I'll be heading home for Thanksgiving soon. I've been spoiled at Ithaca, where we got the entire week of Thanksgiving off. This week I had my second cell biology exam on Monday evening, which went pretty much the same as the first one (clocking in at about 1hr 10min). I probably would have gone home yesterday but things in lab have been going pretty crazy, largely because we have moved in a new direction technique wise and there is a lot to be done before the end of the semester.
Surprisingly, they STILL had a lecture this morning for cell biology! Not only is it right after we took our exam on Monday, it's the day before Thanksgiving! I only came this morning because I wasn't able to go home till today anyway. Not surprisingly, instead of 40-50 students there were not more than 20 students in class today.
Anyway, I'm glad that's all over and can't wait to be home. I could really use the break.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Grad Diary 11/19/09
I just took a trip up to Ithaca this week to talk about graduate school, and it was a great trip. I had made a trip back to Ithaca at the beginning of the fall to visit some friends and old professors. While there the director of the Honors Program, Bob Sullivan, asked me if I was interested in making a return to trip to talk to the first year honors students about applying to graduate school. I thought about it and over the next few weeks we worked out the details. Since I was already going to be on campus I e-mailed the department chairs for biology and chemistry to see if they wanted me to do the same for them, and they were thrilled. So, Tuesday night I found myself driving up to Ithaca and checking into a hotel room already paid for by the honors program and enjoying the irony of being invited back as a "guest" when I haven't been out of school for more than six months. It was very surreal...and kind of cool.
My talks were at noon (for the honors kids) and at 4:00pm (for the science kids). I spent the morning and afternoon between those times running all over campus stopping into professor's offices and catching up. It was very hectic. The talks themselves went well, though I will be honest and say that I was more excited and gave a better overall presentation to the science kids, because I could focus exclusively on my own experiences (which were still pretty fresh). The turn out was small, but I wasn't expecting much (having recently graduated). Still, the students who did come seemed to have gotten a lot out of my presentation, and actually one of the professors asked if i would send him a copy of my presentation for him to use with his own students, which I thought was pretty awesome.
It was a great trip all in all, and I am looking forward to making more in the future, especially once I've gotten some research under my belt and can actually present some science!
My talks were at noon (for the honors kids) and at 4:00pm (for the science kids). I spent the morning and afternoon between those times running all over campus stopping into professor's offices and catching up. It was very hectic. The talks themselves went well, though I will be honest and say that I was more excited and gave a better overall presentation to the science kids, because I could focus exclusively on my own experiences (which were still pretty fresh). The turn out was small, but I wasn't expecting much (having recently graduated). Still, the students who did come seemed to have gotten a lot out of my presentation, and actually one of the professors asked if i would send him a copy of my presentation for him to use with his own students, which I thought was pretty awesome.
It was a great trip all in all, and I am looking forward to making more in the future, especially once I've gotten some research under my belt and can actually present some science!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
The HMGS Certificate Program
In addition to my regular course work in the Cell and Molecular Biology program, I opted into a special "certificate" program at Penn sponsored by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This program (or similar variants) exist in a few other schools around the country (I think there are a dozen of us in total). The program, currently called the HHMI Med into Grad Scholars Program, of HMGS. Basically the program is offered to interested graduate students in the biomedical sciences who want to get more exposure/get involved in more "translational research."
"Translational research" is one of those phrases currently in the biomedical community that means different things to different people, and is such a buzzword in the NIH that you can't find a single grant proposal without this phrase in it. Because of that, it's almost become a bad word, but generally speaking translational research expresses the linking together basic science research with clinical/medical practices. In my mind, translational research is supposed to be a close collaboration of the two, and a perfect example is a clinician who works on breast cancer in the hospital, and who also does basic research on the underlying mechanisms of breast cancer as a means of developing new therapeutics (this is actually a real example, I will talk more about him in a moment).
Anyway, what the heck does that mean for me, a lowly grad student? Basically the program functions similar to a minor in undergrad, in that you take some specialized courses that complement your training and which encompass this "translational research" motif. You also spend two or three weeks shadowing a clinician in a field of your interest during a summer to get real life exposure to the field, and there are a few talks and symposia associated with the program as well.
