Sample for Homework Assignment 1
To me, personal growth means how I am growing as a person in order to have a more satisfying and more meaningful life. I think it includes knowing who I am, what I would like to be, and what I am doing in order to reach that aspiration. I found a really great quote related to personal growth. James Bryant Conant said, "Behold the turtle. He only makes progress when he sticks his neck out.” I chose this quote because it is so true in learning. The only time we see real learning and improvement is when we take chances. I think it also speaks to how we as humans deal with change. For the most part, we hate when things change. It feels different and strange and a little scary, but if we are willing to "stick our necks out" and try the new thing, we realize how great change can actually be. The quote relates to personal growth because if you never change you will never grow. I had never heard of James Bryant Conant, so I did a little research. He lived from the 1890s until the 1970s and accomplished many things in his lifetime. He was a very well-known president of Harvard University, where he introduced the first aptitude tests to screen students for admission. This eventually led to the well-known SAT test. He also changed the focus at Harvard from the classical style of learning to a more scientific approach. If you would like to read more about this fascinating man, you can follow this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bryant_Conant
Homework Assignment 1: Personal Growth Quotes--Due 9/11/11
Please complete the following in your post:
- Explain what our theme "personal growth" means and how it applies to your life.
- Look up a quote (direct words of some person) that is related to personal growth. Do not choose a quote that is by an anonymous person. Copy and paste the quote into your post. Include the name of the person.
- Explain why you chose the quote and how it related to our theme of personal growth.
- Find some information about the person who said the quote. Write at least two interesting things about the person and include a link that your readers can use to find more information about your person.
Homework Information
Dear Parents and Students,
Below are some important notes about the homework. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to call or email.
Sincerely,
V. Jordan
Lewis Chapel Middle
6th Grade ELA
Mighty Ravens Team
Below are some important notes about the homework. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to call or email.
- The students will have one assignment each week that will incorporate both reading and writing skills. Assignments will be due each Sunday by 10pm. Assignments can be done in one night or they may be worked on a little each day until complete.
- The class blog will have new posts every few days that are related to class activities or world events. Students DO NOT have to respond to these prompts for a homework grade, but they are available to give the students an opportunity to extend and enrich the learning that takes place in the classroom. Students who respond to more than 5 of these extra prompts in any of the nine week grading periods will be awarded extra credit, but more importantly their reading, writing, and technology skills will greatly improve.
- Homework assignments will be clearly labeled. The first assignment will be due on Sunday, September 11, 2011. It will be named "Homework--Personal Development Quotes".
- Homework assignments will also be posted on the Ravens Team Blog to help parents monitor their childrens' assignments.
- Students will visit the LCMS computer lab this week during class so they can sign up and begin completing some activities in order to become familiar with the blog.
Sincerely,
V. Jordan
Lewis Chapel Middle
6th Grade ELA
Mighty Ravens Team
Speed of Sound
Do you ever feel like your life is moving at the speed of sound? Well, the last two weeks or so has been just that for me. My summer was definitely fun but also took patient. Now, everything seems to be happening at once. This is not a bad thing because I function at my best when my plate is full! Call me crazy but seeing my calendar look like two rainbows got busy on top of it just adds to whatever motivation I have at that time.
With that said, here a few new items of mine for you to ponder upon…
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| The NQAD instrument |
Last week was culmination of a few weeks working with a Sales Rep for a new instrument in our lab. The NQAD for HPLC (Nano Quantity Analyte Detector for High Performance Liquid Chromatography) will hopefully allow our lab group to measure micro and nano quanitities within our projects. Well, I arranged for the rep to come give a presentation and assist with the installation of this new instrument. The overall installation process was almost a complete failure. The hardware works fine, but the software needed to actually gather data has been a real pain in my butt to say the least. It has been a week since the rep was here and it is still a work in progress. But, I learned a lot about research through the process. I really appreciated that the sales rep, who is an analytical chemist not an actual sales person, took the time to know me and offer advice for a young graduate student. I learned that as long as you have a passion for what you are doing, the rest will fall into place regardless of where you think it may or may not be going. Not to mention I got a free lunch out of it (thanks again)!
Last Monday marked the beginning of yet another school year here at Purdue University. Here are my observations. The freshman look so young that I keep thinking there might be a middle school field trip on campus. Parking on campus remains to be a complete disaster. And I find myself laughing at people as they walk around campus (chasing busses, being in the wrong classroom, yelling at Robbie Hummel, etc). Even though those things seem to be all negative, I really do enjoy that everyone is back on campus because of the closeness of Purdue (see this link if you need to know what I am talking about).
