August 25, 2004 - Today was the first day of ENT 5984: Research and Information
Systems in the Life Sciences. Today was like any other first day of class when the
professors (Dr. Mullins and Dr. Brewster) went of the class syllabus, the schedule of the
class, grading, and a gerneral overview of what information technology is and what we
can use it for. The class was also assigned a reading assignment called history of biology
and the Land grant system off the course website. **Back to Top**
September 1, 2004 - Today's lecture was entilted "Information Technology and Science".
I learned about what IT is and how it can work for me. We talked about the internet and
the power that it already has and the internet's potential in the future. I learned about the
land grant system and the different acts that took place to make Virginia Tech a land
grant unvirsity. Two assignments were givin to read of the RIS website: 1) History of the
Internet, and 2) How the Internet Works... It was suggested to read these as some of this
material may appear on tests.**Back to Top**
September 8, 2004 - Dr. Mullins presents a lecture scientific method. The lecture began
with a history of science, then moved towards the steps used develop a scientific project.
This was an important lecture in that all the steps that were outlined should be followed
before any research begins. The steps that were outlined are:
1). State the objective 2). Assemble the facts 3). Organize the facts 4). Propose a likely
solution 5). Test the solution 6). Sell results (take action). **Back to Top**
September 15, 2004 - Today lecture title was "Good Laboratroy Practices" and was
presented by Ms. Jean Cobb. I was never exposed to GLP's before, so this lecture was
very interesting because it showed all the steps necessary to operate under GLP. I found
that if you make all practices part the daily routine, they were not as difficult to comply
with. GLP's may be difficult to incorporate into the research that I am currently doing,
but I am looking forward to try and incorporate GLP as best as I can. GLP will just
enhance the data we collect and the conclusions that we make based on results **Back to
Top**.
September 22, 2004 - Dr. Sue Tolin, a professor that works in my department, was a
guest lecturer in RIS today. She lectured about "Biological Compliance". It was a
interesting lecture, about how things changed ever since 9/11 attacks, biosecurity and
other things. She did an excellent job presenting the material. The material was sort of
dry but I felt that she got the point across. Biological compliance is an important subject
to talk about in todays society and is exspecially important for me because I am working
with transgenic material. I need to know the proper means of transporting the material
over the state or in throughout the country. **Back to Top**
September 29, 2004 - Today Dr. Mullins discussed aspects about "Scientific Writing". He
went into a introduction about how scientific writing was first invented during the cave
period and then began into how scientific writing will effect us. This was an important
lecture because we will all be writing some kind of scientific paper in the near future and
need to know how the write it properly. At the end of the lecture he gave us an
assignment to read the a paper about the scientfic method. Next class period we will be
discussing different attrabutes of the paper.**Back to Top**
October 6, 2004 - Today was a continuation of the "Scientific Writing". We discussed
what we read from the previous class and tried to make an understanding of the material
that was assigned. The reading was difficult and I needed to read the material more than
once to try and get a understanding. It really helped out that we discussed the material in
class. I felt that the discussion help me better understand the difference steps in scientific
writing. Scientific writing is a difficult task. As with anything it takes practice to make it
sound right. This lecture has shown me that scientific writing is not easy and I am
probably going to need a lot of help to produce a quality paper in the future.**Back to
Top**
October 13, 2004 - Dr. Brewster lectured today about "Designing Research Projecst".
Obvisouly this topic is extremly important because all of us will be designing a research
project of our thesis. He talk about steps involved in designing a project, consideration
that should be made, statisitcal analysis recomendations, and some other things that we
should use to make a proposal to a department head. **Back to Top**
October 20, 2004 - Today, Dr. Brewster talked about "Data Visualization and Analysis".
I enjoyed this lecture and feel that this material may be helpful in my future research
when I am writing and developing my finished thesis. He talked about how graphs can
greatly enhance you data to display it to people. He showed poorly disigned graphs, and
talked about the inability of a person to understand the data. He also showed how
different manipulation of data can change the appearance of the graph, and may not show
what you are trying to say. Remember, a picture is worht a 1000 words, we must make
sure we are displaying the proper picture. **Back to Top**
October 27, 2004 - MID-TERM EXAM - What more can you say. **Back to Top**
November 3, 2004 - "Teaching the Art of Lecturing" was the topic for today and was
presented by Dr. Fell. He talked about some basic techniques for lecturing: topics such as
time of preparation for a lecture, delivery, and organization. I feel that this presentation
helped me learn how to deliver a lecutre more effectively with or without visual aids.
**Back to Top**
November 8, 2004 - Today is Monday, class is normally not scheduled, but becasue of
the limited time that Dr. Salmon has this month the class was expected to attend an extra
lecture class. I normally would have been working on my website but I came to class
instead. I am glad that I did because I learned a lot about making a presentation.
Unfortunately, I was in Seattle giving a presentation without knowing what I know now. I
wish that this lecture would have been a week earlier. However, I could relate the the
points Dr. Salmon was trying to make. He talked about the difference between a 10 and
50 minute presentation, use of posters, adding humor, organization, and delivery. He also
mentioned some key diferences between giving a presentation and a lecture.**Back to
Top**
November 10, 2004 - Dr. Brewster talked about "Distance Education" today in class. It
was interesting to learn about all the various methods that univerisites are doing to try
and reach people who may not be able to attend. I also found it interesting all the
disadvantages and advantages that distance education can have on the community and
people. I think that distance education is a valuable tool, but it must be used by people
who can understand material and learn on their own. By taking some of the online tests
that Dr. Brewster showed in class is a good way of knowing if distance education is right
for you.**Back to Top**
November 17, 2004 - Dr. Tolin talked about Grant Writing today. This was an important
lecture because in the future we as graduate students will have to propose a grant in order
improve research. I have not really thought about any grant proposals yet, but I did find
this lecture helpful. I was not aware of the process or even the detail involved in
producing a grant proposal. I learned some of what goes on when proposal are submitted
and got a general idea of ways to increase a proposal acceptance. She also provided us
with some useful website that will be helpful when I decide to start a proposal procedure.
**Back to Top**
December 1, 2004 - Dr. Pfeiffer discussed ethical issues in research. My general idea of
ethics in research was basically not to lie about data and not to forge results. This lecture
showed me that there is so much more than just what I previously thought. He explained
a lot about publishings, copyrighting, citations, authorship, and animal issues. He also
discussed relations extensions agents, conflicts of intrest to the university, and briefly
talked about patents. He discussed a lot of material that was useful to understand. Ethics
in research is an important discussion and now I know a lot more about ethics than I did
when I started the day. **Back to Top**
December 3, 2004 - Today Dr. Nester talked about Intellectual Properties. When I was
reading the syllabus the other day and was wondering what exactly this leacture was
about. We learned about copyrights and patents. This was an interesting lecture because
there is always a potential for graduate students and professors to develop techniques and
machines that may be patented. I was not aware of the process involved in trying to
patent something. I had no idea about royalties, submission, or even the fact that Virginia
Tech would be part of the process. Dr. Nester did a good job explaining these issues and
provided us with websites and information to help us if we decide something should be
patented. Virginia Tech also has a department for this exact purpose and I will most
likely use this service in the future. **Back to Top**
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