Friday, July 10, 2009

Field Trip!!!!!

Today was certainly an exciting day! We have our first and last field trip with our chemistry class. We actually had the opportunity to visit the Westchester County Department of Laboratories and Research thanks to professor Avila who arranged this whole trip for us.

This trip was very helpful in allowing me to explore other careers along the science path.
I personally enjoyed the Microbiological Services department especially because it involved more biology then chemistry. What a Microbiologist does is that they test samples that come from hospitals all over Westchester County to provide identification of infectious pathogenic bacteria. So to sum it all up what they basically do is that they receive samples from patients to to confirm if that certain patient has the bacteria they are looking for. Then there was Parasitology which mainly identifies parasites from clinical specimens. One type of Parasite that live in the human body and actually got the chance to see today was a tapeworm which was collected from an actual patient.(It was so cool and disturbing at the same time, but I still liked the demonstration.)

As the day went by I realized that most of the presentations somehow involved the water supply of New York City. So when water samples are taken from rivers, lakes, and even from people's homes they are taken to the laboratory to be tested tested for bacteria, lead, and other harmful organisms that might harm the environment and human health. If something is found in the water sample, the laboratory immediately inform the people who need to be informed to solve the problem. Being able to work in the field of biology that doesn't involve hard core chemistry and helps improve the environment and public health seems like the perfect job for me.

Well I am off to bed because tomorrow we are off to UPENN!!

1 comment:

Don Gosney said...

Sofia,

To the untrained eye it might seem that you all are away from school as much as you're actually at school. Field trips to UPenn, chem labs, Ellis Island, Ground Zero and the beach? Is that why your class is making so much aspirin? To treat all of the headaches from having so much fun?

How do I sign up for summer trips like this?

Hope you enjoy UPenn on Saturday. That should be a blast--even without the aspirin.

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