Personal Work samples

I.S. Project

DNA EXTRACTED





Lysis Buffer



Strawberry



Samples

This is a picture of my I.S. project work. I extracted the D.N.A from some of the samples after using lysis buffer to break the cell membrane and its concentration is considered good. The process is quite tedious but fortunately it is feasible.

Second Part: Chicken Liver:

This is my Finals Round PPt.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wasw3armgs7hewz/Finals%20round%20ppt-final.ppt



Through this year, the achievements we achieve is considered to be quite good.

I have always held high expectation for my group members.

Our initial plan was to get into grand finals but then we receive a better opportunity ---Australian Science Conference. I have never thought of representing the school in a Science Conference. I cannot thank my dear Mentor: Mrs Sow Peh Yoke Keow enough. She has been a great mentor and I really appreciate her guidance and advice. I have learn so much throughout this journey and have obtained valuable skills.

This is a group Photo

I have to thank her for helping us obtain the Merit award for Biotech Fair Competition--Science centre where we competed with close  to 200 projects and obtain one out of the 3 merit awards.

This was me receiving the Merit Award at Biotech Fair Competition. :D

Reflections – DNA Extraction by Different Detergents

After embarking on this project for a year, my interest in DNA Science has deepen. I gained a lot of insight and knowledge on the importance of DNA extraction and its beneficiary to our daily lives. In addition, team building and time management are also the greatest assets that I gained from this project.

1.  Challenges encountered

Needless to say, I encountered many challenges in the execution of this project. As a team leader, the most challenging problem which I faced was how to motivate my group members to work as a team. As everyone have their own busy schedules and duties (e.g. CCA commitments, camps and leadership appointments) thus it is a constant challenge to get everyone to participate together and assume a fair share of work.

The next challenge that I faced was in the experimental work. We encountered difficulties while developing our prototype to maximize the extracted DNA concentration and yield as well as to achieve the high purity DNA from both chicken liver and strawberry substrates. Another challenge for the experiment was to obtain reproducible results for the experiment that we have conducted.

2.  Solutions/actions for the Challenges

For the first challenge concerning the group management and team work, I have planned out the project schedule to take into consideration of every member’s commitments. I then allocated the work evenly to each member and constantly update the schedule to ensure that every member was at the right track to meet every stage of project deadline. For every experiment that I planned, I have discussed it with the group members which I then wrote the detail procedures of each experiment and briefed the group thoroughly for each laboratory session so as to ensure that everyone conduct the experiment systematically and accurately.

As we have different CCA and other commitments in school, it was very difficult to get everyone present in the group meeting after school. So I conduct our group discussion or any presentation rehearsal through Skype at night. Besides, the group also communicated through email and face book.

To resolve the second challenge of achieving the maximum yield of the extracted DNA, we carried out the test to determine the optimum volume of lysis solution to be used in extracting DNA. An optimum incubation temperature was determined in the experiment. Through the identification of the two variables, we achieved the targeted DNA concentration and yield.  The next difficulty that we encountered was to obtain the DNA purity within the range of 1.7-2.0 for A₂₆₀/A_280. 

To tackle the issue of low purity, the following actions have been taken: Increased the centrifuge speed and time for precipitation stages, accelerated the drying rate by using heat lamp instead of air drying and replaced the de-ionized water by Milli-Q water to improve the purity.

For the challenges of obtaining the reproducible results for the experiment, care and skill in handling the micro-pipette to measure the materials used in the experiment was practised.

3. Effectiveness of the solutions/actions

Regarding the group management, I solved any dispute among my group members by showing them my empathy. It is really comforting to see my group members mend their friendship in the end as we all know how friendship can be of paramount importance in the world. This dispute arises probably because my group members wanted each other’s understanding on certain matters. By showing them my empathy, they know that there is actually someone out there willing to lend them a listening ear and they felt reassured to continue with the experiment.

For the project schedule, I have learnt that what I have planned on paper looks good but it did not translate well in reality sometimes. For instance, team members did not turn up for some laboratory sessions during June Holiday due to their own activity commitments. I ended up being overwhelmed to perform the whole experiment myself and to have sacrifice my lunch break and stayed late in the laboratory to complete the whole experiment.

I solved this issue by encouraging the team members to actively involve in planning the progress of the project. In this case they developed a sense of responsibility and ownership for the project.

The experiment that we conducted are tedious, it usually take the whole afternoon to complete. To maximize the time while waiting for the incubation of the samples, I usually try to do my homework as quickly as possible.

I reckon the strategies I used to multi-task were very effective as I could actually meet datelines for all the assignments. It brought my time management skills to a whole new level. This is very important in the world as I am able to maximize the limited time I have in a day to do more than what I am deemed capable of doing. I also never regretted the sacrifices I had to make because I always believe in the part of seeking the knowledge in the things I do.