Week Three: The Anticipation Builds


 This week has been a bit of a whirlwind when it comes to the amount of homework I have had. However I am also anxiously awaiting for next week as an opportunity to present our micro plastics research from last semester has come up! 

The opportunity is an NSF dinner and informal presentation of our posters on valentines day next week. This has brought with it my first time having to write an abstract and prepare to present mostly on my own for all of our group work. I am meeting with Dr. Cotter tomorrow to write the abstract and prepare for the event. It should be quite a great experience to add to my belt! 

In addition to that exciting opportunity I have been laying the ground work for what my research will look like this semester. After deciding to focus on the possible solutions for micro plastic removal during the water treatment process I had the idea to see if I could gather some water samples from a reverse osmosis water treatment facility. The one in question is Scottsdale and I have made an inquiry through Dr. Cotter to see if there was a way to do that this semester. I chose that as it seems to be the most effective removal tool that is in use for commercial water treatment. I won't know the efficiency for sure until samples are collected. So I am hoping that opportunity arises. 

Other than that I will also be doing some control work to see how effective our water filtration process is that we use in the lab. I will be creating some experiments to see how many micro plastics are still remaining in our water samples after filtering to see if we need to implement any changes to the process we are currently using. 

All in all, there is a lot to be excited about in the weeks to come. I am filled with anticipation and cannot wait to see where all of this takes me as the semester progresses forward!




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