Entry 1: 12/3/07

Today I began to look into my assigned bacteria, Lactobacillus Thermophilus, and uncovered what ever I could with research.  Unfortunately, that wasn't very much at all because I could not find anything by use of the databases that related to a bacteria called Lactobacillus Thermophilus.  I did find short paragraphs about yogurt and a scientific discovery that due to the Streptococcus Thermophilus and the something or other Lactobacillus, yogurt can relieve bad breath germs.  This is interesting, but, i have yet to see the term Lactobacillus Thermophilus in that order within a research paragraph; perhaps the spelling is wrong?

Entry 2: 12/4/07

Today I worked to organize a timeline that would give both Max and myself an agenda to abide by in order to complete the assignment.  I have layed out the details so that we will finish initial research by Tuesday, or so, and then will go back and polish everything, add details, make it great, in order to obtain a satisfying grade.  I will research content numbers 1 to 5, and max will do 6 to 11.  In this way we are efficient and organized.  I will continue my research tomorrow in hopes of better results.  I plan on addressing Mrs. Rasmussen tomorrow in class over the issue of the lack of material found regarding our specified bacteria with my partner Max.

Entry 3: 12/5/07

Today I researched Lactobacillus Thermophilus some more after being informed via email that there had been a typo when i recieved my assigned bacteria initially.  I looked at Gale, SIRS, NetTrecker, and Britanica, and the only relating article i found was within Britanica, the rest had told me that there were no matches found.  This article that i read sad that Lactobacillus is a bacteria that varies in sorts, but that is commonly found in yogurt, milk, and soysauce.  It suggests that the term Thermophilus specifies the type of Lactobaccilus, because there are other bacteria that have the preceeding name of Thermophilus. 

However, i have still not found any significant research that unravels any data or answers any of my questions.  i plan on speaking with Mrs. Rasmussen about this tomorrow because this could pose a problem. 

Entry 4: 12/6/07

Today was an in-class work day for us so i was able to get most of my research done.  I have finally found a commendable site that provides adequate information.  With the help from my partner, Max, we now have not only a starting point but also a base for all of our research.  Clicking on the link for this web page pulled up an entire 7 page document regarding Lactobacillus Thermophilus.  I will use this to get a base hold on my 5 content topics, and then i will do further specific research to supply each page on my website with extra information to explain each aspect more clearly.  Today i researched Gram Stain and found a website that explained what gram stain is as well so that i may put that information in my web page.  Finally i feel like i'm gaining ground and progessing in this project.

Entry 5: 12/7/07

Today i missed biology class due to a basketball tournament, so i was not able to do any in-class research, however i did try to research the classification of Lactobacillus Thermophilus at my house.  There wasn't much information at all about the Classification of Lactobacillus thermophilus on the document page that we found previously, and i wasn't able to find anything else, including on wikipedia.  This is a bit disconcerning because the classification is perhaps one of the most vital aspects in our project.  i have a list of things to discuss within the classification of our bacteria, and i cannot provide answers to address all of them yet.  No matter, i will continue to discuss this with Max and will figure out a conclusion to this issue.  Over the weekend i will research my other content assignments and progress further in the project.

Entry 6: 12/8&9/07

Over the Weekend i researched both the structure and the habitat for Lactobacillus Thermophilus.  When i make the web page, i will include texts that discribe varrying kinds of structures as well as Lactubacillus Thermophilus, and then i will do the same for habitats.  This should provide me with enough information for those two contents.  I learned that the optimum temp for growing the bacteria is 50 to 60 degrees celcius, and that the organism does not grow in slightly acid media.  Also, standard nutrien agar does not go well as a habitat for Lactobacillus Thermophilus.  Studies have shown that it survives best in milk cultures that have been made sterile by heating at 70 degrees celcius for 30 minutes.  I also learned that Lactobacillus occures in single celled forms or long chains of cells.  It will be interesting to see how all of this ties into more of my research. 

