Behold My Weakness for It Is Strength in Development

I have been trying to enroll in my three credit course for the internship and Honors Program this whole week, but I have to wait for the Dean's Signature until then. Amanda, furthermore, assured that it will be okay, so the weight of stress was lifted earlier today. I, also, been trying to work on my poster at the same time for the conference, and the data strongly argued with my past hypothesis of my abstract. I thought the highest concentrations were going to be around door handles and stairwell rails. Chart 1 below shows the fomites I swabbed and arranged in order from highest to lowest.

Chart 1. The Bar graph from left to right shows the highest concentration of fomites based on average CFU's that were quantified by counting each one.

If this is my observation and prediction of possible concentrated germs, the student body on campus probably has a similar guess of where not to touch also. I realized that I need to further understand the variations of janitorial cleaning schedules, cleaning agents he/she uses, and the microbial requirements for growth in later similar experiments. For example, oxygen, temperature, osmotic, and pH are just a few requirements for agents to grow. I can, also, observe and note the area fomites are being harvested at. The elevator buttons on campus, for instance, had metal steel groves and some had smooth plastic glass like surfaces. Research the possible surfaces that microbes thrive in like metal, wood, plastic, and other surfaces. Although I didn’t include in the chart the latest swabbing of lab workbenches of the DB building, I notice that the TSA plates had very few CFU’s growing. I concluded that the result of these samples was low because the instructors always insures proper aseptic techniques like washing the benches before and after each use.

I look forward to swabbing the cafeteria tables with either josh or matt for further confusion. Bathroom handles and faucets are still in consideration, but the time being consumed has been for the enrolling in class for the internship. Furthermore, the poster needs to be submitted by next Monday before 12pm to my understanding. I really don’t like doing the “poster” because it is, basically, a lab report. The research seems to be coming to a halt, and the fun part of an experiment is over. On the other hand, the boring part of typing up the lab report or poster is of concern for the next few days.

I would, furthermore, recommend the Calculus the Musical in the Hall of Freshman Square. It was enjoyable if you’re a math nerd.