<span;>Research has been a very important part of my life for the past couple of years, and if everything goes to plan, many years to come. I am currently studying to become a physics and math major and hope to attend grad school after that. I started with an internship in a physics lab my senior year of highschool and plan on continuing all throughout my undergrad. I have already gained so much from the experience in the form of connections and friendships as well as tangible knowledge skills. When I signed up for this study abroad program, I knew there was a personal research component and I figured that my research experience would allow me to breeze through it with no problems. Evidently, biology/anthropology research is extraordinarily different from physics, and I had still have a lot to learn when it comes to conducting research.
<span;>For one, my partner and I created this project from the ground up and that was a completely new experience for the both of us. We did all the research, formulated the questions, designed the methodology (with lots of help), took all the data, and soon we will perform the analysis. The effect of condensing this often multi-year process into a few days had many effects both positive and negative. On the positive side, I have been able to gain a perspective on research that I didn’t previously have, considering the whole project on every step of the way. Most of my experience has been focused into one part of a project a time, with little appreciation for the larger scope. It also meant that I never got burnt out, I simply didn’t have time. With my physics research I go through periods where I just need a break from the hyperfocused work, that wasn’t the case here. We couldn’t be passive, and we always were thinking of the next thing. On the negative side, I didn’t get to spend as much time on any one step of the process as I would have liked. I wish we had done more background research, done more planning for our data collection, had more time to collect data, etc. The rush was required given the content of our work, but I still feel I gained a lot from the experience.
<span;>There are a few big things that I learned from researching in Costa Rica which I will carry over to my work in physics. The first isseeking help from the pros. Profs. Libby and Wasserman, as well as Eric (Our TA) were all extremely helpful in designing our research project and this made me realize that I could look to my PI back home for more support. These are people who have created a life doing scientific research and who have huge reserves of knowledge and experience to tap into. Often times, they are just excited to talk about the things they love!
<span;>Another thing that I learned, was that the grunt work is important. My role in the physics lab is that of an incoming sophomore with a lot to learn. A lot of the time I have spent there has been fun, but repetitive and felt disconnected from our ultimate goals. Sometimes it seemed like I was getting the less important jobs because of my position. However, when I conduct my own project and had complete control, I ended up doing the same kind of work for the majority of the time. It isn’t less useful, it just has lower barriers to entry and makes perfect sense to be the kind of work I do.
<span;>My last big takeaway is that science matters. Obviously this is something that I already believed, but doing research closer to the realm of human life helped me solidify this. With studying ecology and jungle health it is easy to understand why. We study our own environment and how it might change in order to inform our own behavior. There are obvious implications to this kind of research. Quantum physics is a bit of a different story, why should anyone care about entanglement? There are lots of answers and I could list off potential applications, but that isn’t the point. In my mind, research is all about knowledge, and to me, that is the most important thing for humanity. I firmly believe we are at a point where the thing holding preventing a lack of hunger and disease and poor access to education is not technology, but politics, and I have no interest in getting involved in politics. Therefore, I want to learn. I am lucky to be in a position where my actions can reflect this belief, and because of this I feel I have a responsibility to follow it through. Expanding the collective knowledge of humanity is the next phase of our existence, and I am just starting to perform my role.
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