and the 109 Professors!) I never realized that it is a truly different writing style; writing research articles is a whole different ball game. I came in being like I got this! I’ve written at least 50 essays before. The keyword I forgot was I’ve written 50 non-scientific essays before. It was as if I had to relearn how to write!! I now have a deeper appreciation for every piece of scientific writing I’ve ever read. ;)

I should probably mention the research proposal since I just presented it yesterday. (Let’s go PB&G!!) Boy, was that a ride! Who knew coming up with a novel scientific idea that will hopefully benefit the world was so hard?? I can now say I know more about HSV-1 and Alzheimers than I knew before. (Did you know 80% of the global population has HSV-1 and that Alzheimers is the 5th leading cause of death in America?) Thank you to Bri (our fantastic TA) and all the 109 professors for being there for my group and helping us on our path to create our research article. Maybe one day, one of us will do further research into our project! (“the Identification of putative small molecule binders that prevent oligomerization of amyloid-beta peptides to HSV-1”)

All in all, I can confidently say that 20.109 has made me a better scientist. It has made me sit down and think about the most effective ways to communicate with people, whether it be through slides, a caption, a figure, or a presentation. I think virtual 20.109 has been one of the best things to happen to me because it has forced me to work on the parts of science I was weaker in. Thank you to Professor Lyell, Professor McClain, Professor Meyer, Professor Niles, and Professor Engelward for make Zoom university pretty great!

- Giramnah

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