From ignorance to confidence
20.109 took more hours than my other 3 classes combined some weeks. The class demanded more of me than any MIT class I have had so far. What made it so challenging was that throughout the process, I had no idea what on earth was going on. Every day we learned new material and were expected to apply it rapidly. Not only were we learning so quickly, but we had to pivot between different skill sets. Be a good scientist! Keep a good lab journal and keep the lab clean. Be a good researcher! Conduct assays you've never done before properly. Avoid contaminations. Be a good communicator! Write something. Present something. Write a different thing you don't know how to do. Become an expert on somebody else's work. Be a good time manager! Good luck with this one.
I floundered my way through 20.109, constantly asking "why are we doing this."
And then it alllllll became clear.
When I was in high school, people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was good at science and math, and I heard that those fields make money, so I said maybe I would do something with that. But truth be told, I was terrified. High school doesn't teach you to innovate or problem solve; it teaches you to regurgitate information. Having not been taught to solve problems, I was afraid I was incapable of doing so. As a result, being an engineer was terrifying. Could I be an engineer? Was I capable of coming up with anything new? That was what I saw as my biggest obstacle-- my inability to innovate something novel.
After delivering the project proposal today, I'm no longer fearful of that. Yes, 20.109 was a pain. It was an enormous amount of work, and I often felt like I was spinning in circles. However, I learned an incredible amount. I am now much more confident in my skills as a researcher, especially in terms of scientific communication. I am so glad we were taught how to write an abstract (although supposedly I've learned that 8 times now). I'm also glad we learned to write a methods section. Writing one made reading them easier. Delivering the project proposal made me realize that I can come up with something new. And sure, engineering MHCs isn't a cost-effective way to treat allergies, but it COULD be, and that's what matters. My lab partner and I worked to create something completely different from the literature, and I'm incredibly proud of that.
Overall, I'm almost sad 20.109 is over. Even though it was an enormous amount of work, we learned so many skills and did so many cool things that I'm pretty sure I'll miss it.
I floundered my way through 20.109, constantly asking "why are we doing this."
And then it alllllll became clear.
When I was in high school, people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was good at science and math, and I heard that those fields make money, so I said maybe I would do something with that. But truth be told, I was terrified. High school doesn't teach you to innovate or problem solve; it teaches you to regurgitate information. Having not been taught to solve problems, I was afraid I was incapable of doing so. As a result, being an engineer was terrifying. Could I be an engineer? Was I capable of coming up with anything new? That was what I saw as my biggest obstacle-- my inability to innovate something novel.
After delivering the project proposal today, I'm no longer fearful of that. Yes, 20.109 was a pain. It was an enormous amount of work, and I often felt like I was spinning in circles. However, I learned an incredible amount. I am now much more confident in my skills as a researcher, especially in terms of scientific communication. I am so glad we were taught how to write an abstract (although supposedly I've learned that 8 times now). I'm also glad we learned to write a methods section. Writing one made reading them easier. Delivering the project proposal made me realize that I can come up with something new. And sure, engineering MHCs isn't a cost-effective way to treat allergies, but it COULD be, and that's what matters. My lab partner and I worked to create something completely different from the literature, and I'm incredibly proud of that.
Overall, I'm almost sad 20.109 is over. Even though it was an enormous amount of work, we learned so many skills and did so many cool things that I'm pretty sure I'll miss it.
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