Soil locations in the PARE database evaluated in Indiana and its bordering regions. Familiarizing myself with PARE and the work that had already been done within the project was key in laying down the groundwork for my own research. Map courtesy of Tufts University [1].
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Our semester research proposal was an opportunity for us to establish a solid understanding of the research stream we had selected through creating a general outline of the topic, identifying relevant literature that had already been published regarding it, and developing general objectives for the upcoming months while taking into consideration any pertinent ethical and safety concerns.
 This assignment was an important first step in creating a more concrete plan for what the research we intended to do would actually consist of. It allowed me to think more seriously about a direction that I might be interested in exploring within PARE, and helped bridge the gap between the previous literature review we had completed and the experimental design outline we had due soon after this. At this point in the project I felt much more comfortable in my awareness and familiarity with the PARE project and its wider implications beyond the research that we would be doing, and this assignment helped me be able to relate this understanding to my preliminary reading on the subject to synthesize a more informed idea of what the semester and my work during it might look like.
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This picture was taken the week of the proposal and shows the results of the first sample that I plated this semester! It was really helpful to be able to plate a few times and "practice" before we implemented making replication plates for each sample.