The CURE lab has allowed me to learn and experience things unlike most other courses. It serves as a hands-on learning experience in analyzing field data that is a crucial experience for anyone interested in studying biology. In my opinion, it is very important to try such things to figure out what you are interested in and if you find research interesting or enjoyable. Researching for this lab has easily been my favorite credit hours spent this semester. For my research, I analyzed the behaviors of Humpback Whales in Guerrero, Mexico. This analyzing was done by viewing drone footage (recorded by Eric Ramos as it is his project) through the BORIS event-logging software. The software allowed me to record the behaviors of the whales in the provided videos. The behaviors were coded on an ethogram, acting as a key so that I could easily mark the start and end of each behavior with a key press. Each of the sightings/videos can be shown easily on a plot like this:
Behavioral budget of humpback whales in Guerrero
As my research comes to an end in this course, I hope to compile the plots from each observation into a plot that shows how the whales of Guerrero spend their time. After this course, I plan to continue working with Eric over the summer, analyzing very interesting videos of whales interacting with other species. I hope to help him produce a publishable paper that uses some of my analyzed work. This is very exciting and a perfect example of how this course is so unique and useful. I would like to thank Laura for giving me the opportunity to experience this research. I have taken a summer research course with her before and it was amazing. I would recommend this course to anyone that can take it, especially those interested in biology or those unsure if they want to become a researcher/scientist.
As my research comes to an end in this course, I hope to compile the plots from each observation into a plot that shows how the whales of Guerrero spend their time. After this course, I plan to continue working with Eric over the summer, analyzing very interesting videos of whales interacting with other species. I hope to help him produce a publishable paper that uses some of my analyzed work. This is very exciting and a perfect example of how this course is so unique and useful. I would like to thank Laura for giving me the opportunity to experience this research. I have taken a summer research course with her before and it was amazing. I would recommend this course to anyone that can take it, especially those interested in biology or those unsure if they want to become a researcher/scientist.
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