Student perspectives in science: Exploring using original research

The benefits undergraduate students gain from participating in research are invaluable. However, the impacts on undergraduates’ education and career paths are not always clear. In this presentation, I will share my unique perspectives as a current entomology Ph.D. student who designed and conducted eight research projects as an undergraduate student at Texas A&M University between Fall 2013 and Spring 2017. I will summarize my experiences, including key points in projects' development, resources acquired, methods implemented, the knowledge I obtained, and reflect on ways they potentially could have been enhanced. Overall, these perspectives will explain how undergraduate research affected me, and ultimately influenced my career as an entomologist and educator.