Entry 7: 12/10/07

Today i brushed up on my research regarding the habitat gram stain and structure of my bacteria.  I learned that the term Baccilus implies that the structure of the bacteria is rod-shaped.  Thanks to Wikipedia, upon request of Mrs. Rasmussen, and also a website regarding the Gram Stane, i have enriched our data and am now ready to make web pages for a selection of our contents.  I learned that the Gram Stain is named after a man named Hans Christian Gram and is usually the first test preformed on bacteria when you want to identify it.  Coinsidentally, we have just started a lab that regards the same material, so i feel like i have a handle on things.  Tomorrow i will dig into the Classification, since when i tried before i came up with no results.

Entry 8: 12/11/07

After an inclass workday, i was able to get much information from the enternet.  With the help from Wikipedia again, i was able to uncover a plethera of information on the classification of Lactobacillus Thermophilus.  i learned the kingdom, division, class, order, family, and genus of the bacteria assigned to our group.  To go with this, i obtained extra information that will provide our project with a more detailed structure.  i gatherd the information and wrote about it more in my notes.  This too now, classification, is ready for it's own web page.  We are almost complete with the "rough draft" of our project, and then will only need to go and polish everything up.  we fell behind our research at first due to the lack of information obtainable, but we are back on top of things now.

Entry 9: 12/12/07

Today was a long day.  I worked all day long on the Classification Web Page, and did additional research to optimize our product.  I did not exspect it to take this long for one page, but classification was predicted to be the most detailed page.  I talked about the Kingdom, division, class, order, family, and genus, each individually, and i do believe that the final product of that web page is good looking.  I used the document that we found initially to aid me in this particularly long process.  I havn't begun to do website evaluations, but our group only needs two because we only used two websites from the free web.  I need to really put in solid hours on this project to get it done, the urge to procrastinate is setting in due to the approaching winter break, but i am trying my best to stay on top of things.  I believe we are in good shape and should finish on time.

Entry 10: 12/13/07

Today Max informed me that he had been up late the previous night and found a video, and other visual mechanisms to add to our web page; yet another above and beyond addition.  He is really contributing to this project.  I still have to make web pages for 4 more websites, gram stain, habitat, structure, and nutritional requirments, but i believe i have enough information for most of those.  If anything, i could brush up my resources and knowlege on the nutritional requirments and structure, which i probably will later in order to make the web pages.  We are slightly behind schedual i guess but not to worry we will finish in time.  I think we may try to get together over the weekend to finish this up, Max and me, but i am not certain because i have quite a busy weekend ahead of me with basketball, babysitting and my dad's company party.  Either way, we will find a way to finish.

Entry 11: 12/14/07

Today is my second to last journal entree and i have to admit i am a bit relieved.  This has been pretty annoying.  No matter, today i composed a web site for the Gram Stain.  I think it is fairly adequate and deserving of praise.  I discuss history behind the test, the actual process, as well as the relativity to our bacteria.  Overall it is a good addition.  Now i just need to complete Habitat, Structure, and Nutritional Requirments.  Today i was also informed in class that we need to make a student evaluation for our website, where the students will write down what they think about our website.  A last minute notice i guess, but i should be able to get it complete.  Tomorrow will be a very busy day but i hope to come very close to finishing this project, finally.

Entry 12: 12/15&16/07

Over the weekend Max and I finally finished our project.  It looks great!  I put up the rest of my web pages on friday and saturday, and he did the website evals., and the rest of his part as well.  On Sunday we reviewed the entire website, and did a spell check, grammar review, etc....  Everything has been made as best as we see fit, and i can't wait to present it and get this all behind us.  I feel good about everything involving this website, we did a great job and deserve a great grade.  I've been keeping in touch with Max via email, and he will go through one last check and then email it to Mrs. Rasmussen before the due time.  Looking back at the project, it was a good experience, annoying at times, but it was okay.  There are things i would and would not have done differently, but no serious complaints.  Max was a great partner and he really contributed much more than any other partner would have.  We're done!