My name is Colleen, and I’m a sophomore working on a Biological Science major, a Chemistry minor, along with a Single Subject Teaching credential at California State University, Fullerton. Here are 55 photos illustrating my April 29th– a filled with types of science, a nice food break, and a very long night of studying. (Previous ADIML: Oct 19, Nov 19, Dec 23.)

I woke up and was feeling extraordinarily tired. I was actually about to be late to Chemistry lab.

I got there two minutes late, which wasn’t too bad! The experiment that day was going to be long, though.

We’re calculating the specific heat of these “unknown” metals. (It’s not hard to tell that this one is Copper.)

The other one, I am not too sure about. Still calculating. The data we collect is through seeing how much the temperature of the water changes as we dunk in different amounts of heated metal. Everyone in the class is sharing these baggies of metals that we each made. It was a long, arduous process that involved boiling metal, cooling water, tossing burning hot metal into water, measuring heat, and then trying to find someone who will trade your sample with their sample that you need. Also, you have to toss out your water each time just in case.

I had a bunch of beakers around me that were only for water. They were things like water straight out of the sink that was warming to room temperature, waste water that’s been heated by metal that I didn’t want to dash around the room to pour away, boiling water to heat the metal in, and the room temperature water I was going to dunk the hot metal in. I work pretty fast, so I often was just sitting to wait for someone to trade with me.

After I had finished a little early, it was time for me to confront the scary equipment lady. On my way out, I run into some of my classmates from my Biology lecture. My benchmate and I share a drawer of equipment, and for the past few weeks we’ve noticed that we’ve been missing an item here or there. Then, twice, we came to class and found our drawer unlocked. Our TA confirmed this too by watching us lock it the week before– no one else should be using the drawer. Initially, the equipment people did not believe us– but now it’s getting ridiculous and it’s irritating sharing one graduated cylinder all the time, among other things.

I talk with the lady in charge, and she looks at me with disbelief. She then tells me to come back at the end of the school year and tally up what’s missing. I guess there’s only so much you can do.

I head down to my Biology lab to study with some of my friends for the upcoming quiz, and we all try out the mystery gum. Tammy gave me an apple to eat too. The manicure I have is also done by Tammy, because she worked at a nail salon before.

After a quiz, we watch a presentation on transposons and how we’re going to do gels to find out who has and in what kind of combination.

Our TA, Marcy, demonstrates how to dance while swishing with saline solution to get cheek cells.

My two labmates are the test subjects because we already know generally whether Asians such as myself will have when it comes to the transposon genotype.

I end up not doing very much labwork today because everyone would prefer to handle their own spit.

Handling the spit. She’s resuspending it after centrifuging and removing the supernatant.

Boiling them to lyse the cells because we’re after the DNA.

Meanwhile, my other labmates who are also not doing the experiment are setting up a tablet pen. It takes a while for all three of us to get it to work, sadly. The first thing three guys drew were penises. I drew breasts because they asked me to draw them.

Then we go over a worksheet from lecture that is very difficult. Even our TA was racking her mind over it. It was a very long “what if” question– I can’t remember specifically how it went, but the gist of it was something about a mouse enzyme and a bacteria enzyme have the same function. The bacteria enzyme is in an operon system, and the mouse enzyme is transformed into the bacteria, and one of them is deactivated. There were other specifications too, but it was just… a wall of text that we were very baffled at.

Afterward, Alan has to copy my lecture worksheet because he was absent from lecture when it was handed out. Sadly, the copy machine ate our money.

Here we are getting a refund for $1.00, which took quite a bit of work to get back. We had to put more money into the machine to unclog it and were refunded for that too.

Triumph! The dollar and the copy. Alan then went on his way, possibly to see his girlfriend who lives in Torrance.

Outside, there was a promotion for a new Hookah bar and a pita bread place! Tammy was very attracted to the drum player.

