Undergraduate research

Fish on film: uncovering the environmental drivers of black spot syndrome

Rachel Sauer — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 17:18:32 +0000

Fish on film: uncovering the environmental drivers of black spot syndrome Rachel Sauer Tue, 11/12/2024 - 10:18

Blake Puscher

CU Boulder researchers use a unique, noninvasive method to determine the environmental factors contributing to several symptoms among tropical fish

For many researchers in biology and other natural sciences, dissecting specimens may not be desirable, though it is often necessary. This is because dissection means killing the animal a researcher is trying to study—a big issue, especially if the species is experiencing population decline.

Over time, such concerns have led scientists to develop a number of non-invasive techniques, including video transects. This is a type of video recording used in marine biology, in which divers film along a line of fixed length and depth to record images for computer-assisted analysis, obtain permanent data that can be reassessed later and survey wider areas in shorter amounts of time.

CU Boulder scientist Pieter Johnson and his research colleagues use a unique, noninvasive method to determine the environmental factors contributing to several symptoms among tropical fish.

A recently published study by Pieter Johnson, a �鶹��Ƶ professor of distinction in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and lead author Cheyenna de Wit of the University of Amsterdam, demonstrates the benefits of recording rather than dissecting specimens.

In their paper on black spot syndrome in ocean surgeonfish, the researchers use video transects to measure the severity of the disease among thousands of fish and identify the environmental factors contributing to its distribution.

What is black spot syndrome?

Black spot syndrome is a collection of several symptoms, the most prominent being the dermal lesions or spots for which the condition is named, according to Johnson. In many species, Johnson says, these lesions are black, “but in some species they’ll show up as white.” They form on the skin, scales and fins of fish.

The spots appear when the free-swimming, larval form of trematodes—commonly known as flukes, a type of parasitic flatworm—penetrate the skin of the fish and form cysts inside them. The distinctive coloration occurs when fish surround the cyst with melanin in response to the invasion, similar to the formation of pearls in oysters.

Relatively little is known about the genus of trematode that causes black spot syndrome, Scaphanocephalus. “Prior to us detecting it in 2017,” Johnson says, “it had never been reported from Caribbean fish. So, it was wholly undescribed from that area.” Much remains unknown about this trematode, including the type of snail that Scaphanocephalus infects before moving on to fish.

However, trematode infection is clearly very common in certain regions: In Johnson’s study, 70% of observed fish showed signs of infection, while a companion study of other Caribbean fish demonstrated both how high the parasite loads are in that region, and how many different fish species seem to be affected, according to Johnson.

As to the consequences of infection for fish, there is some evidence, Johnson says, that infected fish may graze less and have more trouble maintaining buoyancy. Researchers also hypothesize that they are more conspicuous to predators.

“One in particular, of course, is osprey, which are visual, fish-specialized predators that are looking for fish through the water,” Johnson says. “When these infected fish tend to flash or turn sideways, and you can see those black spots, it probably makes it a lot easier for the bird to detect them.”

If this hypothesis is true, black spot syndrome could bolster the numbers of the trematodes that cause it, as Johnson says osprey are their definitive host. That means these trematodes must enter the body of an osprey to reproduce. The transmission of the parasites is trophic, so they are passed along when infected fish are eaten.

Noninvasive methods

While black spot syndrome can have negative effects on infected fish, the most important consequences could be for reef ecosystems. According to Johnson, black spot syndrome has been increasingly prevalent in important herbivorous grazing fish in the Caribbean, such as surgeonfish and parrotfish.

Learn more

For more information on the complex lifecycles of digenetic trematodes, see this article about other research from CU involving the parasites.

“In tropical coral reef ecosystems,” Johnson explains, “surgeonfish and parrotfish, and other herbivores play a key role by grazing on algae.” Since infected fish are evidenced to graze less, and since they may be more likely to be eaten by osprey, the population of algae in the affected area can increase.

“Algae and coral are in a dynamic balance,” Johnson says, and if there is enough algal growth, “it can start to overwhelm and kill corals. So, in these areas, we try to keep those populations of surgeonfish and parrotfish as viable as possible, so that they can continue to regulate and graze down the algae.”

In fact, some studies have even said that grazing fish can help save coral reefs, with particular emphasis on parrotfish because the prior primary grazer in the Caribbean, spiny sea urchins, were killed off by disease in the 1980s. Also, trematode infection isn’t the only thing threatening surgeonfish and parrotfish populations, as they are popular catches for fisheries.

