Megan's Journal

Monday, December 3rd, 2007

    All we had to do today was make a timeline, which I thought was really easy to do. It feels good just to have gotten the project started and not have to worry about how to get this project started. Nate and I worked on it together, so we both know what we have to do to get this done and how we're going to go about doing it. We are really hoping we can get it done before the date it’s actually due, so we can have top quality and get a really good grade. For the timeline we planned out what we will both do each day and we including time for decorating and enhancing the web page. I think as long as we stick to the time line we will stay right on schedule and meet the goals we have for this assignment. This project seems pretty exhilarating, considering we get to use our lab tops and make a web page, which so far I'm pretty lost at home to go about doing the web page, but I'm sure I'll learn soon enough.

    I greatly dislike the journal part of this project. I think it takes away from what the overall goal is: to learn about bacteria. I can understand doing one paragraph per night, but it is extremely difficult to find topics to discuss in the journal. Plus it takes away from the time we could be using to work on our web page. I think it’s a waste of time and it’s not much fun either. I'm sure I will enjoy the overall project but the journal entries degrade the interesting factor of this project. If I'm supposed to write two paragraphs with 5-7 sentences what am I suppose to discuss? How Nate and I talked about the project? How I feel about Biology and bacteria? What the weathers like? I suppose I can say that our bacteria, Thermus Aquaticus, should be a very interesting bacteria to study and in general I am excited about not having a test and being able to focus on this web page.

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007

    Today I finally learned what Thermus Aquaticus really is. I was so impressed by all the amazing facts I learned about Thermus Aquaticus! I really love this bacteria and this project in general. It is turning out to be a lot more fun and interesting then I thought it would be. Last night I tried to find some good websites for Thermus Aquaticus and after trying for half an hour I found nothing! I then went to my dad for help; he really helped me enhance my skills using the given databases. I found awesome articles from newspapers, magazines, and articles just on the web. I really hope SOMEONE starts doing his part and working on the research!!!!! Anyway...... I really like this project, but I still think we shouldn't have to do these journal entries, because I spent an hour and half researching and taking notes and now this is taking me an extra half an hour.

    I totally was excited to find out that Thermus Aquaticus is found in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is one of my favorite national parks and to hear that such an amazing bacterium is found in one of my favorite places was really cool! Thermus Aquaticus is amazing in many aspects, including that researchers are finding it may be the cure to breast cancer, it may be able to be used as an environmentally safe gas, and it may be used to enhance plants, so they can survive in above average temperatures. I figure that Thermus Aquaticus is going to save the world! So I am really excited about continuing my research tonight and finding out even more about this amazing tiny living thing.

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

    Tonight I researched for another hour, but did not learn much new information. What I'm going to do is research a little more tomorrow night, but I won't be able to do much since I have a basketball gave in Llano and no study hall tomorrow. So far I've only used web sites from the subscription databases, but as I was scanning through the sites on the free web, I didn't see any obviously reliable sources. It's weird, I've found many articles on Thermus Aquaticus, but all the articles say generally the same thing. I still need to find out about the reproduction of out bacteria and some other things. I'm going to work very very incredibly hard on this, especially this weekend, so I am positive I will get an A on this major project.

    Besides being concerned about finding enough information on our bacteria I am also unsure of how to make our website spectacular. Hopefully Nate knows how to... Yikes and I was kind of mean to Nate today, saying he didn't do any research, when he probably did, but just couldn't find anything. I think once we complete this web site I'm going to post it on Google as a source about Thermus Aquaticus. I think if Nate and I do a good enough job we can create a reliable and helpful source of information for other people. I hope Thursday and Friday pass quickly, so I can get to work on my research and start creating pages of information. Only thirteen days till the break!!!!

Thursday, December 6th, 2007

    I'm so happy! This day has been very productive biology wise! All together I worked on research for about three hours today. I think I have just about completed all of the research that I am supposed to complete. I found this awesome science journal that had the answers to just about everything we wanted to know Thermus Aquaticus, so that was really cool. We had to drive to and from Llano today and so the whole hour and half long I took notes and completed my research. I also made a quiz on Word, so we can attach that to our webpage. I think I'm making good progress on this project and will work hard this weekend to enhance my work.