They gave out free pita sandwiches, which was great. Pictured ahead of me are Kevin and Tammy, who work together on Tammy’s research project because he is her assistant. We are on our way to the artificial lagoon she is researching at. I will also be assisting today. The reason we are going is because their friend Valerie wants to also try a similar research. Otherwise, we would not have gone because it was very windy that day and the gulls that Tammy tracks do not come out when it’s windy.

We meet up with Valerie and go into separate cars. We’re getting pho afterward, and Valerie does not want pho– so we had to take more than one car.

You can see how strong the wind was in this photo. Tammy and I get there first, and to her amazement there were birds everywhere. She said it was the most birds she’s seen in her lie, and she could not figure out why they were at the lagoon.

We soon found out why! The wind was so strong that the birds could not fly out of the lagoon, and were thus stranded on the manmade beach. Whenever they tried to fly, they would be pushed back from the wind. It was easy to take this photo because they looked like they were floating in the air, unable to move forward. I timed Tammy as she counted the number of birds on the beach. It was really surreal to see the birds appear to be stuck in the air– they were frozen in space, almost!

The water was very rough that day, and the clams that Tammy were studying were doing alright because the gulls were having a hard time doing their drops to get them. Even if they picked up a clam, they would be knocked out of the air by the wind and drop the clam back into the water.

Tammy and Kevin noticed peculiar raised spots in the sand and investigate. It was all very exciting for everyone, but not very good for Tammy because part of her hypothesis was that the gulls do not come out in the wind. We explore the beach under the peculiar conditions, and I take many photos for Tammy to use for her presentations and also as proof. Valerie then leaves to eat food that is not pho.

After we finish counting the gulls and whatever other data was might need, we finally relax at the pho restaurant. It’s 50% pho there all the time, so it’s a great deal. However, water costs $1.50!

Tammy takes this photo of me while we wait.

They get extra meat, while I get a large instead of a normal. I had forgotten my wallet that day, so they were treating me. So nice! It was really tasty too.

On the way back, we girltalk in the traffic.

I get home and have some toast while I relax with a magazine. I was on my feet a lot today, so I was feeling like all I wanted to do was relax.

However, there’s a pile of work that must be done. I had a lot of doll heads to prepare for Cendoll because I was invited to be a guest there to do face-up demonstrations. I clean the heads and coat them, and then put them away so the coating dries completely while I plan their face-ups.

After that, it’s time to study once again. I needed practice with Molecular Orbital Theory, even though later I realized it was far simpler than I initially thought and was fine with it. It was just difficult at first because it was such a foreign way to think about molecules and bonds for me. Reading the textbook later helped a lot when I was able to visual the sigma and pi bonds better.

I then take a nap, and when I woke up I saw that Tammy had sent me a concerned message over Facebook. She also fell asleep, and she was feeling a cold coming on. I was also feeling a bit like I was developing a cold, and was getting a bit of a migraine. I appreciate the concern, Tammy!

I keep studying, but truth be told I was also very distracted because I was chatting with my buddy Lauren for a lot of it. She wanted me to explain what I was learning to her, so I was showing her how it was done and applied. I talked about how molecular orbital theory, lewis structure, and valence shell electron pair repulsion theory all look at different parts of the molecule– but as a whole, come together to loosely form a more accurate particulate representation of the particles. Each one reveals different information about the particles that you are dealing with, and to know information means one can use or manipulate it.

That’s why knowing all the theories– even if they are describing different details of the same thing– is important in having a broader and workable understanding of what you are dealing with. It took me a few hours to explain this and a bunch of the other concepts I was working on. I didn’t mind though, because I love answering science questions– even though these are all basic things because I am early in my science career. It reinforces what I know, and I really enjoy science so I get excited when talking about it.

Then I realize I had class at 8, and should really head to bed to make the most of the few hours of sleep I was going to get. I was super tuckered out by this point and almost forgot to take this last photo because all I wanted to do was sleep. Good night!