Because the fish being studied are ecologically important, it is particularly important to avoid interfering with their populations. Ordinarily, this is difficult, since dissection is the surest way to confirm a trematode infection—the parasites being clearly visible inside the fish’s bodies. In this case, though, the black spots characteristic of black spot syndrome allowed for a different approach: the video transect method.

To record as many surgeonfish as possible, and therefore provide an accurate estimate of how many fish were infected, SCUBA divers filmed at 35 sites along the coast of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean. They recorded two and five meters below water for either 10 minutes or until 20 adult surgeonfish had been filmed.

An ocean surgeonfish with black spot syndrome. (Photo: Cheyenna de Wit)

Environmental factors

Besides determining that 70% of surgeonfish showed visible signs of black spot syndrome, Johnson and de Witt correlated different environmental factors with the severity of the syndrome, which they based on the average number of spots per fish.

One of the most significant effects the researchers observed arose from longitude—that is, the position of fish from east to west along the leeward (downwind) shore. Both the prevalence and intensity of black spot syndrome was lower toward the east and higher toward the west.

Johnson hypothesizes that this effect is caused by urban and industrial development, as the east end of Curaçao, where a portion of the research took place, is privately owned and less developed. The researchers observed the same association between development and infection intensity in Bonaire, the neighboring island.

The first component of the effect was wave intensity, which was negatively associated with infection intensity because the larval form of trematode that infects fish can’t swim well enough to overcome opposing tides. Wave energy is usually greatest at the eastern end of Curaçao, so this will have contributed to the lower intensity of infection at the east end.

The other components were positively associated with infection intensity. Nitrogen concentration increases with sewage and domestic runoff, which can contain nutrients and other pollutants. Nutrients can increase the population of trematode hosts, and pollutants can weaken the immune systems of fish that trematodes infect.

While fishing pressure can be either positively or negatively correlated with parasite abundance, Johnson says, this depends on the species involved. In the case of Scaphanocephalus, fishing pressure could increase abundance if it removed predatory fish from the environment, resulting in an increased snail population.

Student learning

CU Boulder students also play an important role in this research. Undergraduates in the field course Coral Reef Ecology and Conservation (EBIO 4090, taught by Johnson) spend their fall semester learning about coral reefs and the factors that threaten them before traveling to Curaçao over winter break. During a week-long SCUBA expedition, students learn how to collect video transect data using the same methods Johnson and his research colleagues use and are contributing valuable data to the understanding of black spot syndrome. For the upcoming trip, students will be revisiting some of the same sites as in the study to assess how black spot severity has changed through time, particularly following recent warm water bleaching events that have killed many corals.

Since most of the factors composing the difference between the east and west ends come from human action, it is possible that the severity of black spot syndrome could be significantly reduced if the handling of runoff and/or fishing behavior were changed.

A unique methodology

One noteworthy part of the way Johnson and de Witt’s study was conducted is that, with the videos collected, the researchers had observers record the number of lesions on each fish. This is unique, as prior studies have simply noted whether lesions were present, leaving the severity of infection uncertain.

Moreover, methods like the one used in this study may help to solve the challenges that come with observing ocean life. “There's a lot of ocean out there and not a tremendous number of people to study it,” Johnson explains, “so I think approaches like this could be applied in other areas where we're detecting blackspot syndrome.” Photos are an especially useful way to study the ocean because they are easy for anyone to take thanks to digital technology, he adds. For this reason, community science platforms like iNaturalist can be used to aggregate a large amount of data.

“When people are on vacation, or they’re diving, or they’re swimming,” Johnson says, “they upload all of their observations and fish photos, and we’ve been using that to scan across large sections of the Caribbean and lots of different fish species; and now some of the undergrads in the lab are also extending that to look into parts of the Indo-Pacific and other regions of the world where Scaphanocephalus occurs.

“So, I think those kinds of approaches, video transects and these community science-uploaded images, together start to give a much bigger picture of patterns of infection over large geographic areas.”

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An ocean surgeonfish with black spot syndrome. (Photo: Cheyenna de Wit)

Honors student produces prize-winning research on loneliness

Anonymous — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 17:54:19 +0000

Honors student produces prize-winning research on loneliness Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/04/2024 - 11:54

Daniel Long

In her honors thesis, recent graduate Amber Duffy describes how loneliness influences a person’s ability to respond to stress

Amber Duffy, who graduated last semester magna cum laude, didn’t always plan to write an honor’s thesis.

