Freshman year, 2019 Fall semester:
Through Entering Research 1, I was able to gain new skills on how to write a scientific paper. I was also able to gain new knowledge about the issues that are affecting the Chesapeake Bay. What I like the most about Entering Research was the fact that the data we collected during the LIFE STEM summer bridge continued to be analyzed during Entering Research.
Something that I found difficult in Entering Research was learning how to write a scientific paper. Writing an introduction about dissolved oxygen was what I believe to be the hardest part of a scientific paper. It was hard because a lot of the information that I gathered was from research that I had collected from other sources. Most of our data and discussion were all based on research, so a lot of what I said in the introduction, results, and discussion was not data that I had collected, but it was data that I had collected through research.
One of the skills that I gain through Entering Research was interviewing faculty in the science department on research they had conducted. Having an interview with a professor allowed me to have the background knowledge to be a professional while conducting interviews to obtain knowledge on a certain research project. Overall, I believe that Entering Research taught me a lot of skills, and thanks to this class I will be able to be more prepared on how to write a better scientific paper in the future.