    I was also really glad that Nate was able to get the cool drawing of Thermus Aquaticus on our web page! I think it looks really awesome and it makes our page unique from other peoples. I plan to figure out other ways to make our page unique and interesting. Last night I was trying to figure out how to tell our information in an interesting, yet still get facts down. I think I will try to work on making a crossword puzzle and some other cool little things. I'm still pretty happy with how this project is going. As long as Nate and I stay on top of our work and do an exceptional job with the web page and such we should be directly on target for making an A.

Friday, December 7th, 2007 through Sunday, December 9th, 2007

    This weekend I worked on the home page and created the history page on our website. As long as we find out about the reproduction and classification by tomorrow I think we will be right on track. I've really been pressuring Nate to do more for this project! Hahaha Anyway, I made a really cool little word play thing on the home page that is pretty sweet. I think it’s a good little intro on the home page, but doesn't give all of our information. I also made all the little links onto other pages and put the titles on. This weekend I probably spent about two and a half to three hours working on this project. Some day this week Nate and I probably will need to get together after school and finish up our web page.

    I figured that if we do one to two pages per night then we will have everything done by Friday. On Saturday Nate and I should probably get together and put the finishing touches on it before 5:00. We just have to concentrate for this week and then we'll be home free for the Christmas break! Yah! I've kind of run out of things to talk about in this journal... We definitely need to find some cool pictures and things. Maybe some cool videos. I'll probably make a crossword puzzle or something. Nine Days till the Break!!!!!

Monday, December 10th, 2007

    Today I was so frustrated! I worked for about 45 minutes creating a really cool cross word puzzle for Thermus Aquaticus and then the website told me that I had to pay like $20 to make the cross word puzzle. It was so invigorating! I created two pages for the sections of our information. I made them as interesting as possible and tried to make them funny and easy to understand. I'm not sure that they have enough information... Each page only has about 5-12 sentences on it. I don't really know what else to do to go above and beyond. I think Nate and I should meet with Ms. Ras to see what else we need to add on our site.

    I also made a cool little word search that I added on to the website. Nate did a good job of creating a few pages and putting pictures on and stuff. We still need to find more pictures, videos, and work on our citations. I think we have pretty much everything cited we just need to find pictures, and cite them and stuff like that. I'm glad that we are almost to the end of this project. That means that it will soon be Christmas break. If we have some extra time I had a really good idea of something cool we could do for Thermus Aquaticus. I think it would be pretty funny and would be sort of going above and beyond. :-)

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

    I didn't not get much of a chance to work or biology tonight, since I had a basketball game, a lot of homework, but I was able to come up with a couple of really cheesy and not very funny jokes about our bacteria. I don't think Nate got much done either, but I will work on it a lot tomorrow night, since I don't have basketball practice. Nate and I will probably get together on Saturday to finish up the site. We still need to work on the pages a bit more and do the evaluation for the one website we didn't use from the school databases. I will make the evaluation of our website tomorrow night too.  

    I still can't think of anything to make our project above and beyond. We keep adding little cool things. For example Nate and I decided to link vocabulary words to the vocabulary page, which is a really neat little feature. Perhaps we could make a video or a comic strip or something cool like that. I'm kind of starting to run out of ideas though. We definitely need to add more pictures and such. I think I'm going to try and pull up some photo clips on word and copy them onto our page. We still need to find out about the reproduction. There's a lot we still need to get done, but we've have done a good job so far, I think.

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

    I was looking for photos and videos of Thermus aquaticus and by accident I stumbled across this really cool photo of this, well thing, in this cave. It was so awesome I linked it right here: http://www.calacademy.org/exhibits/xtremelife/life_on_earth.php

Anyway, I worked on the website for about four hours over all of today. I didn't have much homework or basketball practice so committed all my time to our webpage. I think that I've pretty much done my part for this project. Nate has done some-- but I've definitely done a lot more than he has. It's kind of frustrating, because I think I've done more than my share of this web page, but it’s still not finished. Last night I sent to Nate all that is left to be done and it’s up to him to do it. He really shouldn't leave it for the last minute to do.

