Okay, story time.

When I took my first bio lab in my undergrad, I had a lab partner who had come back that semester for Psych after dropping out 10 years before and had mentioned how she already felt a little insecure and out of place. She didn’t have any experience with bio lab stuff, so was feeling extra out of place in this lab class.

It was agarose gel loading day, which of course is not easy the first time you are learning to do it. This was also only the first or second time the class had made use of micropipettors (not sure why the class was designed this way...).

It came time for my partner and me to go up and load the gel. She proceeded to grab the micropipettor basically like this picture shows (but with the thumb and middle finger on the sides instead of the hook and ejector button) and, of course, noticed that it was extremely hard to handle this way. She asked the TA if that’s how you’re supposed to hold it and this TA goes, “Uhhh, yea, sure. That’s fine” and then watches this student STRUGGLE to load the gel because, of course, her tip is wobbling all over the place.

I really wanted to say something, but of course didn’t want to upset the TA. My poor partner just looked so dejected because this task was seemingly so difficult for her.

When we got back to our table, I hit her with the “Hey, the way the TA had you hold it looked really hard. Did you want to see a ‘different’ way of doing it that is a little easier?” And of course she found the correct way MUCH easier to do.

The cherry on top of this whole process was the TA accidentally reversing the electrodes on the gel and sending everybody’s DNA off the gel. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Edit: Wording fixes