Meredith's Journal

 

 

    12/3/07:

    In class we talked about the project with Miss Jansen. She explained that we would be doing research on our bacteria and constructing this web page. I'm really in a state of panic on making a timeline of our progress and stuff. I don't understand the format, and I'm brainstorming really hard on how to organize what we're doing. The website skin won't change colors, so we're stuck with whatever lame skins are already there as they are.

    I'm really unsure also on how to do this actual journal that I'm writing. I really just guessed on what I'm supposed to be writing about and I decided to go with it. I feel as though at some point I'm going to have a mental breakdown and panic attack of some sort, but I'm really hoping that doesn't happen because that would make the work twice as hard and time-consuming.

 

    12/4/07:

    Today in class we started talking a bit about how to organize our websites to best suit the assignment and site content. Miss Tucker suggested we use the sidebar to its fullest extent and to organize it well. I've already done that now and I plan to continue doing that as we add the pages to the site. I'm really hoping that the layout turns out well and gets us a good grade.

    On our timeline, we said tonight and today in class was time for initial research, nothing really specific. I've found two really good sites so far, and I'm going to keep looking tomorrow to hopefully have a total of 4 when I'm done. At this point I'm pretty confident that we'll do fine on the assignment. However, the one thing I am a tad worried about is the "above and beyond" aspect of the project. There's not much that either of us can do that's amazingly cool that could get us extra "wow" points like a game or a flash animation. So if anything, I'm worried about that.

 

    12/5/07:

    Today in class we went over how to evaluate information from the free web, aka, websites outside of the subscription databases that we've been using. Miss Jansen gave us a bunch of examples of untrustworthy websites. One of them was a site about MLK. The creepy part about it was that the sponsor of the site was a white supremacy group. The information was all biased and untrue. It showed us that we always should check who SPONSORS the site, who WROTE the site, and what SOURCES they used. I think I learned a good deal about how to evaluate the free web, and it should help a lot when I continue my research.

    Tonight, I have no work to do for the most part. We scheduled it so that tonight I can be off for volleyball practice and Gareth will be doing research and notes. If I do have extra time, however, I'll be finding more sources for us to use so that we have enough information, because at this point I think we only have 2 or 3 sites to work off of. That's a bit concerning to me, but it's ok and I think we'll end up fine as long as we buckle down and do the work right.

 

    12/6/07:

    Tonight I tried to find more sources for our project, and Gareth has the night off because I had practice last night. Specifically, I was looking for things on Nutrition and Structure, but I couldn't find anything at all that was relevant. Everything I found was either really complicated to understand or in codes that I had never ever seen before. A lot of it was about the genetic code and such things. I wish I could just find some websites with more straight up information.

    In class was the same story. We didn't find ANYTHING about the structure, physiology, or anything like that. We spent the longest time looking on the free web and the databases. The databases keep coming back with no results found, which really worries me. Nobody else that I've talked to can seem to find anything on their bacteria either. I think I'm going to try and get some people together to go to the UT library and research there or something.

 

 

    12/7/07:

    Today in class we did a lab with antibiotics. We put Staph epi and E. coli on auger in petri dishes, and then placed antibiotic disks on the auger as well to see how well the antibiotic kills the bacteria. We did a pre-lab on the work with some questions and what not to answer, and we will be finishing the project on Monday. Because we did the lab, we didn't have time to work in class, but that's ok.

    This weekend I'm supposed to continue researching our bacteria and find as many more sources as possible so we can start to make the pages and stuff. It's been hard finding anything on structure and physiology, so I think I'll try using the biology book to describe structure and what not.

 

    12/8/07:

    Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to work today because of a volleyball tournament that took up my entire morning and half my afternoon, and a family dinner that took up my evening. I'm going to look in the biology book tonight to get any information possible to use about structure and physiology of our bacteria. A majority of my work will have to be done tomorrow though, because it's almost time for me to go to bed.

    The plan for tomorrow is to find 2 more internet sources, and maybe a book source or article somewhere. I don't know where or how to find it and, though I wasn't before, I am panicked now. We can't find any good sources on the important things we need to know, which is BAD. I'm worried about how we're going to do on this because of our lack of vital elements to the project.

 

    12/9/07:

    Today I looked through every single search engine on the library web page again. I went through Gale, Encyclopedia Brytannica, NetTrekker, the lot, and every single one came back with nil on what I needed. Some just came back with no results period. I decided to try Google again and I found one pretty good magazine article that I think was helpful. I took notes on it on my notes page. I think the only thing that we might have trouble with is finding a good explanation of structure and physiology. Neither of us have found that.

