Alex Hotz Senior Project

 Today I had my concentration meeting today. It went well before I went to it I drove my brother to school. I then went to the art studio and chilled in there for the first block. I then went to my last advisory. After that, I had my meeting we talked about my project and what went well. At the meeting, it was Buz, Heidi, and Tom and we recorded it for Patty. The conversation went well and I passed so now I am done. After that, I went to the senior seminar and I now just gotta do expresses fest. So overall I am just wrapping everything up and getting ready to graduate. 

 This week I mostly focused on my presentation. I gave a presentation on Tuesday and Thursday. The presentation was about my sister's brain disorder and was a walk through of it from genes to the whole brain and what affects it has.  I started by talking about my sister and what she has been diagnosed with. Then I go into what that means for her and what effects her disorders have on her. Then I went into what medication she takes. I explain why she takes each medication and what the medication does. For example “Depakote  is an Anticonvulsant that Treats seizures, bipolar disorder and helps prevent migraines. It works to prevent seizures by stabilizing electrical activity in the brain by increasing GABA in the brain (a natural neural inhibitor) and preventing neural signals from building up. It is not fully understood why it works as a mood stabilizer for Bipolar disorder but it is thought to have to do something with increased activity of GABA in the brain” (my presentation). On

 Today I stayed home for the morning because I need to take a math diagnostic test for UCSD. It was a 70-minute test and was pretty boring. After I finished it I came to campus. When I got to campus I went to the art studio started my narrative reflection for a little while. Then I went swimming because it was so hot. After that, I had a tennis match and I played singles in doubles. It was very very hot on the court and I was very tired by the end. Overall it was a good day even though it was a little hot. 

 Today I came into campus at 8 and dropped off my brother for his class. I then went to the art studio and on the way got iced chia from Patty. Today so far I have worked in the art studio I worked on finishing up my presentation. I added a slide about neural migration and explain the zoom-out idea of going from a gene to brain function. So now my slides are fully done to how I want them to be and I am ready to present. I present today at 12:05 to AP biology. After going to senior seminar I went to AP biology and presented. The presentation went well and I recorded it for everyone who was not there the two times I presented. Overall it was a good day. 

 Today I worked from home. I ate breakfast at around 9 when I woke up. I then worked on a couple parts of my project that Buz wanted me to change to present for AP biology. For the most part, though today was just a relaxing day since I presented yesterday and I also present tomorrow. I worked more on making connections in my presentation so it makes it flow better. I also added some pictures to help the audience visualize what I am talking about. Then after that, I went to practice at 1 and played tennis. We played mixed doubles with all the teams and the coaches. Overall it was a good day. 

 Today I came on to campus at 8 and went to the art studio. I continued to work on my presentation and add a couple details. I then practiced my presentation for a while. I then went for a walk around campus to take a break then went back to work for a while. I went to lunch around 11 and ate outside. I then went back to the art studio and finished up a couple things on my presentation before presenting at 1 to neuroscience. The presentation went well and I am presenting again on Thursday to AP biology. Overall it was a productive day. 

 Today I came to campus at 8 and went to the art studio. I have been working on setting up my presentation. I am laying it out to flow similar to my paper. I am presenting tomorrow for the neuroscience class and then on Thursday for AP Biology. I went to lunch today at 12:40. After eating lunch I continued to work on my presentation. I worked mostly on finding pictures and models to represent what I am talking about. Overall it was a productive day working on my presentation and I will be ready to present for tomorrow. 

 This week I did a mix of working from home and working at school. My favorite place on campus to work was the art studio with my friends. Over the week I worked on my paper and work cited. At the beginning of the week, I started off writing about micro tubulin and the impact they have on axon function. I also then wrote about what an action potential is here is a paragraph from my paper explaining it. “The resting potential of a neuron is around -70 Mv which is measured in membrane potential (this is the relative charge of the inside of the cell to the outside) the threshold for an action potential to trigger in -50 mv. This membrane potential change is caused by ions coming from other neurons into the cell body then causing the inside of the axon to become more positively charged than the outside (whereas at resting it is more negative inside).  This change in membrane potential causes a voltage-gated sodium channel to open allowing sodium ions to flood into the cell causing a greate

 Today I slept in because I worked late last night on my paper. I woke up around 10 am and then stayed in bed for a while. I had cheerios for breakfast and watched some tv. I then worked on a plan for my presentation I am doing Tuesday for the neuroscience class. I only did that for a while and then I made lunch and got ready for tennis. I then drove to campus for tennis practice at 1:15 which we were going to watch the varsity girls game but then it got canceled. So instead we had practice at 1:30 and played for a little while and then watched other games on campus. Also here is a final draft of my paper. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qin9TmPsiWeP6m4WSKN86XkfqYuWPql3cQVJaKsaa2Y/edit?usp=sharing

 Today I slept in a while and got up around 10 am. I ate Cheerios with blueberries for breakfast. I got to campus around 11:30. I went to the art studio to continue to work on my work cited. After citing a couple of sources I went to lunch around 12. When I got back from lunch I went back to the art studio and cited more sources. I have in total 20 sources I have to cite. My paper is due tonight at 12. I then worked o finishing my conclusion. I turned the paper in around 11. 

 Today I got to campus at 8 am to drop off my brother. I then went to the art studio and worked on the last couple of paragraphs of my paper including my conclusion. Then I went back and started to edit it. At 11 I went and ate lunch. Then I started working outside on my source and worked cited. I went to the library for a little while for help with my work cited. Then I got ready for practice and went to tennis. 

 Today I worked at home again on my paper. It was a shorter workday because I had practice at 1 so I need to leave by 12:30. I wrote about epilepsy and what happens in the brain during a seizure. I also wrote about what sept optic dysplasia is and how it affects my sister. I then wrote about lissencephaly and microcephaly and what causes them. This is neural migration so I wrote a little bit about what neural migration is and now my paper is almost done I just need to proofread, add a conclusion and do my work cited. I am glad to be almost done with my paper so I can start working on my presentation more. Here is a link to my paper if you want to read it but if you look at it before the 15th it will still not be totally done and spell-checked. Paper . 

 Today I started off working in the library I got there around 8 am. I sat in a chair in the back and began to write about axons and action potentials. I wrote for about an hour then I went to advisory to check in with my advisor. After that, I went back to the library and found pictures on my paper so it would make more sense and also added more about how action potentials work. After that, I went to the art studio because I want a change of scenery so I began writing in the art studio. When I first got to the art studio I did some editing and then went to lunch. When I got back I started to write about axon guidance and growth cones. I now have almost five pages and I plan to finish up the rough draft of my paper tonight. Here is a picture of how an action potential I put in my paper. 

 Today I worked at home. I woke up at 9:30 and ate breakfast. I then opened my computer and went to my concentration paper document on google drive. After opening the document I re-read the first paragraph I had wrote and then wrote the next section of the paper about microtubulins functions in cells and in axons. I then ate cheerios and wrote an email to Buz telling him my timeline for the paper. I wrote that I was working at home and that I will have a rough draft of my paper done by tomorrow. The paper is going to be 5 to 7 pages long. I then went to tennis for my afternoon activity.