My Thirteenth Week as a Senior

This week has been one of the best ones yet. It has been full of fun and excitement. I want all my weeks to be as funfilled and exciting as this one.

Monday was a day of learning. In Sociology, we talked about how technology is increasing social isolation. We also discussed the social scientific theories of technology. In Biology, we studied the first two steps of DNA replication: Strand Separation and Building Complementary Strands. It’s fascinating to think about how our cells manage such sophisticated and complex processes. The concept of single-strand binding proteins blows my mind. The nucleus really went “oh, these strands need to stay separated. Let me introduce these awesome proteins.”? In Chemistry, we learnt about the rate law. It’s purpose still seems a bit unclear to me, but we’ll figure it out. In Math, we had a test for Chapter 7, Trigonometric Identities.

Tuesday was the last late start we’ll have for a while. In Biology, we continued discussing how complementary strands are built. In Sociology, we took up some terms specific to technology from a sociological point of view, like technosis, future shock mass culture etc. In Math, we started a new unit, Logarithms, which is by far the easiest chapter I have had to do. It’s not a simple chapter, but there’s something about it that makes me feel like I know what I’m doing. In Chemistry, we continued to reaction mechanisms. It’s this concept that a reaction usually has more than one step and the rate of this reaction is only as fast as its slowest step.

Wednesday was an awesome day. In Sociology, we got an assignment for the biggest and last tutorial of this year. Instead of doing just one article, we will be doing 4. And we must find 3 of them ourselves. The article my partner and I chose revolves around how our parents are just as addicted to their phones, if not more, as we are. At lunch, we officially sold all our Semi-Formal tickets. SWLCI students that have bought a ticket but can’t come to Semi for any reason, please get a refund for your ticket latest by Monday. In Chemistry, we had a study period. Our teacher asked me to go to all the Science classes and promote Science Peer Tutoring. Anybody that is having any trouble with any of the sciences can come to Room 214 at lunch on Thursdays for help from some awesome Grade 12 students. In Math, we continued with 8.1, Exploring the Logarithmic Function.

Thursday was a pretty chill day. We had supplies for Biology and Sociology, so I took the time to finish all my homework for the weekend. It was mostly Biology worksheets and review sheets for the quiz on Monday. At lunch, we had an SAC meeting about the Semi-Formal. In Math, we discussed 8.2, Transformations of Logarithmic Functions. In Chemistry, we started the next unit, Equilibrium. The lesson was quite short, so our teacher played an episode of Patriot Act, the fast fashion one. It was eye-opening, but I don’t really buy clothes from brands that promote fast fashion, so I didn’t feel personally attacked.

Friday was the best day of the week. We had a trip to the Ontario Science Centre. There, we did a lab experiment called D1S80 Polymerized Chain Reactions. The first step of the process was to swab the inside of our cheeks. We put our cells in a medium called Chelex. Our tiny tubes were put in a machine called ‘Thermocycler’ that cycled between different temperatures. This was to promote cell lysis and the rupture of the nuclear membrane, so we could get access to the DNA. After that, our DNA samples went in a centrifuge to be separated from the cell sediment and Chelex. While this was happening, we prepared our own mixture of primers and polymerases with micropipettes. We used Taq polymerase, which is extracted from thermophiles that can withstand temperatures our own enzymes can’t. We then got our DNA samples back, and with micropipettes, we mixed the supernatant with the mixtures we had earlier made. I believe these mixes went back into the thermocycler, where the temperature cycled between 95°C to 65°C to 72°C for 30 cycles. This created billions of copies of our DNA molecules.

At lunch, we took the time to explore the Science Centre. The exhibits were so cool to look at without the rush of getting answers for a worksheet, like the previous trip I had. When we got back, our samples were ready to be placed in gel cassettes for gel electrophoresis. It’s a type of high-end electrolysis to break down our DNA samples into smaller examinable pieces. Once the process was over, they were “developed” like a photograph, in a dark room. We were shooed out of the room. So, we further explored the Science Centre. The last leg of the activity was to examine our results and see how common our D1S80 sequence was. Mine is 1 in 3335 people. The most common it can be is about 1 in 9 people, so I felt like my result was pretty cool and special. Our instructor’s genotypic frequency for D1S80 was 1 in 200,000. Talk about rare. It was a fantastic day; a day to remember.

I really hope your week was just as good as mine. You can get in touch with me by emailing me at rueshi25@gmail.com. -Aarushi