Hello everyone. Hope everyone is doing well. I have been hard at work learning and trying to keep up with the project Just thought I’d say hello and hopefully we are all doing well. Saludos!

– Gerardo

My name is Rubi Grainger and I am going into my 5^th year teaching. I was so excited to be part of the RET Nano community upon acceptance, and my excitement towards researching this summer grew so much more after completing orientation last week.

I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know fellow teachers and appreciate Isaias and Christina so much for their wonderful leadership. By the end of orientation week, I already felt so supported because of the RET program structure and so happy to be part of a community of teachers focused on success. I had a great time working on my first white board animation video project and enjoyed completing the minilab focused on sustainability efforts towards water pollution and can’t wait to use a similar (materials) simulation idea focused on natural selection in my Biology class. I feel I have already learned so much in just orientation week of the program that will refine my skills as a science educator and make a stronger impact in getting my students interested in the future of science careers.

I’ll be working in the Warmflash Lab this summer with my mentor Miguel Ángel Ortiz Salazar, and my research is focused on stem cell differentiation. I met my mentor last Friday and he showed me around the lab and I got to see my first stem cell culture. Since my mentor has gone to a research conference, today I worked with Cecilia, another member of the Warmflash lab. In just one day, I learned how to complete three important lab procedures: changing stem cell media for the cells’ daily nutritional needs, performing a passage to prevent the stem cells from differentiating prematurely, and simply coating the dishes to prepare for future cell cultures. I quickly took down the procedures step-by-step in my lab notebook.
Here’s to the start of another great, informational week!

Hello All! My name is MD Jamaluddin. I teach High School Chemistry and AP Chemistry in Katy Westpark High School. I have already have started working in Dr Ball’s Lab in BRC Building. My Research project will be “Development of boronic acid-Rh(II) catalysts for proximity-induced glycopeptides and glycoproteins modification.” Total Chemistry. OH, Yeah!

I am excited as I am going to synthesize poly peptides and also going to use HPLC machine. Reynor, an undergrad student and my Mentor, is very helpful. In fact, all of my lab people are amazing and eager to help me.

My summer vacation started with a short but lovely trip to India. As soon as I returned from my trip, my Nano RET program started right from the next day. I was feeling the effects of jet lag from the long flight journey while my orientation was going on.

I hope to get a short publication from my 6 weeks research work and it’s awesome to collaborate with fellow educators in the program.  I am looking forward to incorporate this ground-breaking technology into a lesson plan for my students to get them excited about the endless possibilities of scientific research.

I really liked my orientation week. It was fun filled and educational. I learnt so much things from my visit to water treatment plant in Sugarland and I plan to take to students to a field to the same place. I know they will be excited to learn about how we get our daily water from the surface water.

I love tea over coffee. The aroma of fresh tea is amazing and my day starts with a cup of hot tea.

Hello everyone. Last week was an adventurous day trying to understand the BIG picture of the program. The field trip was an exciting opportunity to see the nanotechnology in use at the WTP in Sugarland, TX. I feel it is important for students to understand the importance of scientific principles applied to crucial functional community services like water treatment plants. However, getting kids hooked to science is always the first step, which is why I thoroughly enjoyed to learn a new activity with Christina that could easily be used at different grade levels.

It was a fun eye-open experience. I cannot stress enough the importance of showing the students what science looks like outside of the classroom. We also need to teach the importance of communicating the science behind the research in the most simplistic way to the general public (and all other stakeholders) and many times science projects do involve working in groups as a team on a single mission.

Well what can I say other than we’re off to the races! Six weeks is a short amount of time and there is a-lot to do in a short time. I met one of my mentors today Dr. Jirapah! She is highly energetic and matches my energy level perfectly. We started off going over where all of our materials were located in the labs along with how we would get from different labs with our chemicals. Dr. Jirapah not only showed me where everything is she even gave me a demonstration on how everything worked on day one! I am starting tomorrow with calculating the Theoretical Oxygen Demand of each of the twelve chemicals that are used to create our greyscale mixture. Below I have included a couple screen grabs from Dr. Jirapah’s ppt with captions.

Hello All! My name is Julia Dolive. I teach 6th and 8th grade science in Sugar Land, TX. I will be working in Naomi Halas lab with Dr. Oara Neumann on “Prospects of Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Biomarker Monitoring toward Precision Medicine.”

What are you most excited about this summer?

I am excited to work with lasers this year and learn more about raman spectroscopy. It’s awesome to collaborate with fellow educators in the program. This is my 2nd year in RET, so please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or need help. I am hopeful I can incorporate this ground-breaking technology into a lesson for my students to get them excited about the possibilities.

I am definitely a coffee drinker and have recently given up sugar, so no sugar in my coffee. I am a proud new “GG” and love spending time with my new grandson Grayson.