Mod 2 in Zoom University


Mod 2 was definitely a bit of a logistical struggle as everyone gets fully familiar with working from home. I just recently changed my quarantine location to California, and correlating pacific time with due dates turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would. 8 am lecture on Tuesdays and Thursdays takes some getting used to, but I'm definitely adapting quickly to my environment.

Reflecting on the journal club presentations, I'm glad that we did this assignment before writing our actual research papers because I felt like when I was reading the paper, I was getting good tips on structuring my research to convey a message most effectively. It was also one of the first times that I really had to analyze large figures with graphs and schematics within it, which was definitely a challenge but rewarding to see how researchers handle copious amounts of data. Presenting to my computer felt a bit weird especially after having practiced the presentation in front of other people, but it was beneficial because not many people can present for 10 minutes straight without making a few mistakes. I also think that allowing myself to start over and correct my mistakes made me much more confident in what data I was presenting and the implications that came from the results. Reading through a paper and understanding it is one thing, but to have to present on the topic and be ready for questions on it definitely reaches a deeper level of understanding of the science behind the figures and the information presented.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reflections on 20.109

Today was the last lecture of 20.109, and as I signed off the Zoom call, I felt a little flutter of sadness. 20.109 presented a unique dynamic that I'd never had in a class before. I'd never had to spend 5 hours a day in class for a single course, or had to present my own novel ideas and be subjected to the interrogations of my classmates or instructors, or write my own research article draft. I learned a bunch of new skills in 20.109, but the following were the ones that will stick with me the most. 1. Schematics - I learned to LOVE making schematics. So much so, in fact, that I am strongly considering buying a BioRender subscription, which is something I usually avoid at all costs. There's something so satisfying about generating your own schematics for presentations and controlling every aspect of the story the image tells. I love coordinating the colors and paring the experimental details down to what is absolutely necessary to tell the story. 2. Effective prese...
Read more
Jesus H Christ, I am so tired. Objectively, no human has ever been as tired as me. Not one. Not even Nancy from Nightmare on Elm Street when she's staying up for days to not get murdered by Freddy Krueger. Not even that other lady from Nightmare on Elm Street when she's staying up for days to not get murdered by Freddy Krueger. On the positive side, I am not staying up for days to not get murdered by Freddy Krueger. In fact, the lab report keeping me up is quite docile compared to him. Even quite docile compared to many of the assignments in 20.109. It's a summary of a semester's research that accomplished a little less than the whole of Mod1. So, if there's one thing I can be grateful for about 20.109, its that it makes other classes look easy.
Read more

A Message from the Peak of Everest

Hello world. As I stand here about twenty feet from the summit, a sense of accomplishment washes over me. It's an undertaking few have conquered. Still, at the same time I feel a sense of dread. I made it here, but what about the trip on the way down? Supplies are lower than expected, the crew is tired, and the nights have been getting longer and longer. There's a small chance we might not even have enough oxygen for the next two days, I haven't had the chance to do the math. Why are we even up here? What hubris drove us to try to conquer this majesty of nature? What were we looking for? Looking out across the broken and jagged Himalayas, I feel contemplative. It's about 6:34 am, and the darkness is starting to lift. Wind is strong, but no snowfall. We dug ourselves a little crevasse to shield ourselves from the wind, and we're on the east side of the mountain. 2 more minutes till sunrise. It was a difficult trip up. It was lonely and sad and cold and...
Read more