A Day in the Life of an INCO 590 Student
Hello! My name is Seren Davies, and I am taking you through a day in my life as an INCO 590 student. INCO is a variable credit course offered by the Hamel Center for Undergraduate Research that allows you to conduct independent research and receive academic credit just like a regular class. It is a great way to round out your schedule if you need to fill a gap or just want to take a first "dip" into research under the guidance of a faculty mentor. It can be taken for 1-4 credits based on your needs and availability, and on a pass/fail basis.
I work in Dr. Ashley Bulseco’s Coastal Microbial & Ecosystem Ecology (MicroEco) lab, looking at how frequent wash-over events in a salt marsh affect its microbial community. A wash-over event occurs when water levels rise enough to rush over a marsh’s natural barriers, such as dunes, flooding the lower-lying areas with water and sediment. Last year, I received an Undergraduate Research Award (URA) to extract DNA from sediment samples collected in Duck Harbor salt marsh in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. I continued this work through INCO, which gave me the flexibility I needed to fit research into my schedule, and I decided to take it as a one credit course with my hours focused on Fridays. I meet with my professor in the lab each week to make sure my research is on track, but I perform the work on my own schedule.
I start my Fridays by waking up around 8:00 a.m. and going to Holloway Commons for a quick breakfast before hitting my first class, Cell Biology. Cell Bio is so interesting to me because I work primarily with prokaryotes, which are single-celled microorganisms like bacteria, and this class focuses on eukaryotic cells, which are more complex cells found in plants and animals. Seeing how things translate to my work with microbes is awesome. After this, I go to my second class, Organic Chemistry. I won’t lie, this class is very difficult, but if you stick with it and put in the time, it kind of feels like unlocking a new language. Practice, lots of notes, and study sessions with my friends are my methods for tackling Organic Chemistry.
I get out of class around noon and grab lunch with my friends. After this, I have about a half-hour break before I head to the lab. Then it’s over to Spaulding Hall to get set up. I clean my station, grab my samples, put in my headphones, and get to work. Lately, I’ve been listening to Fleetwood Mac while I work, and I think it’s making me more efficient. Something about “I Don’t Want to Know” makes me want to know more about microbes. My station slowly fills up with things throughout my work period; it starts neatly with just my pipettes and ethanol for cleaning but manages to get cluttered with the introduction of my PCR reagents and the samples, which are previously extracted but unamplified sediment DNA.
For the first hour, I set up PCR reactions to amplify the 16S gene of my samples. This gene allows for the taxonomic identification of bacterial and archaeal communities, meaning we can discover what types of bacteria may be present in the sediment samples. A thermal cycler automates the precise heating and cooling steps needed in a PCR reaction. After prepping it to the correct settings, it will heat the samples to break apart the DNA strands, and the previously added primers will make many copies before the cooling cycle begins. While waiting around two hours for the thermal cycler to be done, I browse papers related to my work. I find that even skimming papers or focusing on the methodology is so helpful in making sense of the work. Finding similarities to my project in other papers feels like winning the lottery—total validation!
I then run a gel electrophoresis to visualize the results of the PCR, which is achieved by pipetting my positive control (over-amplified DNA), my negative control (water), and newly amplified sample DNA into a gel that is run through an electrical current. The electrical current separates the DNA by size, and a successful PCR attempt should yield DNA molecules of a similar size, as well as no DNA present in the negative control. I’m still learning these techniques, so my gels can look a little ugly, but every mistake is just an opportunity to grow more.
I finish in the lab around 4:00 p.m., walk back to my residence hall, and put my feet up—time to unwind for the day. I usually give myself a break for an hour, get dinner with friends, then, depending on what's going on, get a jump on my homework for the weekend.
The ability to customize the INCO program makes it the perfect way for me to balance research with my classes. Consolidating my work into a single day allows me to focus on my classes throughout the week and dedicate time to my research on Fridays. Overall, INCO 590 makes research here at UNH extremely accessible, and I highly recommend it to any students who worry that undergraduate research is too big a time commitment.
