Rachel's Journal

12/3:  Today, our first day on our bacteria wiki page,me and Lena created our wiki page at school and learned how to add links and edit our page. Ms. Jansen helped us learn how to work on our page and what we would be doing in the next two weeks. We reviewed the content that we needed to contain in on the page about the bacteria and then extra videos and pictures that would make the website more interesting. We learned that in order to make a really good and interesting wiki page, we would need to have more than what was expected of us. If we wanted a really good grade and a really cool website, we would need to go all out.

    That evening, Lena called me and we started developing our wiki page. Lena set up the links to our notes, journals, and bibliography links while I set up the timeline. While on the phone we decided our overall plan for the next two weeks. We spread out the research over the two weeks and decided that we would both try to work on everything, but we might split the work up more later on. After setting up the links we colored some of our writing to make it more colorful and then edited our homepage that we had started at school. I think that developing this wiki page will be really fun and a good experience.

12/4: In class today, me and Lena started researching a little bit but not much. I also edited our timeline so that the work was more split up instead of just having in each row. We will probably have to edit our timeline even more as we go on and we understand more about what we are doing individually and as a group. We didn't get as much work done in class as I would have like to. This was probably my fault though because I was talking during the beginning of class instead of researching.

    I started researching but I am finding it difficult to find websites using the St. Andrews databases. I don't know if there is another way to phrase or type what I'm trying to find in the search box, but, after typing in bacillus, bacillus lentimorbus, and then adding structure, gram stain, etc. to the end of them, I didn't find practically anything. Most of the pages that came up were some other type of bacillus. Lena emailed me saying she found some good sites so maybe we can get more done tomorrow. I hope I have more luck finding sources tomorrow.

12/5:  In class, we spent the whole period learning about website evaluations from Ms. Jansen. This will be very helpful when making our evaluations but also really frustrating because I couldn't find almost any websites using the databases yesterday even when all I typed in was bacillus. I found a ton of websites about anthrax, but we are supposed to be looking for beneficial bacteria. This means that, to get the information Lena and I will need, I will have to make a lot of these time consuming evaluations. I hope that I find some good websites on the free web in the next few days, so that Lena and I can really start forming our wiki page.

    This evening I started working around 9:30 because I had sports practice and youth group, and I didn't have time to do much along with my other homework. I checked the St. Andrews databases again just to make sure there wasn't a really useful website that I missed, and I started looking on the free web. I sure I could have found some good websites if I had had more time, but by the time I finished the rest of my homework it was 11:30, so I couldn't really research anymore. I hope I can get more done tomorrow when I don't have as many activities after school. Tomorrow, I'll ask Lena if she had more luck then I did.

12/6: Today in class, Lena and I had the opportunity to work on researching and I found a good website on gram stains which was what I was supposed to research today and I found some more information on the structure of our bacteria. I talked to Lena about how much progress we had made, and I am happy with how far we are right now. Having the time in class was really beneficial. Lena said that she would look take notes on the classification of our bacteria tonight and I said that I would take notes on the gram stain and maybe the structure. Lena has made more progress than I on finding websites, but I will try to find more this weekend.

    This evening, I took notes on the website I found on gram stain. Then I looked for more websites, but wasn't very successful. Most of the information has been about bacillus in general not just bacillus lentimorbus, so I hope that it is accurate. I will spend more time looking this weekend when I have more free time. Lena and I are a little ahead of our schedule, though, so I think we'll be able to stick with it.

12/7: Today in class, we started a lab and spent some time talking as a group about bacteria and virus's, so we had about ten minutes to work on our project. I didn't find another website in class because it takes a while to find a good one and it's especially hard to find one specifically about bacillus lentimorbus. We still need more websites and I have a feeling we are going to be doing a lot of website evaluations considering that the databases barely helped at all. Some of them didn't even have anything on bacillus in general. The ones that did had mostly sites on anthrax, and we are supposed to be looking up the benefits of our bacteria.

    After getting home around 6:30-7:00 I looked for some more websites and wasn't successful, but I will have more time to research tomorrow and Sunday. Luckily, I had already found information on the structure of bacillus earlier this week. This weeked I have to research the reproduction and benefits of bacillus lentimorbus. If I have extra time I might be able to look for extra videos, games, etc. I hope Lena and I are more successful this weekend.

12/8: Today was the start of our first weekend while working on this project. I researched the reproduction of bacillus lentimorbus cells and did find one website. It didn't have too much information, but it did talk about the environment they grow best in. We could probably add this to our notes on habitat and reproduction. I will have to do an evaluation on this website, since it was off the free web. I'm fairly sure that it is okay because, just by looking at it, it doesn't seem biast or untrustworthy. It even has many given references.

    Tomorrow I will be researching more on the reproduction of bacillus lentimorbus as well as some of its beneficial properties. I still need more a lot websites. If I have time, I will start the web evaluations of the two free websites I already have and any I might get tomorrow. The weekend is off to a fairly good start, but I didn't work on the project today as much as I should have. I will try to stay more focused tomorrow and make more progress to make it easier on Lena and myself during the week.