She came to the �鶹��Ƶ on a pre-med track, studying neuroscience, but an introductory psychology class knocked her off that path and inspired her to change her major.

“I really liked the behavioral aspect of psychology,” she says.

She liked psychology so much, in fact, that she wasn’t content simply to study it. She wanted to contribute to it. “If I’m not going to do medical school anymore,” she remembers thinking, “I should delve into research.”

Recent psychology and neuroscience graduate Amber Duffy won the the Outstanding Poster Presentation Talk award at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s Annual Convention in San Diego, recognizing her research on loneliness.

She contacted Erik Knight, a CU Boulder assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, with whom she’d taken a class her sophomore year, and he invited her to join his lab. She ended up working there for two years, during which time she decided to write an honor’s thesis.

The topic? Loneliness and its effect on young adults’ stress responses.

Why loneliness?

Duffy’s interest in loneliness isn’t purely academic. Many of her friends and family have struggled with it for years, even before the pandemic, she says. And she herself, the daughter of a Taiwanese mother and a Pennsylvanian father, has often felt its sting.

“Growing up in a multicultural family in my predominantly white town”—Castle Rock, Colorado—“it was hard for me to connect with people sometimes,” she says. “I would learn about my mom’s culture at home and then go to school or talk with friends, and they just didn’t understand how I lived.”

Her concerns over loneliness only increased when she learned of Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy’s warning that the United States is suffering from a loneliness epidemic.

“The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day,” Murthy states.

Hearing this spurred Duffy to action. She wanted to contribute to the fight against loneliness and its potentially negative consequences.

“If we expand our knowledge of loneliness,” she says, “maybe there’s a way we can come up with a more substantial treatment.”

More gas, less brakes

For her honors experiment, Duffy gathered 51 CU Boulder undergraduates between the ages of 18 and 34 and divided them randomly into a control condition and an experimental condition. Those in the former provided a low-stress comparison to those in the latter, who were put through the wringer.

First, the subjects in the experimental condition had to interview for a high-stakes job Duffy and Knight had concocted specifically for the study.

“We told them, in the moment, ‘You have five minutes to prepare a five-minute speech on why you’re the perfect applicant,’” says Duffy.

Immediately following that, subjects had to solve subtraction problems for five minutes, out loud, perfectly, starting at 6,233 and going down from there in increments of 13. “If they made a mistake,” says Duffy, “they had to start over.”

While the subjects ran these gauntlets, Duffy monitored their heart-rate variability (HRV), or the change in interval between heartbeats, and their pre-ejection period (PEP), or the time it takes for a heart to prepare to push blood to the rest of the body. Both serve as indicators of how a person’s stress-response system is functioning, Duffy explains.

Finally, when the stress tests were done, the subjects completed the UCLA Loneliness Scale Version 3 questionnaire, which research has found to be a reliable means of measuring loneliness.

Duffy had hypothesized that lonelier subjects would have more pronounced stress responses than less lonely subjects, and indeed that’s what her data revealed.

Lonelier subjects had higher heartrates, stronger responses from their sympathetic nervous systems (SNS) and weaker responses from their parasympathetic nervous systems (PNS). Duffy likens the SNS, which controls the fight-or-flight response, to a car’s gas pedal and the PNS, which counterbalances the SNS, to a car’s brakes.

When met with stressful situations, then, lonelier individuals had more gas and less brakes, which Duffy says could have long-term health implications.

Yet she is also quick to point out that more research needs to be done, preferably with more subjects.

If we expand our knowledge of loneliness, maybe there’s a way we can come up with a more substantial treatment.”

“We only had 51 people. An increase in sample size would help with more reliable data,” she says. “It’s also important to look at more clinical and diverse populations because there are other factors that could affect loneliness levels.”

Posters, prizes and professorships

Duffy submitted an abstract of her research to The Society for Personality and Social Psychology’s Annual Convention in San Diego, where she hoped to present a poster, thinking this would be a nice, low-key way of getting some conference experience under her belt.

Her abstract was accepted. But then a conference organizer asked her if, in addition to presenting a poster, she could also give a fifteen-minute talk. She would be the only undergraduate at the conference to do so.

