28 Jun Maria Camacho, University of Houston, Week 4

Hello, everyone. Welcome to my weekly update! There was quite a lot to do this week in preparation for the poster presentation we will be doing this upcoming Friday. We have been tasked with creating posters, so everyone has been really busy this week. Let’s start with what I did in lab this week.

LAB/RESEARCH 

To start off this week Cricket and I started working with each other on a project. The project consists of finding a Raman spectrum of free CN and progressively adding Cu to dilute the CN solution to see how the free CN peak intensity changes. While the premise seemed simple, there was a lot of preparation that went into making it happen. In order to even make the solutions, we had to read up on literature on research that was conducted similarly so that we could find the concentration of the solutions they used so we could make ours. The first paper we had based our concentration off of ended up having a large concentration of CN, which was a little scary to work with considering it was way over the lethal dose. However, when attempting to get a spectrum, the concentration did not end up working and did not provide us with the spectrum we were looking for. Throughout the week we kept working on getting a good concentration, and finally, towards the end of the week, we finally got a decent spectrum of free CN and Cu right next to it. A lot was going on in the background of this as well; I had to prepare for a lab group meeting where Cricket and I would be presenting on what we have been doing the past 4 weeks here at the University of Houston. Thankfully, the busyness has died down, and I was able to relax a little this weekend.

FRIENDS/ACTIVITIES

This weekend was a lively one. Everyone is trying to get the most out of the last weekend we are here all together. Riley, Cricket, Haebin, and I all went to the rec center and did a few activities such as working out, playing volleyball, and swimming! Saturday was a day filled with bonding; the lab had a group party where we all brought food and did tie-dye together! This Sunday everyone in the Welch program will be going to the science museum. I am so excited! Join me again for my last weekly update. Side note, I got to feed a squirrel this week!