BIOL368/F14:Class Journal Week 9

From OpenWetWare
Jump to navigationJump to search

Nicole Anguiano

  1. Which project was more interesting to you: studying the evolution of the HIV virus or studying the structure → function relationship? Why? Note that I'm not asking about the tools you used, but the scientific problem studied.
    • Studying the evolution of the HIV virus was more interesting to me. Being able to see immediate results and differences in DNA sequence and evolution was incredibly interesting, even if there wasn't necessarily a conclusion that could be drawn. It ultimately didn't seem like there was much to be observed with structure and function in the project we performed, and being able to see the results of the evolution definitely made studying that feel more interesting.
  2. What was the best part of working with a partner on this project? What was the worst part? Has this changed since your last project? Why or why not?
    • The best part of working with a partner on the project was being able to break up the work into much more manageable sections. The worst part is trying to take all of the data and draw a conclusion from it when everyone is coming in with a different data set, and in thus only knows what they have found. This ultimately has not changed. Working in a group simplifies the amount of work in comparison to doing the work alone, especially with a project of this magnitude.
  3. Besides the scientific conclusion of your project, what have you learned about the process of doing research as a result of this project?
    • I have learned that sometimes research involves not entirely sure where a conclusion lies, and that often results can be difficult to find. Research is a trying process, and sometimes an experiment will result in data that doesn't seem significant. However, finding that data that doesn't seem significant signals that the answer to the ultimate question that was trying to be answered lies elsewhere, and is in thus valuable in itself.


Nicole Anguiano 01:24, 29 October 2014 (EDT)

Nicole Anguiano
BIOL 368, Fall 2014

Assignment Links
Individual Journals
Class Journals

Isabel Gonzaga

  1. Which project was more interesting to you: studying the evolution of the HIV virus or studying the structure → function relationship? Why? Note that I'm not asking about the tools you used, but the scientific problem studied.
    • Although it was frustrating at times and much more difficult to deduce than the evolution of DNA, the structure and function relationship was more interesting to me. It was interesting to see all the different aspects of protein structures come together. It forced me to really think about each level of structure (primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary) and the differences in interactions that occur. This provided a very holistic understanding of the protein.
  2. What was the best part of working with a partner on this project? What was the worst part? Has this changed since your last project? Why or why not?
    • The best part of group work was being able to divide up the work, and having other people to lean on for support. I really enjoyed being able to count on my partners to answer any questions I had about the process, especially since the project was so open ended. The worst part was not being able to draw conclusions and results until everyone was done with their respective sections. I also feel a little disconnected from the rest of the sections that I did not complete (ie. the other 'groups'), simply because I did not run the experiments for those parts. For me, this is MUCH better and much preferred than the HIV sequence evolution project, although the subject matter was much more difficult and complicated.
  3. Besides the scientific conclusion of your project, what have you learned about the process of doing research as a result of this project?
    • I learned the importance of keeping current with the variety of tools and research methods available. Especially in the field of bioinformatics, this is constantly changing and updating. Each protein tool used in this section brought something different to the table in understanding protein function. Tools should be picked and chosen effectively depending on the research goals and questions.


Isabel Gonzaga 02:20, 29 October 2014 (EDT)

Weekly Assignments

Class Journals

Electronic Lab Notebook

Chloe Jones

  1. Which project was more interesting to you: studying the evolution of the HIV virus or studying the structure → function relationship? Why?
    • I liked studying the structure of the HIV virus more than the evolution because it allowed me to see how the virus used a certain mechanism to attack the host cells. Being able to recognize the structure just provides a lot more insight on what the virus needs in order to be the most affective, which I enjoyed learning about. I really appreciated how the mechanism could be interrupted by knowing the structure and knowing that the V3 regions plays such a huge role.
  2. What was the best part of working with a partner on this project? What was the worst part? Has this changed since your last project? Why or why not?
    • The best part about working with a partner is that you can get more things accomplished and it allows for more insight and ideas to be generated. Although the Wiki accounts allows us to see what one another are doing, I think it got challenging at times because the amount of information was so dense for this project. I still think the dynamics of the group worked really well, maybe even better this time because it was more communication and we were actually analyzing something we thought of so that made it more interesting. We were all given a different progressive group and analyzed it in the same way, which I think was better then last time when some of the pictures were hard to analyze/understand.
  3. Besides the scientific conclusion of your project, what have you learned about the process of doing research as a result of this project?
    • What I learned about research is that you learn a lot by actually doing the project and experimenting. Research is a hands on learning process that provides a deeper understanding because the answer is not simply given to you. I also learned that when doing research data is always unpredictable, so you can never assume.

Electronic Lab Notebook

Weekly Assignments

Class Journals


Chloe Jones 03:46, 15 October 2014 (EDT)Chloe Jones

Retrieved from "https://openwetware.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=BIOL368/F14:Class_Journal_Week_9&oldid=839417"