The purpose of this blog is to share my research experience with the rest of the world. My intentions are to post a blog post once a week about what I have done in the Biology research lab, as well as my thoughts on research. I have to admit this is the first blog I create, so I do ask you to be patient and understanding. Since this blog will cover the ten weeks of this research opportunity, I will cover a wide range of topics, experiences, research methods, and share my personal ideas. I do receive feedback very well, so do not hesitate to make comments. So lets get started!!!!
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June 23, 2018
Let me tell you that a few weeks ago I was provided with a great opportunity I could not let pass by, and I have enjoyed it so much that I have decide to share it with you all; and that was a research opportunity at the University of Denver in a Biology laboratory. Beginning this research opportunity I had no clue what research truly consists of and the processes one has to go through. Research is one of those things you have to experience to know what it takes to conduct your own research. Within this opportunity I am assisting graduate students with their own research. The most exciting part of this research is that I work with honey bees. Yep, honey bees are my new friends for the summer. Who would have thought that honey bees, those tiny flying animals many fear, would be such beautiful and interesting creatures to study? Through this research, I, along with other three undergraduate students, have been training these bees to feed out of arrays we prepare for them, with the purpose of studying their attraction to a flower (which in this case the flowers are represented by the arrays) in consideration of the nearby ‘flowers’. The arrays are full of sugar water and lavender scent to attract the bees. They were pretty hesitant to come to the array this week. I cannot wait to tell you how the rest of my summer develops though this research opportunity. June 30, 2018 This week has been a week of adventures and discoveries, as we received a different perspective on research and biology overall. This week the other undergraduate students and I were able to work with another graduate student set up her research. This consisted of field work where we went to six different sites in two days and set up four to six transects in each site. At first none of us knew what a transect was or what we were exactly doing, but it slowly started to make sense for all of us. The sites we visited were about 45 minutes to an hour away from DU. Setting up the transects for the first day was easy, as we, specially the graduate students, had their minds set on where the field work was going to take place. After hiking for a bit, the transects were placed in plain areas. A transect is a method used to facilitate research, when it comes to counting/collecting a certain species in an area. In this case the transects consisted of two small wooden poles or small flags dug into the ground. In this case a transect consisted of two poles/flags separated from each other 25 meters. The transects were 10 meters separated from each other. Some of the sites were easy and fast to reach, while some were more difficult due to how steep the mountains were. One of the major problems we faced and that we did not anticipate, was that one of the sites was not adequate to use for the transects, since there was no flat land to work on. This site was very rocky, steep, and with many, many trees. And as we hiked up the mountain the landscape only got worse and worse. We had no other option but to leave this site behind and move on to the next, hoping that the next site that we would explore would provide us with a better field. For this week we only placed and set up the transects, so that they could be ready for the beginning of specie collection where we could just walk through the transect (in the straight line that each transect provides) swooping up insects. July 7, 2018 This week was an exciting week as we started to perform the experiment with the bees. After weeks of training the bees and hoping that bees would find and come to the array, we finally started performing the experiments. There was a moderate amount of bees in the array that had been moved to the middle of the garden. We did a few beginning trials to make sure we all knew what we were doing and were on the same page regarding the protocol that had to be followed when conducting the experiment. After doing a few trials, we flew through the next trial, as we got the hang of our responsibilities. In each trial, nine flowers were observed at a time. Most of the individuals observing the bees, were taking care of one flower at a time while a few were observing two at a time, while one person was responsible for recording the data and another of keeping track of the time. Those taking care of the flowers were responsible for counting the number of bees on the array after 30 seconds. Regarding the focal flower or in other words the flower in the center of the nine flowers, the amount of bees recruited were counted after 20 seconds that followed the previous 30 seconds. After the 30 and 20 seconds, the amount of bees counted were said out loud to be recorded by the recorder. Once again, this was done to study how the number of bees in a certain flower can affect the number of bees being attracted to the focal flower. July 14, 2018 Buuuzzzzzzzzz…And the research continues. This week we continued with the bee observation, conducting the experiment with the bees where we were outside counting bees that landed on the array, but we added something new to this experience, and that is to acquire and learn laboratory techniques such as practicing micro pipetting. We started to learn pipetting techniques, which I have really enjoyed and appreciate as this will prepare me for my future classes and my career. We also had the opportunity to learn how to create posters and on how to present, in order to facilitate my process when I create a poster and present it on the research I will be conducting over the summer. July 21, 2018 I do have to say, this research opportunity is getting more and more interesting by the day. This week data collection for the bees continued while adding on field work, and the beginning of my project, which I will have to present and which I am really looking forward to. First off, in regards to the bees, we continued on collecting data for the same focal flowers as last week, with one small addition to the experiment, and that was the addition of new focal flowers and thus more trials. We continued counting bees on the flowers and each of the undergraduate student focused on one or two flowers, but this time the focal flowers were the corner flowers or the middle edge flowers. This addition was made for the enhancement of the data gathered, and so that more accurate and precised conclusions can be made. I can not deny that focusing on these focal flowers facilitates the responsibilities for each one of us, as there are less flowers to take care of. Moving on, this week we had two days dedicated to field work, where we went out to the six sites where the transects were set, in order to being the collection of insects. This was done with the use of two nets and several jars. Each one of us took turns going though the transects and using a net to do a pendulum motion to sweep as many insects as possible along the straight line that was created by the transect. The insects were then placed in a jar, with the help of a big paper funnel. I cannot deny that this field work was nothing like I expected, and considering it was my first time, I really enjoyed it. Lastly, this week I also got insight to what my research poster is going to be all about. After going through all the research projects, I decided to do my research poster on the theme of paternity, focusing on beetles. Yes you heard right, my research poster will be focused on conducting paternity tests on Dogbane Beetles. I was mind-blown with this research, I mean who wouldn’t be? It will be hard work and patience as I will start from the bottom learning all the laboratory techniques needed when doing PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), and working with gel electrophoresis, but as a Molecular Biology Major, I am as excited to learn all these techniques as a little kid would be of going to the amusement park. I cannot wait to get my hands on some DNA and start learning even more about biology. I’ll make sure to keep you posted on all the progress that I make with the incredible project. Till next time… |