A day in my lab typically starts off with sitting in front of a microscope. I put in my earbuds to listen to music that keeps me in the zone. I put on gloves and prepare to inspect a sample from a local creek in Durham underneath the microscope: counting, measuring, and identifying insects. I take my lunch break after I get to a good stopping point (ideally when I have worked my way through a sample), and afterwards, I pick up where I left off and continue to count my insects, recording data in an Excel spreadsheet throughout.
Other days include field work, waking up in the early hours to beat the Durham summer heat to set up traps or collect water samples in the creeks nearby. I really enjoy these mornings (other than the number of mosquito bites I receive) because I get to spend some time in the field, out and about and collecting data that I will later get to analyze and learn about in the lab itself later on.
I check in with my mentor every day, giving progress reports, showing him my findings, and collaborating with him in identifying insects and figuring out logistics of my BSURF summer project. Some days, he also takes me to the river center or the environmental engineering building to help with some lab work or to observe different kinds of machinery in the other buildings.
My lab also has weekly meetings, where we identify our goals for the week and address our goals from previous weeks as well. I get to hear about other scientists’ research during these meetings and meet new people pretty regularly, so I really enjoy sitting and absorbing the information that is offered to me through these meetings. Overall, I thoroughly enjoy my lab work, as it is work that I feel relaxed about and enjoy.
