In science class this semester, we started with the SSEP project. We had to come up with a problem or experiment idea that we could test in microgravity. The winning group would have their experiment sent up to space and tested in the ISS.

My group decided on this, we would send the bacteria Vibrio Cholerae up to space with a good virus, to see if the virus receptor Pili would grow faster, or slower. Since there have been studies showing that bacteria grows faster in space, we wanted to test out how Pili grew on Vibrio Cholorae. And if it was accelerated if or not.

For this project, we did research about all the different viruses and bacterias that we could use, but we chose Vibrio Cholorae as the bacteria. This was a decision based on what Miguel Gutierrez said. Miguel is an graduate SFU student studying  Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. He helped us out with whatever questions we had.

We came up with the idea of combining the good virus and the Vibrio Cholorae in the test tube and then once it had been sent up to space, the separator would be removed and the two substances would meet in the middle. We came up with this as a group and all believed that this was a good plan.

For creating our proposal, we all contributed to the final product. Pitching in ideas and examples so that it would become the best that we could have. I think in the end it came out well and we ended up with the best project that we could have created.

The only thing I can think of that we could have done better is working more as a group. Sometimes the workload wasn’t divided as evenly as it should have been, and it could have been handled better. My overall thoughts were, in the first place I hadn’t really been interested in this project. I never really wanted to put in lots of effort to win. But as we moved through the project I think I got more eager to contribute and help with the end goal.