1. Communicator
Communicators convey their ideas effectively and ethically in oral, written, and visual forms across multiple settings, using face-to-face and mediated channels. Communicators are mindful of themselves and others, observe, read thoughtfully, listen actively, ask questions, create messages with an awareness of diverse audiences, and collaborate with others and across cultures to build relationships.
This project required communication to move forward at every point in the process. From the beginning of the academic year, be it coordinating meeting times, or clarifying questions with Dr. Marrs or the teams asking questions among each other, or through explaining different aspects of our research as it progressed in different assignments. Communication was a skill that I was able to grow a lot in between the course of both semesters, and I was able to learn how central it is to making meaningful research contributions to the wider research community. Research in general requires you be as proficient at conducting the actual experimentation as making sense of it to yourself and to others through being able to develop clearly organized articles or through the construction of posters that go on to be presented. With that being mentioned, the poster presentations specifically were both incredible experiences that I feel pushed me outside of my comfort zone in terms of better learning how to present information that encompassed all that we did throughout the academic year in a concise, easy to digest manner that hit all of the key points in what we were able to accomplish and what our takeaways were. Similarly, I think the ePortfolio was a great way to help us develop the skills to convey our understanding and involvement in our projects through multiple mediums, be it through written communication or through demonstrating visual results in the form of figures and images. All of these factors in continuous combination with one another were crucial in helping me become a better communicator.
2. Problem Solver
Problem solvers work individually and with others to collect, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information to implement innovative solutions to challenging local and global problems.
Through this experiment I learned an important lesson in how you can not divorce problem solving from science; the two are twin concepts that go hand in hand with one another. Science is all about learning from results you weren’t expecting to observe and drawing what you can from that information to make more informed experiment choices going forward, and this was definitely relevant and different points throughout the year. I think the best example of this that I personally encountered was the fact of our fundamental experimental procedure producing ‘unusable’ results due to the continuous growth of fungal organisms on plates where only bacterial growth was intended to be observed. This was a situation that required we problem solve as a group and continue to adjust and adjust until we got closer to obtaining viable results, and collaborating with the team to brainstorm ideas on how to initially achieve this reiterated the importance of having multiple unique perspective and voices to all bring something different to the table to hopefully steer everyone in the most logical, or promising direction. Another example of problem solving was my and several others’ decision to pivot our research to a different direction following the recurrence of unexpected results, and our leaning into these results by focusing further on fungal research in relation to our initial research topic rather than leaning away and scrapping everything. I think going through this was important in that it taught me more about how many experiences regardless of their context (academic, professional, etc.) require you to make the best of what you have and still put in your best effort to reach goals you may have initially set regardless of obstacles encountered along the way.
3. Innovator
Innovators build on experiences and disciplinary expertise to approach new situations and circumstances in original ways, are willing to take risks with ideas, and pose solutions. Innovators are original in their thoughts and ask others to view a situation or practice in a new way. Innovators are good decision makers, can create a plan to achieve their goals, and can carry out that plan to its completion. Innovators use their knowledge and skills to address complex problems to make a difference in the civic life of communities and to address the world’s most pressing and enduring issues.
Pursuing independent research regardless of how well-informed by previous research or existing literature on a topic requires that one be open to the idea of trying new things, the basis of experimentation as a concept. Similar to the experiences mentioned where problem solving was required, overcoming obstacles requires being creative in how you address them. This project required that we innovate from as soon as the fall semester began when we first submitted our experimental design assignments, a task that, again, while informed by the manuals, articles, and other general resources we had access to, demanded that we think outside of the box in order to create an outline of research that was based upon our own unique interests despite still being within the broader area of our research. I feel that, again, choosing to demonstrate flexibility and taking a risk by changing our research direction relatively late in the semester when so much time had been dedicated to repeating steps ‘by the book’, so to speak, that weren’t yielding the desired results encompassed a lot of what innovation is at its heart; using the information and resources that you have to be ambitious. I think that the structure the assignments throughout the year provided lent itself to my ability to create plans and achieve goals that I set for myself by guiding me to be conscious of what I had done, where I was currently, and what I had left to do from there at every point along the way.
4. Community Contributor
Community contributors are active and valued on the campus and in communities locally and globally. They are personally responsible, self-aware, civically engaged, and look outward to understand the needs of society and their environment. They are socially responsible, ethically oriented, and actively engaged in the work of building strong and inclusive communities, both local and global.
I think that this project allowed us to be community contributors in more ways than one, both in a local sense and in a much broader one. In the more relative sense, through this project our group was able to participate in two poster sessions, along with being provided with opportunities participate in additional research events such as Research and Creative Activities Day and other local conferences. All of these events share a commonality with one another in that they presented us with the opportunity to be active members of the scientific community that exists both on IUPUI’s campus and outside of it, something that is essential for the research everyone involved so passionately dedicates their time and effort to gaining awareness beyond those already working on it or already informed about it. Events such as poster sessions and conferences uplift one of the core tenets of science – encouraging and facilitating the exchange of ideas. Being able to learn more about research topics I was entirely unfamiliar with from other undergraduate students and hear from the perspective peers how they managed to navigate obstacles and what takeaways they drew from their participation in their respective areas of study was a really enlightening experience that I walked away from feeling really grateful to have had the chance to participate in. Further than that, the project itself being focused on addressing an issue that affects healthcare systems both locally and internationally means that, ideally, the contributions we make to this project are hopefully contributions to individuals and communities affected by the concern the project seeks to resolve.