Reflection

Throughout this project, I expanded my knowledge on the current debate surrounding herbicides and learned valuable cell culture skills. I previously was unaware of the polarizing debate between the EPA and WHO and now better understand where the debate surrounding GBHs originated from. I became more familiar with various technologies like a microplate reader, aspirator, and autoclave, which will be helpful for working in a lab in the future. I learned cell culture protocols, which will prepare me to study cellular biology and conduct more scientific research in college. 

After writing my research paper and delivering my presentation, I feel as though I've improved my writing skills. I was able to practice determining how to best explain complex topics to my audience and create a logical conclusion using the current scholarly conversation. The paper and presentation challenged me and allowed me to gain high level research skills. These will come in handy in college when writing similar academic papers.

I feel as though I've grown mentally in addition to academically. I further developed my problem solving skills after repeatedly facing road blocks. I also feel like I am more resilient and have a better attitude about facing challenges and failures. I was able to realize that mistakes and failures are part of the learning/research process and are actually just as beneficial for an experiment. These skills allow me to better solve problems and challenges in the future. 

Acknowledgements

The author of this paper would like to thank Susanne Petri, the Principal Investigator of the Rock Canyon Biotechnology Lab for her valuable insight throughout this project and for allowing them to utilize her lab for this experiment. Specifically, she helped answer questions about how to use certain equipment and linked them to some helpful resources for learning cell culture. The author would also like to thank Andrew Neumann, a PhD student at University of Colorado Anschutz, as he assisted them as their expert advisor. He generously donated the NIH3T3 cells used in this project and gave beneficial feedback and advice about possible errors in methodology when cell death was repeatedly occurring. They would like to thank ThermoFisher Scientific for their generous discount on the CellROX Green Reagent assay as well as the cell culture media components. ThermoFisher Scientific customer service representatives were also extremely helpful by answering questions about the CellROX products to discern which product was best for this experiment and provided more specific protocols for using a 96 well plate. They would like to thank AP Research instructors, Nikki Dobos and Bryan McBride, for their ongoing support throughout this project and aiding them in the inquiry process. Lastly, they would like to thank Gaven Giaque for access to his paper published last year that utilized NIH3T3 cells, and for his instruction on how to use certain laboratory equipment.