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Since the school year has started that means call-outs and club meetings have begun again. I am a part of the student chapter of AAPS (American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists) here at Purdue. This year I have been “elected” as the President Elect. Essentially we have a President, Vice President, and President Elect and each year the Vice moves up to President, and the Elect moves up to Vice. I believe that setup is used for consistency within the club. Anyway, my one outlined role in the club right now is to make sure the bulletin board is up to date and looks good. And I thought I had finished with bulletin boards after my Res Life days!?
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| Counter as of Friday (8/26/11) |
Lastly, the Purdue starting QB, Rob Henry, tore his ACL at practice this week. I just want it to be known that I have not torn my ACL yet but I will be taking extra precautions as I train for the Tough Mudder Competition schedule for November. That being said, anyone associated with Purdue should immediately begin wearing knee braces on both legs to be safe!
Friday Fragments (8/26/11)
I apologize but I have been extremely busy the last two weeks. However, I did find the following link that has 21 Scientific Research projects that will begin this fall. It is a pretty good summary of the current state of research throughout the world. Enjoy!
Behind the Bench - Jeremy Daniel
In our first part of the ongoing series "Behind the Bench," we have a interview with Jeremy Daniel. He is currently a Pharm D. Candidate at Purdue University. The "Behind the Bench" series will highlight young professionals on the cusp of their careers, in order to provide a broader scope of pharmaceuticals and science to this site. Enjoy!
Behind the Bench
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| Dance moves are an elective in Pharmacy School, I believe! |
Name: Jeremy Daniel
Hometown: Currently live in Jeffersonville, but I consider myself from Terre Haute, IN
Education: Bachelor's of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology specialization), Purdue University, 2010. Doctor of Pharmacy, Purdue University, 2012.
Q1: Why inspired you to enter into the field of pharmacy?
I always loved chemistry in high school. I enjoyed the problem solving that goes along with it and the various types of experiments that I was able to do. Up until the last few months of high school, I wanted to major in chemistry in college. However, after talking to my neighbor changed my viewpoint. In Terre Haute, my neighbor was a pharmacist for Walgreens. He found out that I wanted to go into something science related, so he started talking to me. He convinced me I had good communication skills, always wanted to help people, and would be perfect as a pharmacist. He told me about all the chemistry he had to take, so I was kind of sold. Plus, he used to work for Budweiser as one of the QA people, and he had a pharmacy degree…so that was pretty legit.
Q2: What is your grandest aspiration for your career?
My goal is to one day be a psychiatric clinical pharmacist. I look at most of our professors at Purdue and see how amazing they are in their areas of practice. I am glad I got the opportunity to go to Purdue where some of the leading people in various pharmacy fields practice. My favorite professor throughout my curriculum is Dr. Carol Ott, a psychiatric pharmacist with Wishard Health Services. She writes book chapters for national publications, sits on the Board of Directors or other panels for national organizations, and has essentially paved the way for psych pharmacy practice at Wishard, both in the inpatient setting and in her outpatient clinic. My goal is to one day be this great. I feel this is the way I can make the biggest difference in my profession while still directly caring for patients and continuing to practice (rather than just sitting behind a desk in some office with a window).
Q3: What are your specific interests in pharmaceuticals?
As far as trends in pharmaceuticals, the drive towards more specific medicine is fascinating. What I mean by this can best be summed up with modern cancer medications. For instance, in the treatment of colorectal cancer, panitumumab (Vectibix®) and cetuximab (Erbitux®) are two drugs commonly used. The response rates to these medications are great (as far as chemotherapy is concerned). However, if a patient has a mutation in a GTPase called KRas, these drugs are virtually ineffective with an efficacy rate of less than 5%. This signals the clinician that a different therapy is in order. Likewise, there are other drugs that require the patient to express a certain receptor (if the patient has the receptor, over 80% efficacy; no receptor, less than 10% efficacy). This trend towards drugs that are highly effective if patients present a certain way compared to putting one drug out for the masses makes me very optimistic in our ability to treat patients in the future. This is definitely an interest of mine.
A trend that I absolutely loathe is the development of drugs that serve virtually no purpose in practice. These “me too” drugs simply complicate patient treatment decisions, increase medical cost by increasing hospital formularies and retail pharmacy stock, and pass a large cost on to the consumer because of a very effective drug rep that convinced their doctor to prescribe the new brand name version over the generic version that has been out for 5 years. I believe drug companies should focus on clinically meaningful (this is a very important point), novel treatments for either existing conditions or new conditions. Unfortunately, this also adds cost due to the orphan status of most of those drugs, and I do understand how difficult this is from my BSPS background, but that is a discussion for a different day and another post…
Q4: What is the next step in your professional journey?
