E-meet

From another school and want to converse with our class?  This is a place for other classes to have discussions with us about class blogs, school projects, collaborative ideas, local culture, location, and more.  We’d love to find out how your school is similar and different from ours!

Leave a comment below and our class will be more than happy to respond.  Make sure to leave a link or web address to your blog so we know where to respond.

We look forward to learning all about you!

2 Responses

  1. Jeff Eller September 28, 2015 at 9:20 PM |

    Greetings, Ms. Johnson:

    I appreciate you agreeing to meet with Ms. Fawaz’s 5th grade class. They are just diving in to cells and how they are structured and what makes them work. Learning about plant cells and animal cells is unique in that it helps as people understand how the different organs and systems work together to help us grow and develop.

    I understand that you have a great interest in the medical field, have pursued this interest, and have actually graduated from college with a degree in your area of interest. Can you share with Ms. Fawaz’s class about how you chose this path, what you learned along the way, and where you are heading, next?

    Thanks again for your interest in this area and being willing to share your journey with us!

    Regards,

    Mr. Eller

    Reply
  2. Ashton Johnson October 5, 2015 at 9:17 AM |

    Dear Ms. Fawaz’s 5th grade class,

    I was so excited to hear that you are studying one of my favorite topics- cells! Cells are so interesting to me because they truly are the building blocks to life. In fact, learning about cells in my middle school life science class really got me interested about pursuing science and started me on a great path within the field of biology!

    I remember that in my class we were tasked with converting a shoebox into a model of an animal cell with the proper organelles. As I learned about the different functions and structures that make up a cell, I couldn’t quite understand how all the tiny things worked together in harmony for organisms to grow and develop. Cells are one of the most important topics in biology and I was very curious about them. This wondering led to me choosing to take electives in high school such as anatomy, physiology, and environmental science so that I could learn more about living organisms such as plants and animals and ultimately how they function.

    I enjoyed these classes so much that when it came time to apply for college I decided that I would continue pursuing them by selecting biology as my major. Biology means ‘study of life’ and that was exactly my interest. I began my college studies in biology at The University of Georgia where I took courses in all subdisciplines of biology such as: General Biology, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Cellular Biology, Neurobiology, Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, Physiology, and Microbiology. Biology was even studied as a part of my Organic Chemistry courses! I was well immersed in the world of life science, but I really found my interest in the laboratory classes that accompanied my education.

    I would get to spend every day in a lab with microscope equipment preparing slides and examining samples for different experiments. I spent hours looking at cells and I remember the first time I saw a cell from a slide I prepared- it looked nothing like my shoebox model! I really began to understand how all the parts worked together the more I studied it.

    My interest in the medical field developed out of an infectious disease unit in my microbiology course. We studied a new type of cell- bacteria cells. We grew these cells on agar plates and then examined them under the microscope. It was so strange to think that these tiny cells could make someone very sick! We studied how animal cells were different from the bacterial cells and how this difference is why things such as antibiotics work to kill the bacterial cells but leave our other cells healthy. It was really interesting to me how a couple of bacterial cells could infect a single person, but what happens when that person passes the infection along to another? And another? And another?

    I finally understood the micro-level of human health, but wanted to take it further by studying something called epidemiology. Epidemiology is a sub discipline of public health, which focuses on health at a population level. Infectious disease epidemiology examines disease transmission, risk factors associated with diseases, and most importantly- how to control an outbreak or disease clustering. I found that waterborne and foodborne disease transmission really interested me because it can spread rapidly among people. Now that I have a degree in biology and an advanced degree in epidemiology, I am looking for a job in which I can incorporate the microscopic world of cells and life with how it all works together to keep populations of people healthy!

    Thank you so much for your interest in my journey, please feel free to contact me with any further questions!

    Best,

    Ashton Johnson

    Reply

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