6/17/24 – 6/21/24

This week started off being uneventful. It wasn’t until Thursday when it got busy. On Thursday, I met with my PI to talk about the group project as well as my independent project. There has been setbacks with the group project at the moment. We have to switch the protocol again as it is not yielding the results we are aiming for. Because of this, it has been quite inactive in the lab. However, on the bright side, Me and my PI talked further on my independent project. We have talked on the details as well as the action we are going to take. Friday was the day it finally got busy again. I started the day by going on a field trip to a water treatment plant in Sugar Land, TX. It was really an interesting place to visit. It made me think about how the water I drink is being cleaned. After the field trip, we all went back to our labs. I met up with my PI and another grad student to get the soil we need. We used a small soil coring tool to get soil samples from the Yaupon holly tree, which is the first step to my project. After getting 5 female and 5 male plant soil sample, my PI showed me how to do all the step to put it in the Berlese Funnels. I did all of the other sample after he showed me how to do it. After finishing, I have to wait for 72 hours before taking them out and moving onto the next step. Overall, it is nice to be able to work on my project for this week.