I've done it! (and by "it" I mean successfully completed all of my coursework and also paid for final exam access to earn a certificate of completion for both courses). With these first purchases I was able to update my budget sheet, and I now anticipate my next purchase being for a mix of different plastics (very fun). I have attached my certificate to this post, but that's not all I've been up to. I have a few sketches/ideas I've created that are in a notebook I left back in Maryland, so images of those should be going up by this Friday. With all of my coursework and the bulk of my neuroscience research behind me, I am shifting gears to focus on my model specifically. I know that when I get back home I have a lot of specifics to figure out, but I am excited by the many possibilities my project has. I have also attached the remainder of my notes to this post.
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Myelin? Sheath. Membrane? Potential. Voltage-Gated? Channels. Be prepared for lots of parenthesis in this post. During these past 15 days since my last blog post, there is one word that can sum up what I have done for this project. And that is research. I continued with the HarvardX course on the electrical properties of the neuron, but decided I needed a better foundation of neuron structure. This lead me to a Khan Academy course about the nervous system which was immensely helpful. Doing research has led me to discover more things I need to research to reach a level of understanding that addresses the complexities in neuron structure and function that exist. I also had a meeting with my out of school mentors, Dr. Buckley and Dr. Tomei, and Dr. Tomei shared with me a document of questions kids had asked her about neurons and brain development which she provided answers to. This was a perfect way for me to think about the questions that my own model could address. With what I’ve learned so far, I know that my next step is to finish my research by taking the HarvardX neurotransmission course. I will then have covered all the areas that my project addresses: neuron structure, the action potential (electrical signal sent through the neuron), and neurotransmission (chemical signal neurons send to each other). Then I need to chose the kind of circuit I would like to model, and start my sketching and 3D rendering! I have attached the notes taken thus far to this post, as well as a photo of some practice problems I completed to solve for Nernst potential (explained in the notes, but this is the voltage the neuron’s membrane where a certain ion is at its equilibrium) and membrane potential with the GHK equation (also explained in the notes). My "research station" and proof of doing the course can also be found below. |