Yesterday morning Dr. Knisley came and lectured to us about neurons and some of their properties. Then we had homework time to work on the galla nation project. Lunch. More homework time, and then Dr. Helfgott came to lecture. We went over exponential functions and logarithms. Then the class worked some problems similar to the ones in demonstrated in his lecture. Dinner. Raquetball. MRN. sleep.

Yesterday morning Dr. Godbole lectured about Binomial Distribution. He gave us some formulas for approximating factorials of large numbers. One of the homework problems he gave us was really long. It was almost as if he had left out some information in the problem. We could solve it, it just took us half an hour to do it. We went to Olive Garden for lunch. Then Leanna's brother talked about some of the research he is involved in. He is trying to find an organism that will produce ethanol more effeciently and make the production of ethanol a one step process. In his research, he has classified a variety of aerobic and anaerobic organisms to see which organism could possibly do the job best. Then another speaker was scheduled to come, but we had the wrong time, so everyone left before he came. I stayed behind to finish Harry Potter because I was in the middle of the climax, so I heard the complication. We went to the CPA to play raquetball for a few minutes. We ate dinner, and then had a homework powwow. Bed.

This morning Dr. Godbole talked to us about probability of combinations of alleles and how to calculate them. He gave us some homework problems to work on. Lunch. I read a little bit more of Harry Potter before I went back to class. Then the biology majors went to advisement while the math majors went off to do whatever math majors do. Dr. miller talked to us Bio majors and answered any questions we had about our schedules. We then migrated back to Gilbreth to listen to Dr. Joplin explain his research. He is working on the isolation of diapause genes using microarrays. He said he has a lot of projects he is looking for people to help out with. It sounds like a good opportunity to get research experience as an undergrad. Then Kelly Harrison came and lectured to us about the evolution of cooperation in a society. We are going to the CPA this evening sometime to play soccer. Then dinner. Then sleep.

This morning Dr. Godbole lectured about probability distributions in a genetic context. He talked mostly about the probability of inheriting certain traits from parents, and how to figure it out mathematically. He gave us a couple of homework problems to do and to find examples of Simpson's paradox online. We had lunch and then I went back to the dorm to read Harry Potter and climb a tree for a few minutes. Then we all went back to class to listen to Dr. Zavada's lecture. He talked with us about our futures and what we plan to do with them.

On thursday morning, Dr.Miller went over the homework. Apparently, the reason certain questions were hard to find was because the database had been reformatted recently. After the lecture Everyone cracked down hard on the homework assingments we had, because they were starting to build up. Then Dr. Yampolsky came in and assigned us a group project to prove that our ancestors came from Africa. It took us a while to coordinate the project, but once we got that worked out it went smoothly. lunch. Then we went to the the quantitative biology conference at the Carneige hotel. They talked about what teaching methods were the most effective in the classroom. Then we went to Fun Expedition to play Putt-putt. The course was indoor, and half under black lights. Emily, Amanda, Lauren, and I found some glow in the dark paint that was still wet. So, we used it in a similar fashion to war paint. We emerged from the course with flourescent green and red paint all over our faces. Then we went to TCBY and got ice cream. We came back and I went to bed.

Dr. Miller showed us how to use the Ncbi database on Wednesday morning. It is a database of different genes and what they correspond to in different species. He gave us homework involving the website he introduced to us. Dr. Yampolsky asked us to read our Evolutionary Dynamics books through chapter 4. We ate lunch at the culp center. Later we all got on the database and looked up the homework. Some of the questions were difficult to find. I had to wait until the next day to compare answerswith everyone else.

Yestrday after lunch, Dr. Helfgott reviewed algebra concepts. We ate dinner and then went to Leanna's to decorate for the surprise party for joe's Birthday while Joe, Jeremy, Stefan and Wes were climbing. We ate cake and had lots of fun. Then we almost got lost on the way back to the dorms.
Tuesday:
Dr. Miller lectured this morning on the composition and mapping of genes. Lunch. I walked around campus and got a Tri- Cities phone book to see if there were any churches nearby. Dr. Karsai and Dr. Schmickl talked to us this afternoon about their research. Dr. Karsai's topic sounded intriguing. Computer time. This afternoon we are going to have a raquetball tournament in the mini-dome. Should be fun.