Duffy balked. The thought of speaking to a roomful of PhDs intimidated her. “Most of my life I’ve heard how cutthroat academia is,” she says. But she ultimately agreed, and she was glad she did.

Her talk and poster presentation went so well that not only did she receive interest and encouragement from several doctoral programs, but she also won an award that she didn’t even know existed: the Outstanding Poster Presentation Talk award.

“In the middle of my poster presentation, a woman came up to me—I didn’t know who she was—and said, ‘I have a check here for you for $500.’ I didn’t know that was supposed to happen, but it was great!”

Now graduated, Duffy isn’t 100% sure what her next steps will be, but she’s leaning toward one day pursuing a PhD.

“When you get a PhD, you get to do research and also work with students,” she says. “I think it would be fun to be a professor and give back in that way.”

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In her honors thesis, recent graduate Amber Duffy describes how loneliness influences a person’s ability to respond to stress.

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Student probes python livers for clues to cirrhosis

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 21:24:39 +0000

Student probes python livers for clues to cirrhosis Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/26/2020 - 14:24

Meagan M. Taylor

CURE Symposium is an undergraduate research conference that promotes scientific and self-discovery, and Sarah Campione’s work on python livers is just one example

Among tables of colorful hors d'oeuvres, students mingling in their shiniest shoes and sleekest ties, and rows of professional presentations lining the grand atrium of the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building, one might have felt a sense of accomplishment won after a long, hard semester.

But a more inconspicuous emotion emerged from the chatter among peers, families and faculty participants as the students presented their research results at December’s Course-based Undergraduate Research (CURE) Symposium. Participants say that feeling was wonder.

Above: Sara Campione pipettes samples into a 96-well plate as part of her research on Burmese python liver genetics. Photo by Pamela Harvey. At the top of the page: Madelyn MacLaughlin discusses a poster during the symposium.

For Sara Campione, a senior in molecular, cellular and developmental biology (MCDB), the wonder lay in the genes of a Burmese python. A python liver, to be exact.

“If you told me freshman year that we could one day modify genes for a disease we have no cure for at the moment, I wouldn’t believe it,” Campione says.

Using tissue isolated from the liver of the python, Campione spent the semester comparing the expression of liver gene ABCC2 to the timing of how fat is digested after feeding.

“The python, as an extreme model, allows us to study gene expression so we can attribute them to human diseases such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD),” Campione explains. The python is called an extreme model because it has the ability to process a large amount of fats quickly. “This allows us to study the process in a faster and easier way than in humans,” she says.

Scientists hope that someday modifying the gene ABCC2—the same gene found in humans—could mitigate the effects of liver diseases such as NAFLD, which can lead to chronic liver damage and liver failure. Campione says pursuing this work in the python lab has been invaluable.

“Creating the foundation for research such as this definitely makes me feel ready to go into the world and to apply it in ways that can affect the future,” she says.

For Campione, who graduates this spring, the future probably holds a career in veterinary medicine. But for many of her compatriots, the goal is to work in a scientific research lab, and the symposium is a gateway.

“Students get a good amount of experience presenting posters at the symposium,” says Pamela Harvey, senior MCDB instructor and the event’s founder. “They put it in on their resume, which makes them more competitive in the long run.”

Moreover, the students learn second-level biosafety protocols, allowing them to work with infectious bacteria. “They gain valuable skills in lab techniques such as pipetting small volumes and running screens to discover new drugs,” she says.

Harvey based the CURE symposium on a potluck-style poster session that provided peer evaluation to 16 students enrolled in The Python Project. With the formation of two large research-based courses collectively titled the �鶹��Ƶy Labs in 2014, the symposium became a full-size scientific meeting.

“If it’s real research, (the teaching faculty) had the expectation that they should be able to present and defend their work in public,” Harvey says of students enrolled in the �鶹��Ƶy Labs, in which mostly first-year students screen for and research potential novel antibiotics and chemotherapeutics.

It’s incredible to see how excited the teaching faculty are to get on board with something that is good for their students,"

With the addition of more labs, the CURE Symposium is now a biannual academic event in which nearly 400 undergraduate presenters in seven research-based MCDB lab courses showcase their research before their peers and the public.

“Most trainees in science do not have the opportunity to present and defend their research until their post-graduate experiences,” Harvey says. “The CURE Symposium provides all students with this opportunity, regardless of whether or not they earn a doctorate in the future.”