There are four classes involved, one each for the four semesters leading up to your Prelims. I am currently taking the first one, which is a journal club type class where we read two papers each week, a student presents one of the papers during the class and we discuss it. Specifically, each week has a unique clinical topic, and we are assigned a "basic science" and a "clinical" paper about it, and a resident expert in the field comes in as well. For example, my first paper was on large diffuse B cell lymphoma (a cancer of white blood cells in very watered down terms). My paper was a clinical paper that looked at using a proteasome inhibitor as a way to treat a particular subset of these patients with a unique molecular profile (I will spare you the details, although it was quite interesting). The other student that day presented a basic research paper that described the signaling pathways involved in this subset of cancer patients, which also explained why targeting the proteasome (normally a ridiculous idea as a therapy since you would screw up all sorts of stuff) actually made sense (in principle anyway). Other topics included obesity, HIV, color blindness, etc. It's been pretty cool.
The other classes include a cellular immunology course (I can't wait!), a basic physiology course, and finally a more advanced class that will look at the cellular/physiological pathology of certain diseases. They are all meant to be ways to expose us to more clinically relevant topics and help us apply our backgrounds towards the clinic.
In addition there are speakers from Penn who come in and talk to us about their research. The first speaker was a clinician who was a breast cancer specialist (as I alluded to above). In addition to his normal clinical practice, his lab was working on eliciting immune responses against breast tumors, and he already had some clinical trials in the works for some of the therapies that had come out of his lab and collaborators'. It was a really cool presentation and got me even more interested in doing basic science that would be more directly involved in human health.
I think it's a pretty cool program and so far I am really enjoying the exposure. Programs like these are not very common in most universities and it's an opportunity I am glad to take advantage of.
"Translational research" is one of those phrases currently in the biomedical community that means different things to different people, and is such a buzzword in the NIH that you can't find a single grant proposal without this phrase in it. Because of that, it's almost become a bad word, but generally speaking translational research expresses the linking together basic science research with clinical/medical practices. In my mind, translational research is supposed to be a close collaboration of the two, and a perfect example is a clinician who works on breast cancer in the hospital, and who also does basic research on the underlying mechanisms of breast cancer as a means of developing new therapeutics (this is actually a real example, I will talk more about him in a moment).
Anyway, what the heck does that mean for me, a lowly grad student? Basically the program functions similar to a minor in undergrad, in that you take some specialized courses that complement your training and which encompass this "translational research" motif. You also spend two or three weeks shadowing a clinician in a field of your interest during a summer to get real life exposure to the field, and there are a few talks and symposia associated with the program as well.
There are four classes involved, one each for the four semesters leading up to your Prelims. I am currently taking the first one, which is a journal club type class where we read two papers each week, a student presents one of the papers during the class and we discuss it. Specifically, each week has a unique clinical topic, and we are assigned a "basic science" and a "clinical" paper about it, and a resident expert in the field comes in as well. For example, my first paper was on large diffuse B cell lymphoma (a cancer of white blood cells in very watered down terms). My paper was a clinical paper that looked at using a proteasome inhibitor as a way to treat a particular subset of these patients with a unique molecular profile (I will spare you the details, although it was quite interesting). The other student that day presented a basic research paper that described the signaling pathways involved in this subset of cancer patients, which also explained why targeting the proteasome (normally a ridiculous idea as a therapy since you would screw up all sorts of stuff) actually made sense (in principle anyway). Other topics included obesity, HIV, color blindness, etc. It's been pretty cool.
The other classes include a cellular immunology course (I can't wait!), a basic physiology course, and finally a more advanced class that will look at the cellular/physiological pathology of certain diseases. They are all meant to be ways to expose us to more clinically relevant topics and help us apply our backgrounds towards the clinic.
In addition there are speakers from Penn who come in and talk to us about their research. The first speaker was a clinician who was a breast cancer specialist (as I alluded to above). In addition to his normal clinical practice, his lab was working on eliciting immune responses against breast tumors, and he already had some clinical trials in the works for some of the therapies that had come out of his lab and collaborators'. It was a really cool presentation and got me even more interested in doing basic science that would be more directly involved in human health.
I think it's a pretty cool program and so far I am really enjoying the exposure. Programs like these are not very common in most universities and it's an opportunity I am glad to take advantage of.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Volunteering - Saturday Science Education Academy
Last month I signed up to be a volunteer in a program called "Saturday Science Education Academy," or SSEA. I heard about the program through a biomedical graduate student listserv. After learning more about the program I decided I wanted to get involved.
