Dear all,
S3++2014 has come to an end! While the
participants/project leaders and organisers are catching up on their sleep (YES!) :),
here’s a little reminder on how great these last 10 days were! :)
Time flies by when we’re having fun! :)
In the last few days, we learned about
probabilities, and to which extent can we use them in our advantage. We
theoretically and experimentally proved that the probability that
something is going to happen is in fact directly proportional to the number
of ways it can happen. Furthermore, we calculated the nuber Pi in an outdoor
experiment (in the picture). Learning about Monte Carlo simulations and the
application of probabilities in everyday life was a lot of fun for all of us
because it really clarified the concept of measuring probability. Every day we
get to know each other a bit more and as a result function much better as a
team, and even though we've slept for maybe 15 hours in all of these few days we
are still very motivated to work on our projects and form new experiences, and,
of course for the final party ;)
20th July:
Yesterday was a complete DI-SAS-TER! Truly everything went wrong. We were
supposed to create super-duper, glowing green in UV light bacteria, buuuuut....
We were all sleepy, the lab was hot and humid, our special LB plates for that
experiment had frozen, we lost tubes with bacteria (they were hiding deep in
the ice), the plasmids with genes for the green-in-UV protein did not want to
come off the paper and the most important - we forgot to put the plasmids in
the tubes with bacteria. What’s the conclusion? Sleep more, kids. It really
helps.
PS. Patricia
was not sleeping under the table - she took the picture.
Laser Benders
Hello everybody,
It's been a while since you've heard from us,
but for everybody here, it all happened so quickly! It seems like yesterday
when we first arrived to the school, and now we're finishing up our projects
and will all be leaving in less then 2 days!
A lot of exciting things have happened to team
Laser-Benders; one of them being the experiment setup that's finally ready
after maaaany hours of work. We've spent a couple of days programming in Python, wohoo! We learned how
to program a simulation of a random walk of particles and after that, a simulation
of diffusion limited agregation which explains how fractals actually form in
nature. We learned all that in 2 days of programming, and 50% of the team never
had any prior coding experience!
Next step is to repeat the experiment with
silver colloid particles that are, in fact, fractals so we can apply everything
we've learned so far. Saturday was a swapshop day and a great opportunity to
learn about something new, so half of the team had fun with robots and the
other half with chemistry.
Monday is an important day, or so they tell us.
That's the day when we'll be presenting all our work to everybody else
including mentors and participants and it's bittersweet, because everybody is
eager to hear how everything turned out for other teames, but also sad, because
it marks the end of the school.
Good luck to
other teames and have fun,
Xoxo
Team LB! J
The SEQuers
Day 5:
Tin: We are
still programming…and programming. But it is OK when you have excelent
leadership!
Day 6:
Tin: Finally
some lab working. We got some intro for the PCR and we prepared samples and
then performed PCR. This was special day for me because I finally got the
opportunity to see this thing in person.
Day 7
Tin: Another
day in the lab, but this time with some different purpose. After performing the
PCR we continued with gel electrophoresis. I must say this is really
interesting.
Jovan: Finally some lab work. Btw II have also found code
for facebook color which you can see here. During the course of the last
few days we have really developed as team, so my friends were kind enogh to let
me preform part of their experiment because there was not enough time for mine.
My mentors are the best :D!
And some final remarks:
Sara- We had
the coolest project, the best mentors, and the best team and it was a really,
really nice experience. Working on the project as a whole was really fun (yes,
even the programming part :) ), and we got to meet a lot of interesting people,
who come from very different backgrounds and cultures. So , all in all, it was
so great, and a lot of it was thanks to Jelena and Matilda :) (who did a
reeeally good job as project leaders).
Martina- S3 was great experience for me. I enjoyed working on my project. I learned so many things in 10 days, something that is not taught in regular school, but can be used in further scientific career. Our project leaders were incredible; they had so much patience with us in computing and lab work. Young scientists, our mentors and organizers, taught us how beautiful and interesting science can be. I am really grateful for being a part of this amazing project and I hope that I will come back as swapshop or project leader.
See you next year!
Tonko&Tonka - S3++2014 organising team :)
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