    I've been frustrated with knowing whether or not our website is above and beyond. Ms. Jansen said that it is, but I really need to get a great grade on this project, especially after all the work I've put into this cite. I'm really proud of the work I've done. I think that everything is turning out just as I had hoped it would. It is a really nice feeling, knowing that I've completed the bulk of the work that needed to be done and I know that I won't have to spend my whole weekend rushing to complete this. I'm really happy with the way things are going right now.

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

    Today I got really angry at Nate. I was looking over our website and I realized the only things Nate had done was the habitat page and the drawing on the home page. I have done everything else. Even after I had assigned things for him to do, I still was doing everything. I freely expressed my opinion to Nate and we had a nice little talk about it. I'm pretty sure he got a good idea that I wasn't happy with him and he better get his act together. I was just really upset that it seemed to me that he was just counting on me to do all the work, so he could get an A without doing anything. That is not the case. I will not allow him to not be a part of this project.

    I did do some work with Nate today, I made a list of everything Nate has to do, which included linking videos and pictures and things. I also told Nate that he has to get to work on his journal, since he hasn't been doing it every day. Another thing I told Nate to do is research reproduction. Nate did hardly any research and I couldn't find anything on reproduction, so Nate has to do this part and much more to try and make up for the work he hasn't done. Actually, like I told Nate, I'm not going to do anything else on this webpage. I am through! I've done my share. Sure I'll do a few things, like spell checking it and such, but besides that I am finished.

Friday, December 14th, 2007

    I didn't do much work on the site today, considering that I'm still upset with Nate. I did make a few corrections on things like the spelling and grammar, citations, and just little things that weren't in order. I also went through and made a list of all the words that needed to be added to the vocabulary page. I looked up the words and their definitions and added them to the vocabulary page. Tomorrow I'll have to find some way to alphabetize the vocabulary page. It looks pretty awful right now with all the words in a random order. Plus I'll also need to spell check everything, because I know my spelling and grammar is horrendous.

    Besides the fact that I'm kind of unhappy with Nate's work, I think that we've done really well with this project. I've enjoyed it much more that taking notes in class every day and then having a test. It's been pretty fun and I've really learned more, than I would have if we'd just been reading from a text book. I've had a good time working on this and I really understand Thermus aquaticus. Before this project, I didn't know very much about bacteria, but now I'm an expert on Thermus aquaticus.  This has been one my favorite things that we've done in biology so far.

Saturday, December 15th, 2007

    Throughout all of today I spent about five hours working. I alphabetized the vocabulary page, made a list of all our videos and photos that needed to be linked and enhanced our pages in general. Nate and I worked together via phone almost all day and we really worked hard. Nate linked all the photos and videos to the pages. We also made sure our citations were correct and alphabetical on the bibliography page and Nate organized the side bar. We worked really hard together all day and really improved every aspect of our webpage. It was funny, my dad, who is currently in Galveston, kept calling me throughout the day advising us to cite our pictures and check our spelling and such. It was really quite helpful and comical.

    I was also really happy with Nate. He really pulled it together and worked really hard today. Good job Nate! Nate created this cheesy, but cool, little video introducing Thermus aquaticus. He also made the quiz interactive, so now you click on the answers and it keeps your score and such. I was really impressed. He really put a lot of effort into the video, pictures, and quiz. We worked long and hard and Nate finished his journal entries, so we are just about finished with the entire project. Tomorrow we're both going to read through everything and make sure it is of the highest quality and then we will be fully prepared to turn in out project and only four days until the break! Yah!  

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

    Well here I am, writing my final journal entry. In a few hours I will submit our website and the evaluation and we will be finished! Hoorah! I went over everything on our cite and it all looked great. I also made a Facebook page for Thermus aquaticus. I thought that would be a funny little addition to our cite. I was talking to Nate this morning and I realized that we have been contradicting each other. The proper spelling of Thermus aquaticus is with a lower case a. Nate has been spelling it with an upper case a and so he's changing my spelling and I'm changing his. We were laughing about this and how funny it is.

    Nate was able to put a few more photos onto the site, which was good. I've been working on the class evaluation sheets. I've also been working on the website evaluation and the self evaluation. Finally, we are finished! Yah! Only three days till the break! We've done a great job and I think we should both be very happy with our work. We've put a lot of time and effort into this and so I will submit it to Google as a good source to use for Thermus aquaticus. We are finished!