I honestly loved biology, because it's quite interesting to pay attention to the way that things work (things we do, but pay no attention to; The circulatory system would be a prime example). Not to sound cynical or anything, but I was also thoroughly fascinated with the fetal pig dissection (do not scroll to the bottom of the page if you don't want to see a dissected fetal pig...). Why is that? Well, I've never seen anything like it before; and I feel much more aware and quite a bit more conscious of our internal system/organs. I'm not gonna lie, I used to be quite ignorant on the subject, and if you were to tell me to identify the pancreas, you would have laughed because I'd be ridiculously wrong. But now I can confidently point out the kidneys, gallbladder, umbilical veins, and all that other fun stuff. Anyway, another takeaway I have from my biology class would be none other than Planned Parenthood. I'm not a sexually active human being (yes I'm pursuing that abstinence life, because I can), but I did think that it was important to be informed on all that stuff. Like, I never knew you could get an STD through oral sex. I didn't know the multiple ways of obtaining birth control (those weird waterproof sticker pads...I would have never guessed), because I never went out of my way to do research on the topic. So yeah, thanks Planned Parenthood...and Will (for answering our..."unique" questions every other Friday).
Microscopes and a shift in Perspectives
Alyn and I chose to work together to work on a microscope adapter for a cellphone. The reason being was because it seemed quite simple to make, although Will warned that it was one of the toughest to execute. We wanted our microscope phone adapter to be used by multiple phones (not just an iPhone or Android). So we tried basing our ideas with that objective in mind. We looked up multiple ways to make a board "adjustable" and we used prior knowledge (like Alyn looked up selfie sticks because they can adjust to multiple phones). After having an idea in mind, we created a file on Adobe Illustrator for it to be laser cut by Will (we wanted the material to be acrylic/plastic). That didn't work out...our measurements were not what we'd like them to be (too big for our taste). We also didn't know how we'd attached them. Until we saw someone else's design (they had a pattern-like puzzle thing going on to connect the pieces). So we went back to our file to make changes; we made pattern edges to our design whilst adjusting the measurements. Did that work out? Mmm...not quite. We weren't satisfied with the path that our microscope was headed. So what did we do? We started all over . We wanted the microscope to be attachable to any phone, considering the fact that it would satisfy our objective. Our research consisted of speaking to a well known genius, Dr.Don. We told him what we were trying to do with our project and he, quite magically, pulled out his clip-on microscope lens from his bag (I swear, he's prepared for the world). We analyzed it, realized what we had to do, and went straight to work. Due to a bad experience with the laser cutter, we decided to build our little clip-on microscope adapter out of clay. But we later realized that it wasn't very sturdy (because it broke off). So we sighed in defeat and gave the laser cutter another chance. We worked out the measurements and considered our "design:, we are quite lame, so we designed it to be a little camera design. That worked out pretty well, and down below you can see some photographs we took whilst using it.
The top surface of a microscope...that seems to have been abandoned, for it is looking out the window (gosh I'm lame...and tired honestly).
Up close picture of the surface. It was covered in dust as you can see all those evil little grimy particles.
The reason I chose to photograph what I did was because we have plenty of things that we simply forget about. Once they are forgotten they are left to collect dust, and dust seems to be everywhere. By the way, the photos kinda show the concept that things aren't as quite what they seem to be, in order to figure it out you must go out of your way to dig a little deeper, which can apply to humans as well...kinda sad that we can relate to a microscope...a dusty microscope to be exact.
Finals Lab
Well, I took Will's final not that long ago, and I think that it was easy just because it was an open source thing. But I guess, what was kinda difficult about it, was making sure that we were being thorough in the steps to our own little lab thing. Because if we were to forget to reference page #2, we'd most likely get points taken off (what I'm trying to say is that it was a rather tedious task). I personally think I did a good job on the final, by making sure read the directions carefully as was advised. Because the plural in "conclusions" is essential. I also reminded my group to incorporate the entire "circulatory system/ATP". Not sure if that even helped out or not, but I guess it's better to have more than less (I'm only talking about information...materialism needs is another discussion). I also think my group did a pretty good job in working together, we all contributed in a way, and we all helped each other out; there were no disputes, we were all understanding and politely asked for clarification when needed.