The next immediate step is completing my rotations and graduating pharmacy school. My plan after that (at least right now) is to complete two years of residency and specialize in psychiatric clinical pharmacy. However, all of this could change if I discover another area I am passionate about, but for the moment, this is what I have in mind.
Q5: Favorite thing about being in pharmacy?
My favorite thing about being in pharmacy is the difference I get to make in my patients’ lives. In my community rotation, I saved a patient $2800 on his prescription for Zyvox by getting him on a patient assistance program from the manufacturer. During this rotation in the hospital, I counsel at least 2 patients daily about Coumadin, which takes a lot of knowledge and attention to detail on the part of the patient to effectively manage their therapy. A patient told me today that he appreciated me stopping by and talking to him because he had been on the drug for 2 months and no one counseled him on it. He just changed his diet to try to eat better and ended up in the hospital with a pulmonary embolism. If someone would have talked to him about the food interactions with Coumadin, this probably would not have happened. This difference is very important to me, and it is what makes pharmacy so great.
Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn
Title: Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn
Author: Cathy N. Davidson
Call #: BF321. D38 2011
Friday Fragments (8/12/11)
Friday is here again and I have been busy enough that there hasn't been a Fragments for a few weeks. That doesn't mean that I don't have links. If anything this edition may be the largest yet!
Before we get into the fragments, Monday will begin the "new" Behind the Bench series featuring other young people in science. First up will be a few people in pharmacy and will expand from there. So Jeremy Daniel you're up for Monday.
-Artificial organs are nothing new but that field changes everyday it seems. Two new advances in artificial lungs are quite intriguing. First, scientists have create the first artificial lung that breathes regular air instead of pure oxygen. Now people on artificial lungs aren't chained to oxygen tanks. In related news, read this article about "made-to-order" lungs. Similarly, scientists are making artificial spinal discs out of biological materials, which would be a better alternative than fusing the discs or metal/plastic discs that degrade and are subject to attack by the host's immune system.
-A few weeks ago I caught a article about the Large Hardon Collider and how close it is to finding the elusive Higgs Boson particle. That would be a major step forward for physics and chemistry (for those of you unfamiliar with the Higgs Boson here's the wiki article to catch you up).
-Work with Microsoft Excel? Check out these cheat sheets. Ctrl Shortcuts, Function Shortcuts, and Misc. Shortcuts. Also, here is your 2011 Excel World Champion. Yep there is a competition for Excel, Word, and Powerpoint now!
-NC State scientists are experimenting with new memory devices that work like a memristor. They would have the consistency of jell-o and even be implanted into the body! Creepy.
-In medicine news...another new drug has proven it can prevent HIV infection to a certain extent. More exciting than that is the prospect of a new therapy that can be used against a broad spectrum of viruses. Much like antibiotics can kill multiple bacteria, this new therapy attacks a process all viruses have in common. This lack of specificity also may prevent a virus from mutating to avoid destruction. Lastly, if you ever wondered what I studied as an undergrad student in Industrial Pharmacy, this article describes what's in Viagra. Learning the what, how, and why of these ingredients is a lot of what I studied.
-The Web at 20...take a trip drop memory lane (I'm thinking of you America Online)!
-If you are like any other normal human being, you probably love girl scout cookies. Well, one box of girl scout cookies could be worth $15 million dollars in graphene. Don't believe me, check it out!
I think that's enough for now...enjoy your Friday and weekend!
Before we get into the fragments, Monday will begin the "new" Behind the Bench series featuring other young people in science. First up will be a few people in pharmacy and will expand from there. So Jeremy Daniel you're up for Monday.
-Artificial organs are nothing new but that field changes everyday it seems. Two new advances in artificial lungs are quite intriguing. First, scientists have create the first artificial lung that breathes regular air instead of pure oxygen. Now people on artificial lungs aren't chained to oxygen tanks. In related news, read this article about "made-to-order" lungs. Similarly, scientists are making artificial spinal discs out of biological materials, which would be a better alternative than fusing the discs or metal/plastic discs that degrade and are subject to attack by the host's immune system.
-A few weeks ago I caught a article about the Large Hardon Collider and how close it is to finding the elusive Higgs Boson particle. That would be a major step forward for physics and chemistry (for those of you unfamiliar with the Higgs Boson here's the wiki article to catch you up).