The event consists of an evening poster session at which peers evaluate each other’s work for a grade. Two poster sessions are interspersed with 10-minute formal talks selected from each course, at which students present their research and answer questions.

Harvey is encouraged by the skills students are gaining and the excitement instructors show each semester as the event approaches.

“It’s incredible to see how excited the teaching faculty are to get on board with something that is good for their students,” Harvey says. “They go the extra mile to help them.”

Students can present at the symposium as many as four times in their school career as the biology lab curriculum advances. For instance, Campione began her lab work as a sophomore with a group in the Phage Genomics Lab. After watching a presentation from seniors developing independent research for the Python Project, she was hooked.

“As an undergraduate, being able to be exposed to novel research and the symposium is really amazing,” Campione says. “The multi-year format laid the groundwork for me to be able to do what I did this year.”

And the future for students who self-select for courses such as the Python Project are promising, according to Harvey’s research on course outcomes for the Faculty Teaching Excellence Program at CU.

“These students tend to be quite academically competitive,” Harvey says. “More than half leaving the Python Project, for example, end up in a PhD or MD program.”

But the labs do more than just encourage future scientists; they also help students discern between career paths.

“There are students who are going to go to med school and grad school,” Harvey says. “It will serve them well to learn how to present data, how to talk about it and defend it. That is critically important for their future.”

For those who don’t continue in a research-related field, “These students learn how to analyze and interpret data, so they know what is real and what is not based on the source before them,” Harvey says. “This group gains valuable skills in scientific literacy.”

Brian Medaugh, an undergraduate who presented group research on antibiotic resistance at the symposium, says he thinks more people would benefit from hands-on scientific research.

As a freshman, being able to actually work as a scientist is kind of a dream come true,”

“We are exposed to the results of experimentation all the time, and we don’t hold it in super high regard,” he says. “Having people develop that sense of what it takes to do research would be excellent step with our culture and civilization.”

Having also worked with CU’s SpaceServe technology, Medaugh is still undecided on his career path, but has used his biology lab experience to learn about pharmaceutical research.

His lab partner, freshman Madelyn Maclaughlin, hopes her research experience will help her springboard into one of CU Boulder’s highly competitive professional labs.

“As a freshman, being able to actually work as a scientist is kind of a dream come true,” Maclaughlin says. “Everyone needs to start somewhere, especially for undergrads to see if this is the career path they want to go on.”

With seven CURE labs and growing, students will have a variety of experiences to choose from, provided the support structure for the labs—and the symposium—continues to grow alongside.

Harvey’s vision of the future for the symposium comes down to a word. “Funding,” she says. “Research involves many more costs than just looking at a slide through a microscope.”

The cost of hosting the symposium alone is $8,000 per semester, beyond the price of the work itself. The costs of disposable supplies, biohazard safety measures and lab equipment run in the thousands, plus, more intensive research brings higher costs.

“The students are the bread and butter of the university,” Harvey says. “It would be amazing if a stable funding source was available to continue to support students moving forward and to further empower their futures.”

CURE Symposium is an undergraduate research conference that promotes scientific and self-discovery, and Sarah Campione’s work on python livers is just one example.

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Learning to fail helps students thrive

Anonymous — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 19:55:15 +0000

Learning to fail helps students thrive Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 02/24/2020 - 12:55

Tim Grassley

CU Boulder program makes undergraduate research accessible, teaching students to follow their curiosity and reframe their failures

Amy Martinez didn’t think it would take so long to start her research on Latinx identities. As a junior, she received a research grant from CU Boulder’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), but she struggled to earn separate approval from CU Boulder’s Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Amy Martinez

Because she wanted to study human subjects, she needed IRB’s OK before collecting data.

“There were so many questions and details that the IRB required me to write about that I didn't even have answers or solutions to yet,” says Martinez, who graduated in December from CU Boulder with a BA in anthropology and communication.

“It really required me to think outside of the box and make tough decisions about where my research would take me.”

It took time for Martinez to address IRB’s stringent requirements. The complication extended her project timeline, which meant she had to change her summer plans and collect data.

She completed her project and defended it as an honor’s thesis in December. Her research documents the struggles of bicultural, bilingual youth who try to maintain Latinx identities while meeting the expectations of mainstream, white-dominant U.S. culture.

I learned that I can, really, do anything. It just takes a lot of really hard work.”

