In this course, I am just beginning to scratch the surface of college-level biology.  I participate in lectures, labs and recitations in order to complete this class.  Anyone taking 102 this year must work with zebra fish as if it were a real lab setting.  We are experimenting new ways to prevent fetal alcohol syndrome with these fish and will be doing so for several weeks.

This course was very difficult for me in the beginning as there was a lot of work that needed to be done in order to do well.  I ended up doing well on the first test and only improved from there.  There is a lot to learn for this class and taking good notes and asking questions is key.  I gained many valuable study habits and learned what it took to truly succeed in this class.  I have grown a relationship with Dr. Marrs and would like to work with her in the future.  I never hesitate to ask her questions and she is always willing to help me when need be.  I appreciate just how much this course challenged me and forced me to create new ways of learning for myself.

This course was designed specifically to help freshman Honors students to feel more at home in the Honors College.  It introduced us to the core concepts of being an honors students and helped us to interact with each other.  I was able to learn about more opportunities within the Honors College and was able to meet some new people.  With a small group, we created a final presentation on anxiety, independence, and insecurity as an honors student.  We focused on different types of bias and how that can lead to these things, as well as how to deal with it.

This was my first English course in college.  I think that it went quite well and I enjoyed it, to say the least.  I learned a lot about different writing techniques and was able to improve throughout the class.  It was very different than most of my high school English classes and I liked the way that this one was set up.  I did well in it and was able to challenge myself with the new things that I learned.  I adored my final project and I think that I did really well on it.  I picked experiential learning as my final topic because I truly believe that it is an important thing to tie into your education.  I was able to research the topic and learn more about it and how to incorporate it into not only my education, but others' as well.

This was my first honors contract to receive honors credit.  I wanted to research something I was interested in, but also give my creativity a chance to shine.  After speaking with Dr. Barrett on what I could do, I decided to make an infographic on avian kidneys and how they work down to the cellular level.  My pet bird, Rascal, was the main inspiration for the project.  I did not know anything about the anatomy of a kidney or how exactly it worked so the first research I gathered was on the structure of the kidney and how human/mammalian kidneys differ from that of avian ones.

After being able to describe how the kidneys of both humans and birds worked, I then researched the cellular biology of both kidneys.  I looked at the similarities and differences and made sure to explain the intricacies of how the cells functioned.  I learned so much about a topic I knew nothing about and learned about my own feathered friend in the process.  I was able to create something I was proud of and learned so much about cell biology in the process.

This lab was really fun and involved a lot of experiments with DNA.  Dr. Gentry lead our class and was sure to answer any questions we had.  For our largest project, we focused on how blow flies can be used as eco monitors.  These flies will go and drink blood from different species so, when the DNA content from their insides are extracted, it is possible to see the species that they have taken blood from.  This is an interesting way to monitor species diversity in the area.  It was a very unique way to see how genetics and molecular biology could be used in a real-life situation.  My partner and I hypothesized that you could even use this as a way to see if there are invasive species in an area, as well.

This course served as prep for my forensic capstone III, giving us in depth knowledge of many biological forensic tests.  Dr. Eller decided that he wanted me and two others two test out his laundrey detergent (which had been marketed as getting out any stain) and compare it to a normal detergent.  We stained different cloths with biological fluids and, after washing, tested them using forensic methods to see which one was better.  Our results, however, were very confusing and conflicting.  This caused us to look deeply into our procedure and products, finding out the cause for the mishaps.  Once we figured it out, everything made sense and it made for a great experiment by getting us to think about what went wrong and why.  Overall, it was an incredible learning experience and easily one of my favorite Honors projects that I have ever done.

See Honors Project Spotlight for more details!

This was the first of three capstone courses for the forensic science major.  I learned a lot about things like resume writing, the interviewing process for forensics, and about work culture in the forensic science world.  It was very insightful for the career I was about to enter into.  To receive honors credit for this course, I was tasked with completing an informational interview with someone in the field I wanted to go into.  I chose forensic biology and promptly reached out to Indiana State Police's forensic laboratory in Lowell.  I was put into contact with one of their forensic biologists and I learned so much from her.  I was also able to tour their new facility that was finished a few years ago and got to meet her in person.  It was a valuable project that I truly believe added to and tied into my capstone experience.  

See Emerging Expertise for more details!

For this class, Dr. Wang likes his Honors students to complete a ten page paper on an ecological topic of their choosing.  I knew we would be talking about coevolution and different species relationships' later in the course, so I decided to talk about leaf cutter ants and their fascinating relationship with fungi.  I think leaf cutter ants are really cool and I enjoyed learning more about their origin, what is being studied with them currently, and the history of how they evolved with their fungi.  They actually grow the fungi themselves which makes them especially unqiue.  I found that I was able to connect my paper to a lot of topics we spoke about in class.  Leaf cutter ants were even used as an example in lecture when talking about symbiotic relationships.  While not in the forensics field, I really enjoyed ecology and the fun facts that Dr. Wang shared with us.

In progress!