Famous Last Words:

This past week was one of the least productive weeks so far this semester. I planned out the week Sunday so that I would get all my homework and lab-work done by Wednesday night so that I could have a stress free Thanksgiving; however, this did not happen. I have still, a week later, only done one of many lab reports and Thanksgiving had it's own stress beyond worrying about school work. It wasn't all bad though, as dinner was amazing and we played the game Life until about 1:30 in the morning. For those interested, here is my grandma's mac & cheese recipe that I made:

Feel free to try it!

We ended up using chives instead of parsley, and we added panko on top. It was really great! But we did have to double all the portions as we made this dish for 7 people.

While I didn't finish my schoolwork goals, I got the most important assignment done - my antibiotic assignment. This was a time consuming task and I am glad I started working on it Wednesday as it took me till Sunday to complete. And like I said - the food was great this year at Thanksgiving.

Another thing I did this week was make a concept map! A few weeks ago it was a mandatory assignment and I absolutely hated every second of it. To give you an idea of how complicated it was and why it took about 10 hours to complete, here it is:

This is about the central dogma of microbiology: replication, transcription, and translation and the ways they are connected. 

The thing that made it so difficult was that I had to think hard about how everything was connected. The largest part in green was the most confusing, as many things interlinked over different periods of time so I had to find a way to connect them and make the connections make sense. While I hated this assignment, I got every question on the exam about it correct. From this experience I was motivated to actually make another one - but this time I enjoyed it! I think the lack of grading made it less stressful and I was able to calmly make it without fear of mistakes. It even turned out better than the one I turned in for a grade, only taking about 2-3 hours in all:

This concept map is about three biological pathways in which microorganisms break down glucose for energy, the different energy forms, and how they tie into the TCA cycle and how they all tie into the production of ATP. 

One thing I learned from this - while I did not initially understand the method to my professors madness, I am glad she gave us this crazy hard assignment because now I have a new study method I had never considered before.