Notwithstanding hardships these youth face, they succeed as resilient, adaptable individuals who feel secure in their Latinx identities.

Undergraduate research fueled Martinez’ self-confidence as a scholar, and she is exploring graduate school.

But this outcome was no foregone conclusion. Three years ago, she would not have considered applying for a university research grant.

She’d heard about UROP but figured “that’s not something that someone like me does. … That’s what some other crazy, determined student would do.”

Redefining ‘research and creative work’

Martinez is not alone. According to UROP, many undergraduates have difficulty seeing a path to research and creative work.

“A huge issue is what the word ‘research’ evokes,” says Joan Gabriele, who directs CU Boulder’s Special Undergraduate Enrichment Programs (SUEP), which houses UROP.

“When we do workshops, I just love to ask the question, ‘What images come to mind when you hear the word research?’ It’s usually science. It’s usually labs. And if you’re not in that world, then research does seem like something that (only) scientists do.”

Other students don’t pursue research and creative work because they think they’re unqualified.

“A desire we’ve had is to avoid that language of hierarchy that says ‘only the best and the brightest should do research.’ Those definitions are pretty slippery,” says Gabriele. “Recognizing that potential looks different in different students, that’s one of the reasons that UROP is available to everyone.”

Since its 1986 beginning, UROP has sought to recruit and support more student research with a relatively flat budget. Four years ago, Gabriele and her staff examined every facet of the application and funding processes, then changed ineffective procedures.

For example, they removed eligibility requirements for a minimum GPA and credits earned and removed the restriction on simultaneously earning CU Boulder credit while receiving UROP funding.

“Take about any aspect of the program, and we’ve really tried to say, ‘How can this be easier? How can students make more sense of this and how can they get started faster?’” says Tim O’Neil, assistant director of UROP. “We are getting it into a position where we’ve cleared out as much of the bureaucracy as we can.”

The circuitous path toward a scholarly idea

With a simpler application process in place, O’Neil is helping students see how faculty and students generate ideas.

“Students don’t see it (the path to a research outcome) when they see a faculty member in the front of their class with a lot of credentials and a lot of success often highlighted in terms of disciplinary success,” says O’Neil.

“They don’t know that the person up there has taken a far more circuitous route to that destination than they realized. And it has been sign-posted by failure as far back as they can go. The turns are often serendipitous, and in every case, someone helped.”

In the case of Martinez, she heard about research and creative work as a first-year student and again as a sophomore, but she thought she needed a focused problem or idea. She had neither. Instead, she knew she loved cultural anthropology field work and wanted to know more.

She took a class in practicing anthropology at CU Boulder and was introduced to GENESISTER, a program that supports the siblings of pregnant and parenting teens. While observing the program’s strategies to support Latinx teens, she reflected on her past.

“I had these personal questions about my own cultural identity and why I wasn't given the opportunity to experience some of it,” says Martinez, who is the great granddaughter of Mexican immigrants. “I’ve always had those questions, and then I was introduced to the (GENESISTER) program.”

A faculty advisor in anthropology helped Martinez form her questions into a potential project. She then applied for and received a grant from UROP.

Martinez’s project met unexpected barriers from the outset. Conducting research over the summer challenged her ability to collect data and affected the scope of work. But she adapted, completed her project and successfully defended it before a faculty panel.

You can have the most general, overarching idea. A word or a concept. Just meet with professors and as many as you can,”

UROP invests in stories like Martinez’s that stress both the result and the process of coming to that result. Another initiative called the Lightbulb Moment uses videos to describe students driven by curiosity, strategies they deploy to overcome challenges and pathways to results. Staff members with UROP and other programs within SUEP believe that showing research and creative work as a process helps students understand a facet of scholarship that many undergraduates misunderstand—failure.

“We’re getting high-achieving scholars who a lot of times are stuck in these narratives about who they are as learners,” says Jim Walker, teaching faculty in SUEP. He notes that many feel pressure to avoid failure, which discourages them from taking risks.

O’Neil says self-forgiveness is critical.

“If (students) only see the final outcome and a linear path to it, whenever life presents a turn or a failure, that seems catastrophic,” says O’Neil. “They don’t see how you can turn and actually end up some place better than you had hoped.”

The hardest part is getting started

Martinez’s UROP experience built her confidence as a student, a scholar and as a graduate exploring her next career step.

