Samantha's Journal :

Day 1 (Dec3):

-Today in class my partner and I created our website and learned how to make links. We also started to brainstorm on what we wanted to have on our timeline. According to the timeline my job is to research the structure of leuconostoc mesenteroides. I searched nettrecker, proquest, and gale but no information I was searching for was there. After I tried typing in different names that might relate to leuconostoc mesenteroides I went to the free web to see what would come up. I found on the second cite I clicked on that leuconostic mesenteroids are commonly found on crop plant and that are partially made up of amino acids. Since that wasn't very much information I just cited the website incase I wanted to go back. http://genome.jgi-psf.org/finished_microbes/leume/leume.home.html . After about looking at my fourth cite I found a page on luconostoc. On this page it had much more facts about the luconostoc, not so much its structure, but it did have valuable information that we could use throughout the rest of our project so I also cited that website. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/leuconostoc because it is a Wikipedia cite I know I probably can't base most of my facts off of it but I read through it anyway trying to find something useful.

Day 2 (Dec. 4) Structure:

-Today in class my partner and I finished discussing what our notes should include and then we began to fill out our timeline. By the end of the class we finished our final timeline and posted it on the website. According to the timeline tonight’s assignment it to research the habitat and structure and post what we find. I went back to nettrecker and ebscohost just to check try again to find any information, but I still didn’t find anything. After searching on the free web for a while I found leuconostoc mesenteroides referred to as lactic acid bacteria so I searched under that. When I searched under lactic acid bacteria a few more results came up and on those sights I found slightly more facts about the structure and that is what most of my information is based on. Throughout the project I’m going to try and find more specific facts about the structure.

Day 3 (Dec. 5) Gram Stain:

- Today in class Ms. Jansen taught us how to tell whether the websites on the free web we find are reliable or not. We saw may example websites on what is factual and worth using and what is an un-true opinion phrased as a fact. After learning about this for the whole class period, at the end me and my partner checked our timeline and she will be working on classification while I work on the gram stain. Tonight we both will also be working on preparing for the L.A.B we are beginning tomorrow. To start my research at home I first started to search for gram stain just to get a better understanding of exactly what it is, I also read the small passage in my book describing the process. Before spending time on any websites i tried to look over them like Ms. Jansen said and of there were any websites i thought were factual and useful i added them to my favorites so that i could fill out a form and cite them later. Next I began to search under "Leuconostoc mesenteroides gram stain" and after only a few websites I found enough useful information to write my gram stain passage on.

Day 4 (Dec. 6) Fun Facts: Since me and my partner felt like we were doing a lot of researched and felt very busy we decided to in the middle of the project put a more simple day. We chose on our timeline to make today the day to together create some facts about leuconostoc mesenteroides. We thought that we would have to stay late to talk about what we wanted to do but Ms. Rasmussen informed us that the materials needed for the lab had not come in yet so we had a full day to work on our project. Having a day to work with my partner really helped our progression and we got a lot done. We finished making our fun facts by the end of class so we decided to move on to the weekend’s homework (nutrition, benefits, reproduction, and history).

Day 5 (Dec. 7-9):

Today in class we did our lab on antibiotic sensitivity and are waiting to get our results back on Monday. We were not provided with time to work on our cite today, which was fine, because my partner wasn't here today. After the L.A.B I began my research on the history and reproduction, luckily in the last few minutes of class Ms. Rasmussen explained the two different ways of bacteria reproducing. I began my research on reproduction on the library databases with searching for binary fission. After reading about binary fission for a whole I understood how it worked and also found that leuconostoc mesenteroides reproduce by binary fission, upon finding this I added some of the passages to my notes to refer to later. Next to find information on the history of leuconostoc mesenteroides I went back to a couple websites that I had added to my favorites and re-read through some of those finding some good information. I also wanted to be able to refer to some more recent information on leuconostoc mesenteroides but could not find much on the school databases so instead I began to search the free web, adding to my favorites any website I thought was valuable. I ended up finding some good information on a website about leuconostoc mesenteroides from 2002 discussing sicknesses caused by this bacteria.

Day 6 (Dec. 10) Problems associated with the loss of Leuconostoc Mesenteroides:

Today I was absent from class but I was informed that we would be finishing our labs on Monday. After e-mailing my partner after school we decided that I would be in charge or researching problems associated with the loss of leucnostoc mesenteroides. I first searched the library databases and didn't find exactly what I was looking for so I decided to search the free web. I began searching under the exact title of my assignment and didn't find anything new so then I decided to search under just problems with leuconostoc mesenteorides and found many articles on the same topic. Most of the articles I found had to do with fermentation of vegetables, salt production, and sauerkraut. After adding some of these passages in my notes with citations I researched for a little bit longer but didn't find anything new or worth citing or spending time on. Next I began writing my paragraph on the topic trying to explain why leuconostoc mesenteorides were important to the flavor of sauerkraut and the amount of salt production. Finally after finishing all of that I began to answer the question form our LAB and tried to understand the chart that was made in class.

Day 7 (Dec. 11) The History of Sauerkraut:

Today in class Ms. Rassmussen reviewed the L.A.B we will be working on tomorrow. For homework we have to prep the lab and me and my partner decided that she would work on the history of pickles and I would do a link on the history of sauerkraut. We decided to do this after Ms. Rassmussen explained to us what exactly fermentation is and how important our bacteria was to making the sour taste in things like sauerkraut and pickles. To begin researching i went on the school's library databases and copied some of the facts unto my notes. After I searched on the free web to find any information on sauerkraut and fermentation that I couldn't find before. I also found some pictures of sauerkraut that we will be putting on the link page and we have also decided to put a voice box on the page to talk about the preparation of sauerkraut. After all of my research I was able to write a couple good paragraphs on the link to "the history of sauerkraut" and me and my partner will learn how to add the voice box later on in our free period or study hall. After we finish this research we will be done with all major research for our project and all that will be left to do will be editing, colors, and extra links to make a good grade. Having a smaller task for tonight was on purpose because we also have to prep our lab for tomorrow.

Day 8 (Dec. 12) Editing:

Today instead of doing research, because we finished our basic research, we have decided to go back over all of our paragraphs and correct any misspellings or punctuation. We will also be adding any pictures, effects, or colors that we think are needed on our website. Today in class we conducted our lab and tested the bacteria with the motility test and the sheep's blood agar and tomorrow we will be conducting the gram-stain test. Also, tonight for homework is working on our lab but because we are still waiting on the results, which we will find out tomorrow in class, but as for now there are not many questions we can already answer. T