I took this class because this was my 1st quarter in Davis and I wanted to get some research experience. Getting involve in research at Davis is pretty competitive and me being a transfer student doesn’t help either, as I have only couple of years left to get a research opportunity compare to students who have been here since freshman year. I had only one thing in mind when I decided to take this class that this class would not only teach me different research methods, but would also open new doors of opportunities for me. Through this class I was able to get to know people who are working at Eisen, and TEMA labs and had an opportunity to learn different research methods, while I become familiar with the lab facility and different equipment.
In this class I learned a lot of different research method such as: DNA Extraction, PCR, and Gel Electrophoresis. I experienced DNA, how we would use different methods to clean DNA and how through internet we would we do DNA Sequencing of that cleaned up DNA. I also learned that very small errors could mess up our research and we would have to start from the beginning, which teaches that precision is very important in research. Another thing I learned from this class is that mistakes happen, our experiments can go wrong, and expected results are not always possible but we shouldn’t give up on our research but instead should keep trying until we get the desired outcome. Research is all about determination, hard work and grit.