TRAIN Scholar Steven Gonzalez's Blog

Throughout this week, I dedicated myself to revising and finalizing my research paper. Now that I have completed it, I feel a sense of relief and accomplishment. Prior to starting this program, I had no knowledge of research or how to approach it. So I am very grateful for this experience and for everything that I have learned along the way. Now, I am fully focused on finishing the semester on a high note. I am hoping that I will be able to finish the semester with all A's, but that is going to come down to how I do on my finals. So now it is just going to be study, study, study until finals. Congrats to everyone for almost making it through the semester and best of luck with finals!    

  This week I used the data we collected over the semester to see what conclusions can be drawn. With limited data points and some outlier readings that are skewing things a bit, it has been hard to draw any concrete conclusions. Will continue to collect more data over the coming weeks in hopes that it helps draw a clearer picture. Outside of research, things have definitely kicked in to high gear in my classes as the semester starts to draw to an end. It feels like I am just moving from one deadline to another, trying to keep up with everything. Needless to say, from here on out till the end of the semester, I expect to have my hands full with my classes + this research project. So just trying to hang in there and hopefully finish the semester with good grades as well as doing a good job with this research project.

  It is crazy that this semester is almost wrapping up. This week I continued to collect ECG readings to add to our data. Unfortunately, we are still having issues when trying to export our readings onto the computer. Thankfully, Josh had me create a Google spreadsheet to keep a record of the most important data (max potential/ECG readings) along with other data points such as conditions that might be affecting our readings. Unfortunately, the tomato plants did not grow enough to be able to run our test as initially planned. Although Josh did warn me earlier in the semester that there is always the possibility my plants do not germinate/grow in time. In conducting research, you can never know what to expect. Thankfully, the readings we collected from the mature aloe plants throughout the semester should will give me some interesting information to analyze and revolve my research project around.