TRIP INITIATIVE
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Donate
    • FAQs - Summer TRIP
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • ALUMNI GALLERY
    • Ursinus 2015
    • Temple 2015
    • WTHS 2016
    • Temple 2016
    • WTHS 2017
    • Temple 2017
    • WTHS 2018
    • Temple 2018
    • WTHS 2019
    • Temple 2019
    • WTHS 2020
    • WTHS 2021
    • Temple 2021
    • WTHS 2022
    • Temple 2022
    • WTHS 2023
    • WTHS 2024
    • WTHS 2025
  • WTHS'25 Symposium
    • WTHS'25 Symposium Schedule >
      • Session A Schedule
      • Session B Schedule
  • Donate

Regular updates from students in TRIP

Questions and Answers by Kat Sliwa

9/2/2021

0 Comments

 
When TRIP started, I was excited to do my own research project, but I had a few lingering fears. Would I be too terrified of the flies to actually work with them? Would I know what to do? Would I even like being in the lab? I discovered early on that fruit flies aren’t that scary, especially when they’re knocked out but my other questions, however, had slightly more complicated answers. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
For my independent project, I decided to study if ginger and short-term cold exposure could reduce pain in injured fruit flies. I would injure some flies, drug some with ginger, and expose some to cold immediately before running assays. I decided on the Negative Geotaxis assay to determine how well my flies were feeling overall and the Pain Sensitivity assay to measure how pain-sensitive my flies were.
​After planning my experiment with Dr. Leystra and some of my TRIP peers, I felt like I knew exactly what I was going to do. But when I sat down to write my weekly plan to start my experiment, I drew a blank. I didn’t know how to do any of the assays I wanted to do, how to make any of the drug stocks I would need, the exact method of cold exposure for my flies, or even how to injure my flies. Luckily, between the online resources provided by TRIP, help from Dr. Leystra, and thinking on the spot, I was able to work out all the details. I didn’t realize it going into TRIP, but being flexible and quickly adapting to necessary changes in my independent project were some of the most essential skills required for research that I learned. Not knowing what to do actually turned out to be a good thing; it really taught me to use my resources and quickly find solutions to problems I encountered.
Picture
As to whether or not I liked being in the lab, the answer is an absolute YES! I enjoyed lab work even more than I ever imagined. TRIP truly felt like a safe environment where I could learn, try, and fail amongst all my peers. Yes, sometimes it was hard; the math isn’t always the easiest, and sometimes things will go wrong, but that’s all ok. Struggles are always a part of TRIP and science in general. Overall, I feel like I have learned so much in just ten days, and I can’t believe TRIP is already over. And even though I’m sad my project is coming to a close, I’m excited to see what kind of research I will do in the future, thanks to my experience at TRIP.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    August 2017
    July 2017

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Blog 1: Introductions!
    Blog 2: Planning An Independent Project
    Blog 3: Reflections

Thank you to our donors for making our mission possible through your generous support.
Picture

Company

About
Fox Chase Cancer Center

Support

Contact
​Menu
WEBSITE DESIGN INFORMATION:
The TRIP Initiative website was built by Alesandra (Sasha) Temerte (TRIP@TU'17 alum) ​ and Charity Robbins (TRIP@TU'22) and is not a product of Fox Chase Cancer Center
© COPYRIGHT 2023. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
WEBSITE DESIGN BY ALESANDRA SASHA TEMERTE & CHARITY ROBBINS
LOGO DESIGN BY ARNAV DHINGRA
Photo from NIH-NCATS
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Donate
    • FAQs - Summer TRIP
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • ALUMNI GALLERY
    • Ursinus 2015
    • Temple 2015
    • WTHS 2016
    • Temple 2016
    • WTHS 2017
    • Temple 2017
    • WTHS 2018
    • Temple 2018
    • WTHS 2019
    • Temple 2019
    • WTHS 2020
    • WTHS 2021
    • Temple 2021
    • WTHS 2022
    • Temple 2022
    • WTHS 2023
    • WTHS 2024
    • WTHS 2025
  • WTHS'25 Symposium
    • WTHS'25 Symposium Schedule >
      • Session A Schedule
      • Session B Schedule
  • Donate