Senior Project Retrospection

I started this senior project with a several goals in mind.  The first of which was to study various genetic concepts and diseases to further my understanding of molecular biology.  The second of which was to familiarize myself with different ways of presenting information as well as acquainting myself with different types of technology.  While I feel that I met the majority of these goals, there were several obstacles that appeared throughout the project.

The biggest obstacle during this project was the technological learning curves associated with all the technology I used throughout the project.  For example, much of my senior project revolved around studying a genetic disease and creating a screen-cast to convey the information I gained during my studies.  While I envisioned being able to produce one screen-cast per week, I quickly learned that between figuring out the nuances of the screen-cast app I was using, creating a script for the screen-casts themselves, as well as editing down and animating the screen-casts, this was not a possibility.  There was a steep learning curve involved with becoming familiar with the technology and concepts of screen-casting.  Additionally, when I decided with Ms. VanMierlo to create this blog as a means of centralizing my entire project, I encountered other learning curves.  For example, familiarizing myself with HTML programming in order to format the blog and creating a clean looking format for the pages themselves were significant obstacles.  While I succeeded in creating this blog, its genesis was fairly complicated.

In conclusion, this senior project was a very enriching experience.  I came away with a very thorough understanding of several genetic diseases and topics.  I produced three screen-casts pertaining to molecular biology, constructed a model to represent a mutation associated with sickle cell anaemia, wrote three informal pieces attempting to explain genetic diseases, and gave a guest lecture about Huntington's disease to a junior biology class.  Throughout the whole process I also gained an understanding in the various technologies I used.  So, while I may not have produced the exact quantity of finished products that I would have liked by the end of the project, I certainly gained much from the experience.