Something I really appreciate about Evergreen is how many chances we get to do labs. Right now I am taking 12 credits of INS (biology and chemistry) and a 4 credit night class (physics). Being in three heavy sciences is tough but I am persevering, and they each have fun lab work to do. Anyway, I wanted to show a couple photos of how far we have come in chemistry lab.

This picture is from our first chemistry lab Fall quarter, where we learned how to use volumetric pipettes and mix solutions in a volumetric flask.

In this picture we fast forward to week 3 Winter quarter where our lab was entitled: Isolation of Essential Oils from a Citrus Fruit by Steam Distillation. Basically we extracted an essential oil from oranges that is a major component of limonene. Limonene is used for orange odor and flavoring. We were able to extract that using a steam distillation apparatus and will use the oil for a future lab in the Spring!

The labs have been a really fun way to integrate what we have learned into a real life environment. I’ll try to take some pictures from my Biology lab next week. Last week we cloned our own DNA and streaked it on an agar plate. We should be seeing the colonies form soon!