BIOL368/F11:Class Journal Week 3

Week 3 Assignment

Alex Cardenas

1. I am becoming more comfortable when working with online databases and tools during the in-class activity. It was hard starting off and getting use to some of the programs especially when dealing with all this information. Just working with the online databases would help increase my comfort level more.
2. The easiest aspect of reading and understanding the article was the beginning. The abstract helped in that it gave an overview of article.
3. The most difficult aspect of reading and understand the article was the vast majority of information given and trying to recall every detail and method that was used. Some of the wording was difficult as well.

Alex A. Cardenas 19:56, 20 September 2011 (EDT)

Robert W. Arnold

1. At first, I had a lot of trouble using the BioWorkBench program. As I continued to familiarize myself with the program, I began to gain confidence in how to work it. Towards the end of the assignment, I was very confident in manipulating the software. However, I was not confident in the software performing as I wanted it to. I had to deal with multiple crashes and had to reboot the software numerous times. I would say that the more I work with each software and see how to manipulate it more would make me more comfortable with it.
2. The easiest aspects of the Markham article for me were the results and figures. I am very much a visual learner and being able to see the information I had read about be put in front of me in a nice, detailed graph really allows me to grasp the concepts. Also, it allows me to see the correlation between certain statistics by seeing them plotted.

Robert W Arnold 23:53, 20 September 2011 (EDT)

Chris Rhodes

1. Having spent my last semester working with bioinformatics tools and databases such as GenBank, Apollo, GBrowser, Consed, and Blast for HHMI I'm very comfortable using online databases, but of course there are still plenty of tools and databases I've never had any experience with so there's always more to learn.
2. I think the easiest aspect of reading the Markham paper was probably the results and discussion sections. Unlike the other sections that were very protocol heavy and contained a lot of science speak the results and discussion sections were presented in a much more understandable and followable way.
3. As I kind of said above the most difficult part of reading the paper was cutting through all the mysterious science terms. It's hard to actually be able to interpret what they're telling you and keep a steady forward flow when you have to consult a dictionary every other sentence.

Chris H. Rhodes 23:06, 20 September 2011 (EDT)

Nicolette Harmon

1. At the beginning of class I was uncomfortable using the databases since I was unfamiliar with them, but by the end of the class I would say I was very comfortable using the various Workbench tools. I am not as comfortable with using GenBank, however my comfort level can improve by using the database more frequently.
2. The easiest way for me to understand this article was to read the abstract and discussion first. This method worked for me because the methods and results sections can often become confusing with all of the information they are presenting you. Knowing the beginning and the end helped me make sense of what was supposed to be going on in the middle.
3. The most difficult aspect of understanding this article was trying to interpret the data produced. I couldn't figure out where the data in the Results came from and how it was calculated.

Nicolette S. Harmon 23:42, 20 September 2011 (EDT)