The Conclusion by Serena Kothari

So much has happened in the last couple of weeks. It seems like just yesterday we were walking into this small classroom with no knowledge of how to conduct experiments or how to work with fruit flies. Back then, fruit flies were these tiny little insects that liked to populate my house. In thirteen weeks, I have learned so much about these extraordinary organisms and realized why fruit flies have been used in countless studies. This program taught me how to experimentally and successfully work with fruit flies to get applicable results to humans.

After finishing the mini-experiments, we began to think about ideas for our independent projects. The mini-experiments were the perfect way to both teach how to experiment with flies but also how to properly analyze scientific data. When it came to creating our independent projects, the ideas were limitless. And no idea was too big to run. For example, I chose to vape fruit flies to look at its effects on activity and fertility. Since flies cannot physically vape, I had to come up with a way to engineer a device to forcefully vape fruit flies. Thanks to the help of the TRIP directors, we managed to create a way to manually, measurably, and safely vape fruit flies.

I still cannot believe that this program is over! I have made so many friends and conducted experiments beyond my wildest dreams. I have both learned and grown from this program and it was one of the best ways to break away from studying and do something fun. Thank you to everyone who helped me on this journey and made my experiments possible.