    Tomorrow in class we'll, hopefully, be able to talk a bit more about our project and make some decisions on outlining the pages and what not. We're going to start putting the information in by tomorrow at least if we hope to finish on time. I'm still pretty ticked that we can't find anything on structure and physiology...

 

    12/10/07:

    Today in class we finished up our lab about antibiotic resistance and answered all the questions. It turned out that the staph infection didn't grow at all on the dishes, so we spent most of class trying to figure out a reason why. I printed up all my work for the lab and I'm turning it tomorrow.

    Tonight was rather stressful. We need to outline our pages, but haven't gotten to. Tomorrow is a work day, so I think that's when we'll outline the pages and assign who is going to write each one. Hopefully we'll get it done so that we can each get our pages written up. I don't know how well we'll do with time though. Maybe we can work during free period.

 

    12/11/07:

    Today in class we had a work day to do whatever was necessary to get the ball rolling. We got to working on the introduction page and the Malolactic fermentation. Gareth did the introduction, and I did the malolactic fermentation one. I got about 2 paragraphs done during class, which wasn't much admittedly.

    When I got home after school, I finished the malolactic fermentation page, and added a picture of wine barrels for aesthetics. Gareth says he'll have the introduction done by tomorrow. If that's the case, then we'll be in great shape and be done by Friday-ish. We'll see though.

 

    12/12/07:

    Today in class we were supposed to start on a new lab. I however, did not do the pre-lab. I completely forget it actually. During class, I had to go the library to work on the pre-lab, as did Gareth and Jose. Gareth seemed to be really unwell today though. He wasn't really speaking clearly, and he said his head hurt really badly. It seemed like he would fall asleep any minute. On top  of that, the Introduction page isn't done. I really hope he doesn't get sick, that would detrimental.

    Tonight, I'm doing the Structure and Function page, and all the website evaluations. Hopefully, those won't take too long. I have about 6 of them or so to do before Sunday. Oh gracious, those are tedious. I need to get all this work done fast though. My sister comes home from college tomorrow night, and that means, for sure, that I have to have little to no work because we'll be going to a nice dinner of some sort. Stress is really starting to rebuild around this time. There's so much to do in so little time.

 

    12/13/07:

    Today in class we worked on the lab again. It was really not that bad, pretty simple, just time-consuming. We're supposed to go over the questions and such in class tomorrow so we can work on how to answer them and whatnot. I already did a few of them though, so that's good. We didn't talk about the website though.

    Our website is so close to being done. We just have some small details to work on and it'll be perfect. I'm thinking about making a front page graphic with photoshop so that it'll look nice.

 

    12/14/07:

    Today in class Miss Tucker went over all the information that we'll need on our website, and she went over what we need to put on our audience evaluation sheets. I made it while she was talking so that I wouldn't forget anything about it. That's taken care of.

    I'm going to finalize our website tonight and do all the editing necessary. I'm going to make sure the layout is consistent and nice and clean looking so that we won't get points off for that. Hopefully I'll be totally done by Saturday so that I can just send it in on Sunday.

 

    12/15/07:

    Today I did the last of the editing for the site. I also just finished writing up a presentation that me and Gareth can read from as we go through our web page and show it to the class. Hopefully it'll go pretty smoothly. I'm not big on making presentations and when I give them I get kind of shakey and nervous. Thankfully it's our class not a different one.

    Tomorrow is the big day. I get to send in the link all done and pretty. Hopefully we'll get a good grade, but I'm pretty nervous about it. I've never made a website before, and I'm really hoping I didn't do anything wrong. I do have the nice homepage graphic I made with photoshop though, and hopefully that'll get me some extra credit points. All I can do now is pray that nothing is wrong after all that editing.

 

    12/16/07:

    I'm just about ready to mail this thing in to Miss Tucker and Miss Jansen. I'm just waiting for Gareth to finish doing his journal entries that he forgot to do or something. I can't send it in until he does that, but if he doesn't get it done, I'm not going wait too long. I go to volleyball practice at 3 and it goes til 5.

    If I don't mail it in before volleyball practice, then I can't mail it in at all and I have the audience evaluation, Gareth doesn't, so he can't mail it in. Hopefully he'll finish up those journal entries so I can email this and finally be done.