nephiarising
New member
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2012
- Messages
- 14
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 1
- Location
- Georgia
- Country
- United States
- Display Name
- Nephia
Hey all,
Long time, no post. I'm nearing the conclusion of my undergraduate studies and have my eye on going to graduate school for freshwater ecology. I'd ideally like to focus on aquatic salamanders like necturus, siren, and amphiuma species but I've hit a road block in my education plan.
A professor that I reached out to for graduate school acceptance has advised me to get some research experience under my belt, but no one at my small, rural school has any herpetology research going on. Other ecology research labs are full and will remain full until about a month before I graduate. I want to tackle a research question independently, but I have no clue what I'm doing and I'd love to hear from a professional about the feasibility of such a project or about any specific tips for completing it.
I think it would be possible for me to accomplish field research surrounding population characteristics, habitat distribution, or morphology of a few local species. I've been interested in targeting Siren intermedia for my research species as it's fairly abundant here and would be small enough to use inexpensive traps to sample populations. The professor I hope to work under in graduate school studies the effect of UV-B radiation on amphibians, so I was ideally hoping to examine ephemeral ponds with different average UV-B exposure levels. I don't think this is going to be possible for a broke college student though, so I'd love to get some feedback on any similar topics that may be a bit easier to handle!
Lastly, do I even stand a chance of getting an article published as a lone undergrad? I've heard conflicting (but mostly negative) things from the faculty at my university but I still want to put the effort in if there's even a small chance. If I'm not published, is there a way I can still present any independent research in a meaningful way?
Thanks for any input you can give me. Let me know if this if off topic or if there's any other information I can provide!
Long time, no post. I'm nearing the conclusion of my undergraduate studies and have my eye on going to graduate school for freshwater ecology. I'd ideally like to focus on aquatic salamanders like necturus, siren, and amphiuma species but I've hit a road block in my education plan.
A professor that I reached out to for graduate school acceptance has advised me to get some research experience under my belt, but no one at my small, rural school has any herpetology research going on. Other ecology research labs are full and will remain full until about a month before I graduate. I want to tackle a research question independently, but I have no clue what I'm doing and I'd love to hear from a professional about the feasibility of such a project or about any specific tips for completing it.
I think it would be possible for me to accomplish field research surrounding population characteristics, habitat distribution, or morphology of a few local species. I've been interested in targeting Siren intermedia for my research species as it's fairly abundant here and would be small enough to use inexpensive traps to sample populations. The professor I hope to work under in graduate school studies the effect of UV-B radiation on amphibians, so I was ideally hoping to examine ephemeral ponds with different average UV-B exposure levels. I don't think this is going to be possible for a broke college student though, so I'd love to get some feedback on any similar topics that may be a bit easier to handle!
Lastly, do I even stand a chance of getting an article published as a lone undergrad? I've heard conflicting (but mostly negative) things from the faculty at my university but I still want to put the effort in if there's even a small chance. If I'm not published, is there a way I can still present any independent research in a meaningful way?
Thanks for any input you can give me. Let me know if this if off topic or if there's any other information I can provide!