Throughout the four years that I’ve attended UVM, I never even knew that experiences such as CURE were offered until a fellow classmate introduced it to me. I’m so glad that I got to have this experience before I graduated. CURE has helped me learn what actually goes into research post undergrad. I never expected the process to be so different from all the labs I have done in other classes. Although this class is a lot of work, it is definitely worth it. This course has to be one of the most inspiring and engaging experiences I have had at UVM. This course is different from others because you are not just working for a grade but working on creating a project that could actually get published and that you’re passionate about. It’s taught me that anyone can get published if they work hard enough and put in the time and effort it takes. With all the work that needs to be done, the process can seem daunting at times but the professor, Laura May-Collado, provides awesome support and help as needed while still giving us the freedom of creating our own project. She explains everything clearly and gives you everything you need to start working on your project. She also meets with everyone throughout the semester and offers guidance as well as, any help she can offer. Laura makes the goal of publishing research achievable for everyone if they do their part.
For my project, I worked with another student to study the factors that influence the activity in marine soundscapes, focusing mostly on lunar cycles and substrates of the 4 different locations chosen. Using the program Arbimon allowed me to create playlists and Acoustic Complex Index graphs. It definitely was a learning curve as I had never used a program like this. At first, it took many hours to make the playlists but soon enough, I was making them on my own confidently. This process seemed endless in the moment, with so many graphs and excel files it was hard to keep track of it all. There were also challenges that came along with so many playlists. With so many different excel files and graphs, it was easy to become overwhelmed and make mistakes. But by staying organized and on top of everything, it was easier to navigate through the files and create the playlists. While making excel files, I discovered many playlists and graphs had to be remade. Even with all of the challenges and long hours, I was still very excited about the final results. The results were interesting because they were so different from site to site but it was so cool to see the correlations that could be made.
I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything, through all the challenges and the work load I feel like I got a good idea of what goes into research and it has made me excited to continue research in the future.
For my project, I worked with another student to study the factors that influence the activity in marine soundscapes, focusing mostly on lunar cycles and substrates of the 4 different locations chosen. Using the program Arbimon allowed me to create playlists and Acoustic Complex Index graphs. It definitely was a learning curve as I had never used a program like this. At first, it took many hours to make the playlists but soon enough, I was making them on my own confidently. This process seemed endless in the moment, with so many graphs and excel files it was hard to keep track of it all. There were also challenges that came along with so many playlists. With so many different excel files and graphs, it was easy to become overwhelmed and make mistakes. But by staying organized and on top of everything, it was easier to navigate through the files and create the playlists. While making excel files, I discovered many playlists and graphs had to be remade. Even with all of the challenges and long hours, I was still very excited about the final results. The results were interesting because they were so different from site to site but it was so cool to see the correlations that could be made.
I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything, through all the challenges and the work load I feel like I got a good idea of what goes into research and it has made me excited to continue research in the future.
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