The SSEA started up a year or two ago, and is organized by Jay Gardner, the lab coordinator for one of the virology faculty at Penn. The program functions as a special, outside of school opportunity for kids in the 2nd, 3rd and starting this year 4th grade to get extra, hands on experience in science. It is specifically open to kids in the West Philadelphia school systems, which I will note is a public school with predominantly black students from a variety of backgrounds. The program runs for three six-to-seven week sessions, meeting every Saturday during the session for about two hours. Kids come based on interest in the program and are separated by grade for the activities. The SSEA works with the kids by providing numerous hands-on activities and directed learning as a way to expose kids to the scientific method and to teach them basic scientific principles. Jay meets with teachers to develop the curriculum to complement what the kids are learning in class.
I got really interested in the program for a couple of reasons. Primarily, I like to teach and tutor, and I want to get as much opportunity as I can to develop my teaching skills. Getting exposed to a younger group of students will help expand my skills and my ideas about teaching. I also saw this as a way to help out in the community. I don't have a good history of volunteering and I think it's time for me to get out there and do something.
I also want to mention that the listserv that tipped this off to me functions through the EE Just Biomedical Graduate Student Society. The society is named after Ernest E Just, a black scientist at Penn, and is a group made up of graduate students in the biomedical sciences from historically under-represented minorities (African Americans, Hispanics/Latino(a)s, Native Americans). I don't normally get involved in these kinds of groups because I don't have a strong association with my Hispanic roots. But, it is a well known fact that for whatever reasons, it is around the fourth and fifth grade when African American kids start to diverge in academics and social skills and you can track those students who will finish school and those who will drop out. While the factors involved in this can be debated, the statistical truth is very hard to refute. I saw this as an opportunity to not only help out in the community, but to get involved at a critical juncture in students' lives where their interest in science and learning might get tossed to the side in the face of other social pressures at home and at school.
So far I've had two sessions with the students, and it's been a great experience (and challenging!). We generally put two grad students per grade level, and this session I will be involved with the second graders (we don't come every week, so each grade will see up to four or five different teachers throughout the session, but we generally get one grade to help facilitate teaching). This session the second graders are learning about balances. Over the course of the session they will explore the concept of balance (what is a fulcrum?), weight, and measuring. We also introduce them to parts of the scientific method like observation and hypothesis.
The first session I had with students was relatively easy; I had another grad student helping me, and we only had two students, a boy and a girl. I tried my best to guide the kids through the lesson by asking questions instead of just teaching them, which was kind of difficult at times. They stayed on task for the most part but we did have to sometimes get them back on track or make concessions (like shorten the amount of reading and have more hands-on activity). All in all it wasn't so bad, and I even had fun.
The second session was a little more...exciting, ha ha. I was the only student teaching the second graders, and I had not two, not three, but six students. I tried to suppress the mini heart attack I had as I guided the tiny tykes up to the classroom. Fortunately, I was granted an angel in human flesh (i.e. a parent volunteer) who sat in my class and helped me manage all the personalities (and once she got an idea of what the activity was she also helped with that, although that wasn't her primary role).
It was a very different experience, partly because I was the only teacher and felt more in command of how the activities were going to be presented, and also because I had to deal with a greater variety of...personalities. One boy in particular, Mohammad, just LOVED to talk. He would stay on task for maybe two minutes and then as his attention moved elsewhere he would start talking about other things (like recent events at school, at home, a movie he saw, etc). I had to repeatedly bring him back on task, especially because he would then get other students distracted as well. I tried my best to be as flexible as possible and not authoritarian. Eventually, though, I knew I needed to convey to Mohammad that I needed him to stay focused and stop interrupting the class. I was reviewing what they had learned about balances and Mohammad started going off again. So in order to diffuse the situation I stopped what I was doing and said, "So Mohammad, you seem to like to talk about all sorts of things. Can you help remind the class what you learned about fulcrums?" Some of his classmates started giggling and Mohammad grinned sheepishly for a moment. He did finally offer one or two ideas that were more or less correct and I took it from there. This little moment awarded me about...five minutes of interrupted control before I lost it again. I realized later that this particular method of discipline might not necessarily work for all students (especially very sensitive ones) and that there probably wasn't any one method that works well all the time. It made me think even more about how teachers learn to deal with their students' behaviors, and I am beginning to develop an even stronger respect for the hard work they put into their jobs.
