Bellevue College Undergraduate Research

"If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?"

Albert Einstein

Overview:

Before I transferred to UW, I pursued undergraduate research in chemistry at Bellevue College during the summer of 2016. I developed my own research question and spent 7 weeks investigating the impacts of temperature and pH on the growth of lactic acid bacteria. I had been interested in pursuing research ever since I started college and the opportunity at Bellevue College sounded very interesting to me. This experience was valuable to me because I learned how to question and think critically about the material I was learning in class. This was also my first experience leading my own project and seeing it through until the end.

Growing some lactic acid bacteria (LAB)

Personal importance of work:

At the time that I pursued this research opportunity, I was planning to major in biochemistry. I had chosen to do research in chemistry to supplement my major. However, even though I ended up changing my major to psychology, I still find that research experience to be valuable. I later took courses in nutrition and I now have a strong interest in that field. Coincidentally, the research topic I chose can be applied to nutritional sciences as well. If I decide to pursue further studies in the field of nutrition, there is a chance that I could further research the topic I chose for this particular project. I also realized how much I enjoy research after I led my own project. Because of this, I am considering graduate school in nutrition so that I can continue to pursue research opportunities.

Presenting my poster at the 2017 UW Undergraduate Research Symposium

Tasks accomplished:

Wrote a literature review with 16 sources
Worked with my advisors to develop a thorough research question
Learned about research methods for measuring the growth of lactic acid bacteria
Learned about the importance of lactic acid bacteria in the stomach
Spent 20 hours per week working on my project
Repeated trials to get the most accurate results
Created an academic poster to showcase my findings.
Presented my poster at the 2017 UW Undergraduate Research Symposium

See my poster!

9ff5a8_b50c33f3904147349b3f36879b99a882~

Leadership Competencies:

Research

Synthesis

Idea Generation

When I began my undergraduate research, I was honestly not sure where to start. I learned how to identify good sources for my literature review by using research databases and seeking advice from my mentors. Once I decided what my research study would entail, my mentors taught me various lab techniques for how I could collect my data. I learned how to grow lactic acid bacteria in an incubator and how to measure the size of it in a spectrometer. I also learned how to decide which data that I collected would be most beneficial to use when creating my final poster.

When I was writing my literature review, I extracted the most important information from many different academic papers to quantify the central theme of my research. I learned how to effectively identify key information in academic papers and how to determine which details in those papers were irrelevant to my study. Some of the studies I read through were very similar to my study, so I therefore extracted more information from some papers. Synthesizing the academic papers helped me to identify a gap in the information I was reading, which was what helped me to develop my research question.

Doing undergraduate research in chemistry required large amounts of “thinking outside the box”. I learned that in order to be a good researcher, you have to question the material you are reading in your courses. You are learning concepts in class, you have to ask yourself exactly why something is the way it is and what other factors could affect it. Pursuing research in chemistry prompted me to ask more questions and generate more ideas about the topics I had been learning about. I began generating ideas as I was brainstorming topics to research, and then I continued to generate ideas when I had decided what I was going to research and I was not sure how I was going to collect my data.

Decision Making

Functioning Independently

Receiving Feedback

Something important that I learned while conducting my research is that sometimes the results you get will be either inconclusive, ambiguous, or not relevant to your research question. There were several instances when I was conducting my research when I was getting “bad” results and I had to decide which measures in the lab I should take to ensure that I get better results. This involved a lot of backtracking and repeating trials. In addition, because I only had 7 weeks to complete my project, I had to make decisions regarding the direction of my research to ensure that I would have at least some data to present by the deadline.

I conducted my research project on my own, which meant that I was the one that had to decide how to conduct the project most efficiently. My mentors were there to help me with my project, not to do my project with me. I learned how to ask critical questions about how I would want my research to proceed with minimal help from others. I also learned how to create my own schedule and deadlines for collecting data, and how to stay on top of that schedule. I also learned how to use necessary lab equipment on my own.

A large component of my research involved working with my mentors. Because I had never done research before, I felt very lost and confused when I first began it. I asked my mentors for a lot of feedback on my potential research questions. From there, I also asked for their advice on my methods of data collection. It was very helpful to get feedback when I was initially struggling to get good data. I also received feedback on the draft of my poster from my mentors and from other students doing undergraduate research in chemistry at Bellevue College.

(what I would do when I was waiting for the bacteria to grow)

Lessons learned and future oriented statement:

I became a much more self-sufficient learner as a result of this experience. This experience also helped me to not think of the information I learn from my classes as “black and white”. Most importantly, I learned how to apply what I had been learning in the classroom to a real study. Having the skill to apply information has helped me succeed in other classes and at the various jobs I’ve held in college. I also know that having this skill will enable me to succeed in a career that is specifically related to a certain field of study.