That’s a Wrap! by Sam Furey

Hi! This is my final post as this TRIP session has come to a close, so I’m just going to take the opportunity to talk about my experience in TRIP and talk about the project I worked on for the past few months.

So, I’m going to start by talking about how my independent project went. For my independent project, I decided to attempt to give some of my flies Type 2 Diabetes (through giving them extra sugar), and then try to counteract those effects by giving them cinnamon (which has been suggested to decrease blood sugar levels in humans). Then, I planned on testing the activity levels of my flies to try and see which has the greater effect. I predicted that the cinnamon would increase activity levels in both adult flies and their progeny, while the extra sugar would decrease both. Upon concluding my tests, I was able to determine that while cinnamon increased activity levels in adults, it decreases activity in the progeny, while sugar increased activity levels in both.
Before I end this post, I just want to talk a bit about my experience in TRIP. This experience has been incredibly interesting, and I’ve learned a lot about various lab techniques and learned what it’s like to work in a lab environment, which was one of the reasons why I applied. While some parts of the course were more challenging than others (especially at the beginning when I was getting used to all the new equipment and new techniques), the instructors and other students in the course were all very helpful, and I was able to figure out everything in the end. If you have any interest in science or lab research, this course will definitely help you in furthering your knowledge of those fields, and is a great experience!