Research
2023-2024: Polygence research, mentored by Dr. Lupita Ruiz-Jones
Since October of 2023, I've been working on an independent research project through the Polygence research program with Dr. Lupita Ruiz-Jones as my mentor. I started working on my Polygence application during the summer of 2023, as I was itching to get more experience in conducting research by myself in Biology/Ecology/Environmental Sciences and Polygence seemed to be the research program that offered the most student agency and overall structure that best suited me. I was very excited to be matched with Lupita (Polygence refers to all mentors with their first names, but I made sure she was alright with being addressed this way!) as my mentor as she has been extensively involved in research and publishing, particularly with regards to ecosystems around Hawaii (she is a professor at Chaminade University of Honolulu).
After getting to know each other's backgrounds a bit more and learning about what drove our personal interests in Biology/Ecology/Environmental Sciences, she tasked me with doing some background research regarding ecosystems in Singapore, which I personally wanted to focus on as it gave me the opportunity to do original data collection in the field. Then began a process of narrowing down my interests in research and forming a research question and project outline, after which we spent a while solidifying all my surveying methods (taking inspiration from published research papers) before I headed out into the field!
I conducted all my surveys during the three weeks of my December 2023-January 2024 holidays, as this was the only period during which I could go to my field sites regularly to survey (a lot of people go to the nature reserves for recreational purposes during the weekends, so I also needed to avoid them) and was in the middle of the migratory bird season, which was great for me as one of my three field sites provides habitats for a substantial migratory bird population. This really was my first experience with fieldwork, so Lupita offered many points of expertise she had built up through her years of research, which gave me a much clearer idea of what to expect during field surveying. She suggested that I practice my skills of keen observation and not neglect qualitative data, and made sure to help me understand that many things can go wrong with fieldwork! After the first few days of surveying, I managed to get into a good rhythm (thanks Mom and Dad for being my research assistants!).
After this, there was a long period of data processing and analysis, which I did using Google Sheets. I'll admit, I got caught up with school during this time, which resulted in progress being quite slow. It was definitely difficult to figure out exactly what measurements of data I wanted (diversity, abundance, etc.) out of my data processing at first, however with Lupita's guidance and looking back at the aim of my research project, I eventually ended up with a wealth of data tables, graphs, figures, and descriptions that proved integral to my research paper.
And then it was time to write the research paper! I followed the structure that one of my main sources used, however with some small sub-section modifications as my research project involved several separate data sets. Lupita and I actually decided to write the "Materials and Methods" and "Results" sections first, as my surveying would be more fresh in our minds as opposed forgetting details if I wrote them later. One of Lupita's suggestions that I kept going back to throughout the process of writing the research paper was using the "hourglass model": starting wide then zooming in in the "Introduction", and then starting narrow then zooming out in the "Discussion" and "Conclusions" sections. Lupita and I did multiple revisions of the paper in accordance to feedback I received from the Polygence Writing Team as well as Lupita's own feedback on the paper, which led to her encouraging me to incorporate many more citations and sources in my Introduction and Discussion, emphasize the hourglass model, and add figures explaining the relationships between my data sets rather than simply comparing between different field sites/survey locations. Most importantly, we wanted to focus on "telling the story" of my research and the ecosystems in Singapore in the hopes that someone who is unfamiliar with the topic can also understand the study.
During this time, I also applied and got accepted to present my research project at Polygence's 10th Symposium of Rising Scholars (I invited my family and teachers to attend), for which I created a slides presentation showcasing my research, what I wanted to learn about, and what I found. As part of the "Environmental Impact, Sustainability, and Animal Studies" session, I was also able to listen to the other Polygence scholars talk about their research projects, as well as listen to presentations by the founders of Polygence and a guest speaker.
Even this very long blog entry hardly does justice for all the things I learned and the meaningful connection I built with Lupita throughout the process of working through Polygence-- many of the lessons she's taught me will be ones I constantly look back to in the future!
As I'm writing this, I have submitted my final project (research paper) into the Polygence project platform, and will be starting my first of three Showcasing sessions with Lupita tomorrow. This will be focused on finding journals, conferences, etc. to showcase my work! Previously, Lupita has let me know that each journal has slightly different requirements, so we might make slightly different versions of the research paper for each place we submit to. I'm looking forward to it, as well as keeping in contact with Lupita in the future beyond Polygence :)