-Work with Microsoft Excel? Check out these cheat sheets. Ctrl Shortcuts, Function Shortcuts, and Misc. Shortcuts. Also, here is your 2011 Excel World Champion. Yep there is a competition for Excel, Word, and Powerpoint now!
-NC State scientists are experimenting with new memory devices that work like a memristor. They would have the consistency of jell-o and even be implanted into the body! Creepy.
-In medicine news...another new drug has proven it can prevent HIV infection to a certain extent. More exciting than that is the prospect of a new therapy that can be used against a broad spectrum of viruses. Much like antibiotics can kill multiple bacteria, this new therapy attacks a process all viruses have in common. This lack of specificity also may prevent a virus from mutating to avoid destruction. Lastly, if you ever wondered what I studied as an undergrad student in Industrial Pharmacy, this article describes what's in Viagra. Learning the what, how, and why of these ingredients is a lot of what I studied.
-The Web at 20...take a trip drop memory lane (I'm thinking of you America Online)!
-If you are like any other normal human being, you probably love girl scout cookies. Well, one box of girl scout cookies could be worth $15 million dollars in graphene. Don't believe me, check it out!
I think that's enough for now...enjoy your Friday and weekend!
Quick Thoughts
So I looked at my Outlook calendar this morning, like I do every morning, and realized that it is August 11th! Where the heck did the summer go? BGR moves in this weekend (for the non-Boilermakers out there that is the Boiler Gold Rush or freshman orientation week here at Purdue) and school starts in about two weeks. Now, I am not particularly worried about school starting, as I am taking one class and teaching one class but I have kind of enjoyed being on campus with less people. I mean, I have been here during the summer before but this is first summer I have been able to have any kind of social life during the summer.
Anyway, I have a couple quick thoughts today before a pretty beefy Friday Fragments tomorrow...
I saw Rise of the Planet of Apes last weekend and my review is up over at the Stickyshoereview.com. I really enjoyed the movie, but watching with my family I realized that it may not be for everyone. I also had the opportunity to go see a friend perform Crackers Comedy Club in Broad Ripple last week. If you enjoy stand up comedy I recommend going to Crackers on open mic night. You will laugh with the funny comedians and laugh at the bad ones.
The weather has finally broken into a pleasant streak here in Indiana but that still hasn't prevented one of my biggest pet peevs in the lab...sandals! Now let me be clear, everyone in my lab always wears proper protection (and sometimes we all look like a sci-fi film because we all wear lab coats, gloves, glasses, everything). But I consistently see students from other labs (mainly MCMP labs) wearing flip-flips and shorts carrying around petri-dishes, test tubes, and other lab equipment. I remember kids getting kicked out of Ms. Hale's AP Chem class in high school for wearing sandals and yet these people risk injury in order to be fashionable for summer. So buck up, put on your jeans and tennis shoes like everybody and help me down off this soap box.
Ok that's enough for now. Last thing, I signed up for twitter (please leave your derogatory comments at home) so look me up @Pharmjack29!
Anyway, I have a couple quick thoughts today before a pretty beefy Friday Fragments tomorrow...
I saw Rise of the Planet of Apes last weekend and my review is up over at the Stickyshoereview.com. I really enjoyed the movie, but watching with my family I realized that it may not be for everyone. I also had the opportunity to go see a friend perform Crackers Comedy Club in Broad Ripple last week. If you enjoy stand up comedy I recommend going to Crackers on open mic night. You will laugh with the funny comedians and laugh at the bad ones.
The weather has finally broken into a pleasant streak here in Indiana but that still hasn't prevented one of my biggest pet peevs in the lab...sandals! Now let me be clear, everyone in my lab always wears proper protection (and sometimes we all look like a sci-fi film because we all wear lab coats, gloves, glasses, everything). But I consistently see students from other labs (mainly MCMP labs) wearing flip-flips and shorts carrying around petri-dishes, test tubes, and other lab equipment. I remember kids getting kicked out of Ms. Hale's AP Chem class in high school for wearing sandals and yet these people risk injury in order to be fashionable for summer. So buck up, put on your jeans and tennis shoes like everybody and help me down off this soap box.
Ok that's enough for now. Last thing, I signed up for twitter (please leave your derogatory comments at home) so look me up @Pharmjack29!
What We Saw: The Events of September 11, 2001, in Words, Pictures, and Video
Author: Joe Klein
Call #: HV6432.7 W427 2011
Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden
Author: Brook Wilensky-Lanford
Call #: BS1237. W55 2011
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