INTRODUCTION TO INTERNSHIP AND MOTH RESEARCH

Nov 17th 2011. 

FIRST MEETING WITH MENTORS:

Mr. Calos and I went to the NY State Museum in Albany to meet one of my mentors, Mr. Sam Adams for the Science Internship. I had an agenda for the meeting and I was to be introduced to what exactly Mr. Adams and Ms. Urban are working on and what my role will be for the next few weeks. 

Upon arrival my mentor Mr. Adams took us upstairs where the labs are located and where I will be doing my internship. He also showed me ID cards that I must soon have to have access to the lab and how they work. Mr. Adams explained that his partner, Ms. Julie Urban was on a trip therefore couldn't make it to the first meeting. In the meeting we reviewed the Research program with Mr. Adams and Mr. Calos; I was to have a 2-hour session every week and take on small projects in my mentor's lab. The goal of the Internship is to deepen and authenticate my experience in the laboratory. In addition I am expected to present my work at the end of the year to the school. There will also be an evaluation by mentors in May. After going through the scheduling and review of the program Mr. Adams gave me a short introduction to what exactly the Research I will be working on is about.

The research that Mr. Adams and Ms. Julie are working on, which I will be working on as well in about Moth Evolution. He explained that the research is on Genomics particularly on the Mitochondrial set of the Moths depending on the host cell.  After collecting data from the Moth DNA and reading the results, a “Bar Code” method of decoding to see if they get the results they expecting.

My job in the lab will be to collect the DNA from the Moth then from it design Primers to start the chain reaction of duplicating the DNA. Mr. Adams also mentioned that the Moths I will be using are old and delicate and so their DNA might not work, but hopefully with the methods they’re trying on it will. I am also expected to put the Moths in families and make the genome robust and inclusive.

This first meeting was very interesting must was mostly confusing on my part. I had so many questions at the end of the day, I didn’t know what Primers were, or the Bar code method, and above all the family of the Moths I might be working with.