“I feel like I can do more. I want to go to grad school, and I’m thinking about PhD programs,” says Martinez. “I learned that I can, really, do anything. It just takes a lot of really hard work.”

Martinez believes her confidence grew as a result of her UROP experience. She encourages fellow students to apply, even if early in their academic careers.

“You can have the most general, overarching idea. A word or a concept. Just meet with professors and as many as you can,” says Martinez.

“It can be really scary to show up to someone’s office hours and say ‘I kind of want to do this, but I also have no idea what I’m doing.’ But that’s what they’re there for. They want to help you figure it out. The hardest part is making that first decision of ‘Am I going to do this or am I not going to do this?’”

Her advice is succinct:

“Just do it.”

CU Boulder program makes undergraduate research accessible, teaching students to follow their curiosity and reframe their failures.

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Uncovering Boulder’s forgotten apple tree legacy

Anonymous — Wed, 23 May 2018 01:29:54 +0000

Uncovering Boulder’s forgotten apple tree legacy Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/22/2018 - 19:29

CU Boulder students and researchers are combining old-fashioned historical sleuthing with cutting-edge genetic testing and grafting in the hopes of reviving Boulder's apple trees.

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What pikas and alpine plants tell us about climate change

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 19:43:56 +0000

What pikas and alpine plants tell us about climate change Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 07/28/2017 - 13:43

This summer, undergraduate students Max Wasser and Grace Kendziorski are spending time hiking in the mountains—and trapping pikas and counting flowers. They are participating in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at CU Boulder.

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Beckman Scholars Program to give students research experience

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 00:28:27 +0000

Beckman Scholars Program to give students research experience Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 02/07/2017 - 17:28

Clint Talbott

Undergraduate students at the University of Colorado will soon enjoy a new means of conducting scientific laboratory research, as CU Boulder is one of 11 U.S. institutions to receive a 2017 Beckman Scholars Program Award.

The Beckman Scholars Program, funded by a $156,000 grant, offers an in-depth research experience to talented, full-time CU Boulder undergraduates in the biological and chemical sciences. Each Beckman scholar will conduct independent laboratory research under the supervision of one of 15 faculty mentors in the following five departments:

Chemistry and biochemistry
Ecology and evolutionary biology
Integrative physiology
Molecular, cellular and developmental biology
Psychology and neuroscience

The program will support six undergraduate Beckman Scholars over the course of three years (starting in the summers of 2017, 2018 and 2019), and will designate between one and three new scholars each year.

Each Beckman scholar will receive a stipend totaling $21,000, plus $2,800 for travel and supplies. Each faculty mentor will receive a $5,000 stipend to support the educational expenses associated with the mentor’s scholar. Each scholar will be supported over the course of two summers and one academic year.

The deadline for applications this year is Feb. 22.

Brian DeDecker, faculty director of the CU Boulder Beckman Scholars Program and director of undergraduate research at the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, noted that undergraduate research opportunities are in high demand.

Brian DeDecker

Those who become Beckman Scholars often go on to distinguish themselves in graduate school, he said.

Undergraduate researchers who are in the laboratories of the Beckman faculty mentors at CU Boulder are viewed as “full-fledged members of the lab, as colleagues,” said Paul Muhlrad, science communications manager in molecular, cellular and developmental biology.

DeDecker concurred, noting that undergraduate researchers are deeply involved in “actual, discovery research, and that’s a real change from textbooks, obviously.”

When DeDecker himself was an undergraduate, textbook learning did not inspire him. “But when I got into a lab, I’m like, ‘Oh, my goodness. These aren’t just facts that we’re drawing from the air. These are incredible ideas that were developed with lots of hard work and deep thinking.’ That made me appreciate them all the more.”

At CU Boulder, the Beckman Scholars Program is open even to students who don’t have any research experience, Muhlrad noted.

The Beckman Scholars Program is an initiative of the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, which provides grants to researchers and non-profit research institutions in chemistry and life sciences to promote scientific discoveries, and particularly to foster the invention of methods, instruments and materials that will open up new avenues of research.

The late Arnold O. Beckman founded Beckman Instruments and created devices that revolutionized the study and understanding of chemistry and human biology. Among other things, he invented the acidmeter, the forerunner of the modern pH meter.

Beckman made the invention, designed to measure the acidity of lemon juice, for a former classmate working at a California citrus plant.

For more information about the Beckman Scholars Program at CU Boulder or to apply, click here.

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