My First Day of TRIP By Margot Burstyn

Hi! I'm Margot Burstyn and I am a senior at Abington Senior High School. I'm involved with TRIP because I love science, especially biology and chemistry. The idea of doing research with living things really excites me. I am especially excited to design and conduct my own research experiment. Since I was in 8th grade, I have known that I want to be an astrobiologist when I grow up.
In my spare time, I do Muay Thai (a martial art) and go to the gym. I have two orange cats - Garcia and Bowie, and I have a bull terrier named Dino. I have been drumming since I was 7 or 8, until recently when I stopped to prioritize Muay Thai and the gym. Drumming used to be my favorite hobby, though, and I was in the M3 (Modern Music Makers) Touring Bands my freshman and sophomore years of high school. I also practiced and performed in over five other bands/groups, encompassing genres like goth, punk rock, post-hardcore, shoegaze, and indie. The picture of me drumming on this blog was taken at my last concert with M3, in my band called Detour. My favorite style of music is any type of rock, but especially emo, punk, and grunge. I do listen to all genres of music though. My favorite bands/artists right now are Pierce the Veil, Big Thief, Adrianne Lenker, Deftones, and Paramore.

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Yesterday was the first day of TRIP, and it was super fun! Everyone there is really nice. In the first session, we did icebreakers, ate donuts, learned how to use the micropipettes, and made fly food with and without the drugs we are testing for the kickoff experiment. My research question for the kickoff experiment is: Do circadian rhythms affect fly sociability? Can diet protect against disruption of the light/dark cycle? The drug I am using is melatonin, and my stressor is darkness. Then we took home one vial of flies each to observe and take notes on them for a week. All the lab equipment is super fascinating and unlike anything I have seen or used before. I am very excited for the next session!
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