BIOL 251 (Intro to Ecology and Evolution) was the first class where I was tasked with designing and executing my own experiment. This was part of the lab portion of this class and we were allowed to work in groups. My group and I chose to focus on human death rates by comparing survivorship curves across many variables. During each lab period, my group members and I researched to find information regarding interpreting and understanding survivorship curves as well as looked for cemetery databases that contained the information we needed.
Because of this assignment, I was able to learn how to design and experiment and draw conclusions from it. It was difficult at first for me to comprehend how even though we were not actively doing laboratory work, we were still experimenting and drawing conclusions from those experiments. The knowledge I gained from this class allowed me to pursue other forms of research, including working in the two independent research labs I am currently in. During the PRISM program, I worked closely with Dr. Franssen to design the experiments for the summer and figure out how to interpret those results. After that concluded, I worked with him again to design yet another experiment to work on during my last year at Longwood. Without my background knowledge in designing experiments and drawing conclusions from 251, none of this would have been possible and I would have had to lean more on Dr. Franssen to guide me through the process rather than working as his colleague.
I am most proud of my ability to work in that lab during my freshman year. Considering I never took BIOL 120 at Longwood, I felt that my contributions to the lab work were actually better than I or anyone else expected. I was able to help design the experiment with my lab partners and even took a leadership role in that group where I assigned tasks to my group members.
All of these skills I learned in both 251 and PRISM will help me in my future endeavors as a physician. Although there is so much known regarding human health and medicinal practices, there is still so much unknown that can be solved. After practicing medicine for a few years in the oncology department, I have aspirations of returning to school to research cancer treatments. With this field, I will have to fall back on my basic knowledge of designing and executing experiments in order to be successful. In addition, there is no one treatment for cancer. Each patient I treat is its own experiment in itself because I have to figure out what works best for the patient. I will once again have to fall back on my knowledge I learned in these classes and labs to help my patients.
Click here to view my BIOL 251 presentation.
Click here to view my PRISM presentation (given at the beginning of the summer).
I chose to include the PRISM presentation and not my PRISM poster because it provides all of the details of my research. It also showcases how much growth I went through in order to perform such intricate and difficult research.