Monday, April 21, 2014

I joined the creative inquiry team for the spring semester and it has been a fantastic experience so far. It’s been eye-opening to be involved in research outside of a normal classroom environment. Being my first semester, it took a little while to adjust and get caught up on all the projects that were going on. I jumped in right in the middle of data finalization and poster preparations. Kylie and Dr. Childress, along with the rest of the team helped get me on track as soon as possible.

The CI team at the Benthic Ecology Meeting 
Over spring break, I had the privilege of attending the Benthic Ecology Meeting held in Jacksonville, Florida. This was a great opportunity to not only present research I had been working on, but also a wonderful chance to really get to know everyone on the team. The conference brought labs from all over the country and even some from Canada to present their research in the form of short talks and posters. Talks were spread over three days and covered a variety of interesting topics dealing with benthic ecology. We were invited to attend any and all of them while we were there. On Thursday night of the conference, those in the lab that had posters presented them to various judges and others interested in our projects. Two of our undergrads, Sarah and Brandt, and our graduate student, Kylie, gave talks on their research on coral ecology and parrotfish grazing effects in the Florida Keys. Their ability to clearly present their ideas and findings was a true indicator of the amount of work that this lab puts in, and I was so proud to be a part of the team. I can’t wait to continue in this creative inquiry and am so excited to begin working on a new project when we return in the fall.

 
















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