Even with an adult's help it was much more difficult to get through the activities just because there were so many more students. But they all seemed to have fun and hopefully learned something, which is the whole point anyway, so I felt it was a successful lesson, if more draining for me. And I've been learning a lot as well. It's harder with a larger group of students because you get a broader range of aptitudes and interest levels, but trying to manage this can be rewarding. I've noticed that a large proportion of the students are Muslim, which has been a great experience for me; many of the girls come in with head scarves (I'm pretty sure they were hijab, but I am completely illiterate in Muslim practices I couldn't tell you for sure). I've had the great pleasure of learning pronounce such colorful names as Sukainah, Ahmed (pronounced Ak-med), and Jermirr. It's been a great learning experience for me.
So far I like it a lot and am planning on continuing to do it for the next two sessions after the winter break. It provides a nice break from the serious business of studying, ha ha.
The SSEA started up a year or two ago, and is organized by Jay Gardner, the lab coordinator for one of the virology faculty at Penn. The program functions as a special, outside of school opportunity for kids in the 2nd, 3rd and starting this year 4th grade to get extra, hands on experience in science. It is specifically open to kids in the West Philadelphia school systems, which I will note is a public school with predominantly black students from a variety of backgrounds. The program runs for three six-to-seven week sessions, meeting every Saturday during the session for about two hours. Kids come based on interest in the program and are separated by grade for the activities. The SSEA works with the kids by providing numerous hands-on activities and directed learning as a way to expose kids to the scientific method and to teach them basic scientific principles. Jay meets with teachers to develop the curriculum to complement what the kids are learning in class.
I got really interested in the program for a couple of reasons. Primarily, I like to teach and tutor, and I want to get as much opportunity as I can to develop my teaching skills. Getting exposed to a younger group of students will help expand my skills and my ideas about teaching. I also saw this as a way to help out in the community. I don't have a good history of volunteering and I think it's time for me to get out there and do something.
I also want to mention that the listserv that tipped this off to me functions through the EE Just Biomedical Graduate Student Society. The society is named after Ernest E Just, a black scientist at Penn, and is a group made up of graduate students in the biomedical sciences from historically under-represented minorities (African Americans, Hispanics/Latino(a)s, Native Americans). I don't normally get involved in these kinds of groups because I don't have a strong association with my Hispanic roots. But, it is a well known fact that for whatever reasons, it is around the fourth and fifth grade when African American kids start to diverge in academics and social skills and you can track those students who will finish school and those who will drop out. While the factors involved in this can be debated, the statistical truth is very hard to refute. I saw this as an opportunity to not only help out in the community, but to get involved at a critical juncture in students' lives where their interest in science and learning might get tossed to the side in the face of other social pressures at home and at school.
So far I've had two sessions with the students, and it's been a great experience (and challenging!). We generally put two grad students per grade level, and this session I will be involved with the second graders (we don't come every week, so each grade will see up to four or five different teachers throughout the session, but we generally get one grade to help facilitate teaching). This session the second graders are learning about balances. Over the course of the session they will explore the concept of balance (what is a fulcrum?), weight, and measuring. We also introduce them to parts of the scientific method like observation and hypothesis.
The first session I had with students was relatively easy; I had another grad student helping me, and we only had two students, a boy and a girl. I tried my best to guide the kids through the lesson by asking questions instead of just teaching them, which was kind of difficult at times. They stayed on task for the most part but we did have to sometimes get them back on track or make concessions (like shorten the amount of reading and have more hands-on activity). All in all it wasn't so bad, and I even had fun.
The second session was a little more...exciting, ha ha. I was the only student teaching the second graders, and I had not two, not three, but six students. I tried to suppress the mini heart attack I had as I guided the tiny tykes up to the classroom. Fortunately, I was granted an angel in human flesh (i.e. a parent volunteer) who sat in my class and helped me manage all the personalities (and once she got an idea of what the activity was she also helped with that, although that wasn't her primary role).
