What a TRIP So Far by Mason Matich

Hello, my name is Mason Matich and I’m a Sophomore at Central Bucks High School East. I was born in Atlanta but moved to the suburbs in Pennsylvania when I was three and I’ve been here ever since. I’m currently a member of World Affairs at East, as well as the public relations officer for our STEM research club, which helps students participate in local and regional science fairs. I love doing science fairs, and I’ve been participating since 8th grade. This year will be my third project. Outside of school, I like to read, write short stories, and work on learning 3D animation. 

I applied to TRIP because I wanted to learn more about laboratory research and procedures as it’s an area I don’t have a lot of experience in. I was also looking to improve my presentation skills for my science fair projects as well as in my career. Right now, I’m thinking of becoming an engineer with a focus on biomimicry, though I do also have an interest in laboratory science, so who knows!

So far, TRIP has been an absolutely amazing experience. Over the last three weeks, we have learned how to make fly food and grape plates as well as how to sort them on CO2, which I’m starting to get good at (sorry tube #4). We’ve also started to learn about assays for our independent projects. Next week we have presentations for our current projects, so I’m trying to get all my data together, but I won’t have it all until next week, which is why I’m probably going to avoid an experiment that requires the fertility assay. Too much waiting for data. That and there’s two hours of nothing in between putting the flies in a collection cage and frantically counting embryos and sorting the adults. Not very fun. I feel like I’ve gotten to know Dr. Purdy, Dr. Leystra, and the other members a lot more over the past three weeks. According to Dr. Purdy, the morning sessions are usually pretty low energy, and I think we’ve nailed that expectation so far. I’m looking forward to starting my research project soon, and hopefully my presentation next week goes well (and that Dr. Purdy doesn’t have to take away the clicker).