12/9: Today I found two new websites that provided good beneficial properties of bacillus lentimorbus, so I am happy with the results. I wasn't able to find any good website on the reproduction of the bacteria. Most of the websites I found had the word reproduction somewhere else in the website that had nothing to do with bacillus lentimorbus. When I tried putting  the word  reproduction in quotation marks with bacillus lentimorbus, Google found no results. I will probably ask Lena if she can help me with that tomorrow.

    Tomorrow, I need to research more unusual and interesing facts about bacillus lentimorbus and try to research reproduction again. We will be finishing our lab tomorrow in class, so I don't think we will have much time in class to work on research. I am also hoping to find some videos or games about bacillus bacteria to make our website more interesting. Lena has already put up a crossword and the picture that we found last week. If I could even find another good picture that would make our wiki page that much better.

12/10: Today in class, Lena and I looked at the data and finished the analysis questions for the lab. Then we decided that I would go over to Lena's house one day this weekend to finish up our page, make any last minute changes, and work on our presentation. We didn't have time to research in class, but we have been able to keep up with our timeline for the most part. The only difficulties we have had are that I haven't been able to find any information on bacillus lentimorbus reproduction, and Lena hasn't been able to find any information on the problems associated with the loss of bacteria in the environment. We should have plenty of time to research more this week.

    At home, I found some videos on bacteria. One is about bacteria found on people's cell phones that was really interesting, the second one is about bacteria growth, and the third one is about the gram stain process. These should be good additions to the website, once I figure out how to put them on the wiki page. I couldn't find any websites on reproduction and I didn't have time to look up unsual or interesting facts, but I will try to research those two things again tomorrow along with recent scientifical and medical research dealing with bacillus lentimorbus. This week and weekend will be really busy not only because of the research but also because of all the website evaluations Lena and I will have to do.

12/11: Today in class we had time to work on our project. I didn't find very much. We were told that we needed to finish a pre-lab for homework in order to do the lab tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be doing a lab testing for the motility and identification of bacteria.  The pre-lab will  help us understand what we will be doing tomorrow. I'm not sure how much time I will have to research, though.

       At home, I finished the pre-lab, but didn't have much time to work on research. Tomorrow I am planning to start evaluating my websites and continue researching for recent scientifical research of bacillus lentimorbus. Lena said that she had found a website that talked about reproduction so I think that I should focus on finding the recent research. Also some current event articles would add a lot to the site. I think that the lab will be really interesting tomorrow.

12/12: We did the lab today in class, and we will finish it tomorrow. Today we split up into groups of four and each person swabbed a different bacteria on a petri dish with macconkey agar and put some into a test tube of motility test agar. Tomorrow we will use the gram stain test. We didn't have to work on the lab write-up tonight because we don't have any data yet, so I should have time to do some web evaluations.

    In study hall, I started a web evaluation. Once home, I finished the finished 3 evaluations. Tomorrow, I plan to finish my other 2 web evaluations in study hall, and research recent research on bacilllus lentimorbus at home. If I have time I might look for some more videos or pictures or maybe a current events article. The web evaluations aren't taking as long as I thought they would, so I should have some time tomorrow to work on other things.

12/13: Today in class we completed the gram stain part of the lab and collected all our notes. Rita wrote down the data and emailed it to us so that we could finish the chart and analysis questions tonight. We went through the whole gram stain process and then looked at each bacteria under the microscope to see if it was gram-positive in which the bacteria would look purple or gram-negative if the bacteria looked pink. Then we looked at the bacteria growth from the motility tests and the MacConkey agar. I learned a lot about lab procedures and how to work with bacteria during this lab.

    Tonight I finished the last of my web evaluations finally, but I still didn't have time to really research after doing the evaluations and finishing the lab write-up. It takes a while to find a good website. I only need information on one other topic, the recent research concerning our bacteria. This weekend, me and Lena are meeting up to finish our notes and research and start planning our presentation. We will turn our bulleted notes into a more organized series of paragraphs and make our bibliography. After we are done with that, we will discuss how to go about our presentation.

12/14: Today in class we discussed what was do when for the project. The link to our wiki page and the audience evaluation are due Sunday no later than 5:00 PM, and the personal evaluation and web evaluations are due on Monday when we present. Then we finished and turned in our lab write-ups from the lab we have been working on for the past few days. After school, I went home with Lena so that we could work on the project together. This way we can finish up our project without having to struggle with communication.

    This evening, I finished researching and my web evaluations as well as starting the audience evaluation. Lena and I both finished our notes and organized them into paragraphs instead of bullets. Tomorrow we plan on finishing the audience evaluation the notes and extra information on our wiki so that we can email it to Ms. Tucker. Then we can practice presenting the information. On our own we can finish our personal evaluations. I think that Lena and I have put a lot of work into this project, and I hope it pays off.