RESEARCH, SCHOLARLY AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY

Coming into college, I knew that I wanted to do work studying marine organisms, but I did not understand how I would do it as a career. I knew that conducting research on the organisms was something I could do, but I did not understand the full scope of what a researcher did. Through my experiences at Minnesota State, Mankato, I have learned in depth what it means to conduct research and have found that I have a passion for research. Specifically, I learned a lot about how to form a research question, how to ethically conduct research, and how to present my findings. Building this foundation and finding my passion for research has set me up for success as I continue down my current path of attending graduate school to pursue a career in marine sciences research.

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My research experience began my freshman year when I was a part of the RISEbio research program. Through this program, I took the BIOL 105 research methods lab. In this class, I learned more about the research process and how to perform essential research techniques. At the end of the semester, I participated in a research experiment where I collected data and interpreted the results. After this, I had to write a research paper to explain what I did and what my results were. Writing this paper and doing lab work in this course built the foundation for my experience in the RISEbio research streams. I completed lab work in Dr. Cohen’s Brain and Behavior research stream from January 2019- December of 2019. In this research setting, I learned more research techniques and practiced my scientific writing ability. Additionally, I had the opportunity to practice presenting my partner and I’s research findings multiple times. Working in this research stream was the first time I had the opportunity to run experiments and understand the goals of research. RISEbio as a whole showed me that I had a passion for research and that it was something I wanted to continue in the future.

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Upon completing the RISEbio program, I decided to switch research labs to work more closely with fish. I began working with Dr. Minicozzi in January of 2020. During this spring semester, I started learning about the tail-flip jump and how to collect data for the jump. As I was getting started on the project, my time was unfortunately cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After returning to campus in the fall of 2020, I picked up where I left off on the project and collected new data. Additionally, this year I wrote a URC grant and presented my findings at the URS in April 2021. After gaining more experience through this year, Dr. Minicozzi and I decided to continue working on this project for the 2021-2022 school year but look at a different aspect of the fish morphology. Through this year, I learned more about the formation of a scientific question and how to determine the methodology of an experiment on my own. In this year of work, I wrote a URC grant and presented my research at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology conference and the URS. Because of our interesting findings over the past two years, we are able to begin the process of writing a paper and publishing our findings. Overall, in my second year in Dr. Minicozzi’s lab I learned to be more independent while also continuing to learn how to present results and publish a scientific work. I had multiple opportunities to present my work at conferences and learned at each one how to become a better presenter. Additionally, while writing a scientific publication, I learned a lot about taking critiques. I have always been able to take critiques and criticisms well because I have been involved in subjective sports my whole life. However, I often found myself crushed when I submitted a draft that I thought was good and it came back with a ton of red marks. I realized, though, that I was getting these edits because people cared. They wanted the grants I wrote, the presentations I made, and the paper to be the best that it could. The edits were not because I was bad at writing or presenting, they were because I was new at it and had a few things to learn. Because I was able to see and apply these edits, I feel that I have really been able to grow as a scientific presenter and writer. 

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During the summer of 2021, I had the opportunity to build my research skills in a different sector through my internship at the Omaha Zoo and Aquarium. I was assigned to work with a visually impaired wolf eel and train him to come to the target to get his food. In this research project, I had to research, develop, and test a protocol that would be able to determine if he could see the target and work on his ability to recognize it and come to it. This research project was a lot different than the fish I worked with in Minicozzi’s laboratory because it was not as “scientific.” By this, I mean although I had to do the research and method testing, there was not the end goal of publishing the work. It was just a project that needed to be done in order to enhance the health and quality of life of the eel in the tank. This experience showed me how broad research can be and the choices I will have in my area of research in the future.

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Throughout my experiences, I have learned about the broad range of research topics that can be studied. The skills I have gained will help me find a Ph.D. program that fits my specific goals and interests. Additionally, the wide variety of research and presentation skills I have gained will help to set me up for success in future labs. I have gained confidence in my research abilities over the past four years, and I believe this will greatly benefit me when working on a graduate degree. Once I have acquired my Ph.D., these experiences as well as future experience will allow for me to be a successful marine researcher.