The beginning of the week greeted us with a day of sun, so we ran out to do experiments!  We tested how well three different types of nanoparticles absorbed and released energy from the sun.

Throughout the rest of the week, I shadowed a Jordin Metz, a graduate student in our lab, as he made copper nanoparticles.  He may not know it, but he’s a great teacher.  He walked us through every step of the process, answered questions, asked questions that made us think and remember material, and made sure we participated in all of the lab procedures.  I was able to sneak in a few pictures of him teaching Ifeoluw Adebiyi, a participant in the REU program, how to use a FTIR (Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy) machine.

On Thursday, I had the honor to present our findings to Dr. Halas’ research group.  I can’t say I wasn’t nervous; it’s always difficult to give a speech to a large group of people, especially when those people are the top researchers in their field.  But at the same time, it was invigorating to field questions and go discuss possible steps to take in the future.  I even had a chance to watch the Halas Group perfect a presentation for a conference coming up next week.  They gave me several ideas to take back into the classroom, such as making sure your first and last slides create an impact.  You want people to be interested at the beginning of your talk and have something to take away at the end.

I can’t believe there are only a couple of weeks left!  There is still so much to learn and to do!