It was a very different experience, partly because I was the only teacher and felt more in command of how the activities were going to be presented, and also because I had to deal with a greater variety of...personalities. One boy in particular, Mohammad, just LOVED to talk. He would stay on task for maybe two minutes and then as his attention moved elsewhere he would start talking about other things (like recent events at school, at home, a movie he saw, etc). I had to repeatedly bring him back on task, especially because he would then get other students distracted as well. I tried my best to be as flexible as possible and not authoritarian. Eventually, though, I knew I needed to convey to Mohammad that I needed him to stay focused and stop interrupting the class. I was reviewing what they had learned about balances and Mohammad started going off again. So in order to diffuse the situation I stopped what I was doing and said, "So Mohammad, you seem to like to talk about all sorts of things. Can you help remind the class what you learned about fulcrums?" Some of his classmates started giggling and Mohammad grinned sheepishly for a moment. He did finally offer one or two ideas that were more or less correct and I took it from there. This little moment awarded me about...five minutes of interrupted control before I lost it again. I realized later that this particular method of discipline might not necessarily work for all students (especially very sensitive ones) and that there probably wasn't any one method that works well all the time. It made me think even more about how teachers learn to deal with their students' behaviors, and I am beginning to develop an even stronger respect for the hard work they put into their jobs.
Even with an adult's help it was much more difficult to get through the activities just because there were so many more students. But they all seemed to have fun and hopefully learned something, which is the whole point anyway, so I felt it was a successful lesson, if more draining for me. And I've been learning a lot as well. It's harder with a larger group of students because you get a broader range of aptitudes and interest levels, but trying to manage this can be rewarding. I've noticed that a large proportion of the students are Muslim, which has been a great experience for me; many of the girls come in with head scarves (I'm pretty sure they were hijab, but I am completely illiterate in Muslim practices I couldn't tell you for sure). I've had the great pleasure of learning pronounce such colorful names as Sukainah, Ahmed (pronounced Ak-med), and Jermirr. It's been a great learning experience for me.
So far I like it a lot and am planning on continuing to do it for the next two sessions after the winter break. It provides a nice break from the serious business of studying, ha ha.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Grad Diary 11/2/09
Una has been asking me all last week whether I got my exam back...she wanted to make sure that, if I didn't do so well, I start taking more time to study and spend less time in lab. And, needless to say, many of my classmates informed me they noticed how early I finished my exam. To say I've been dying to know how I did would be to put it mildly.
Well, today after class they finally returned the exams.
They showed us a histogram of the scores. The average was very high: 78% or so. I took note of the trends towards the top of the distribution, where I hoped to be, and saw that there was a good amount in the >90 range. This of course didn't mean anything to me, but at least if I did really well I wasn't the only one, ha ha.
I picked mine up and, with a great deal of self-control, managed not to look at it as I walked back to the lab. The entire way I became more and more anxious, wondering if I did as well as I thought I did, and whether my record-breaking timing hurt me in the end.
I finally made it to my lab, put all my stuff down, and tried to calm my breathing as I turned over the cover page. In thirty seconds that passed by like an eternity, I scanned through the exam, reading the comments and the points deducted.
To put it mildly, I did very well. Very, very well.
I was very excited and announced to everyone that I had totally Aced my exam, and there was general celebration. I even made the mistake of actually showing Una what my score was. Her response was, "Well done sir. Looks like I can give you a lot more work to do!"
We got a second round of good news when Luis came back from his committee meeting later this afternoon and told us he was given permission to write his thesis. All in all, it was a very good day for the O'Doherty lab.
Well, today after class they finally returned the exams.
They showed us a histogram of the scores. The average was very high: 78% or so. I took note of the trends towards the top of the distribution, where I hoped to be, and saw that there was a good amount in the >90 range. This of course didn't mean anything to me, but at least if I did really well I wasn't the only one, ha ha.
I picked mine up and, with a great deal of self-control, managed not to look at it as I walked back to the lab. The entire way I became more and more anxious, wondering if I did as well as I thought I did, and whether my record-breaking timing hurt me in the end.
I finally made it to my lab, put all my stuff down, and tried to calm my breathing as I turned over the cover page. In thirty seconds that passed by like an eternity, I scanned through the exam, reading the comments and the points deducted.
To put it mildly, I did very well. Very, very well.
I was very excited and announced to everyone that I had totally Aced my exam, and there was general celebration. I even made the mistake of actually showing Una what my score was. Her response was, "Well done sir. Looks like I can give you a lot more work to do!"
We got a second round of good news when Luis came back from his committee meeting later this afternoon and told us he was given permission to write his thesis. All in all, it was a very good day for the O'Doherty lab.
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