Semester 3 week 12

While putting together my rough draft I have also been setting up the 30 sample cups for the next step in my experiment. The sample cups currently sit with 20 grams of sediment and .5 a gram of their respective plastic submerged in enough DI water to allow for the sediment and plastic to mix. I have also begun familiarizing myself with the funnel process which puzzles me. I will ask Jasmine because she has completed this step in her experiment to explain to me how it works and how to properly perform the task. I look forward to understanding this step because after working on it for a couple hours, I felt the results from practicing were full of systematic errors. 

Semester 3 Week 11

Yesterday I started my research preparation, I am looking at having a total of 30 sample cups with sets of 5 cups containing the same plastics to collect data that will yield an average. Although this process took several hours I wanted to make sure I was properly filling each specimen cup with the appropriate amount of sediment(20g) and of the appropriate plastic(.500g).  Next week I will submerge the sample mixtures in DI water and begin the filtration process. The filtration step is not very clear so it will take practice in order for me to understand how it works.

Semester 3 Week 10

This week in the lab was cut short due to a model united nations meeting held at the state capitol which I was required to be a part of. I looked forward to beginning the process outlined by the protocol Jasmine gave me, but it looks like that will have to wait until I come back next week. I am sure some of the protocol ingredients required will already be prepared from jasmine's research. After reading through the protocol several times and having a better understanding about the project I feel prepared to begin my research. I still have questions about certain procedures in the protocol but those will be answered when I get to that part of my research.