Putting everything together

I spent this week in the lab trying to write the component of my poster presentation at ASU conference on March 4th. Last week, I had my two phylogenetic trees done so this week I am focusing on writing an introduction to my research project as well as the material and methods, the results and finally a conclusion. The abstract, which is the first component of my poster presentation was done during the week of January 7th and submitted to ASU so I do not have to worry about that one anymore. Now, I am working on the introduction. I looked for some peer reviewed journals in our school library databases to see if anybody has done this type of research project before, so that I can use some of their findings as reference to write my introduction but I have not seen the exact project but some project similar to it. I was having trouble writing the introduction so I when talked to Matt who helped me by giving some informations that I should consider putting in the introduction. When I was stuck on the introduction, I realized the material and methods which are something that I already did will be easier to write so I decided to write this part before going back to the introduction. So, I end up writing the materials and methods part. In this part, I just listed the names of the different species of bacteria that I am working with and then briefly describe the steps followed to do the experiments. I also listed the biochemical tests that were performed on the bacteria without giving the results of the test because there is a section reserved for that. I guess this part of report is the easiest to write because the only thing you do is just put in word what you do practically versus writing an introduction which required you to look for references to support your project. I am looking forward to finishing the material and methods this week and focus on the introduction as well as the rest of my poster presentation.
I was very busy this week during my office hours at the STEM Program helping students with their math homework. I enjoy doing that because I think this is a great experience and you learn more when you are trying to explain something to somebody.

Below is the picture of the bacteria that I worked with: Escherichia Coli  (microscope view)

                                                   Gram negative-bacilli