As a mathematical
and computational biology major at Harvey
Mudd College, I get to either do a clinic
project or a thesis
project during my senior year (note: I could also do a math thesis project if I
wanted). After careful consideration, I decided I wanted to work with Prof
Donaldson-Matasci and use models to study how the importance of communication
in honeybee colonies scales with colony size. The work looked intriguing, for I
had little experience with honeybee ecology and the analytical aspects of the
work attracted me. After Prof
Donaldson-Matasci accepted me into her lab last spring, we talked a little
about what the project would look like, as well as my strengths and weaknesses as they related to this project.
We decided that I would write a simulation that we could use to test whether or
not communication was more important to larger colonies than to smaller
colonies in certain environments, and agreed to wait until the fall to work on
designing the experiment.
I assumed that I would spend this year simply writing a simulation and thus
playing around with code and analysis of the data from the simulation. I did
not consider the scope of the thesis project as a whole and all of the pieces
that would go into it. Also, I conveniently forgot how much other work I have
at Mudd, which means that I’m not able to work on thesis as much as or as
casually as I want. My thesis work this semester has been frustrating at times,
particularly in terms of the time I’ve been able to devote to it due to my other
work and/or procrastination (unfortunately those are not mutually exclusive).
However, what I have been able to do has been a joy to work on.
When I got back this fall, I sat down with Prof
Donaldson-Matasci in order to go over my thesis and to try and hash out a plan of action.
We looked at what I needed to do over the course of the semester, which
included a literature review and annotated bibliography due October 2, a month
after getting back to school, an oral presentation during the Biology
Colloquium on October 28, and a complete draft of my research proposal due
November 16. This was a little surprising to me; I had to do more for thesis than
just write some code and a final report? I was a little worried and
disappointed by this because I wanted to work on my simulation, not spend the whole semester writing. However, as I thought about it, I realized that this system
made a lot of sense, and I now I am very glad that the system is the way it is. Before
starting this project, I thought I had a decent background on honeybees, but
basically all I knew was that they pollinated flowers, made honey, and I didn’t
want to get stung by them. Doing research for the background section gave me a
chance to really learn more about the colony
structure of honeybees, their amazing waggle dance communication system, and what is already known about in which
environments communication is most valuable for colonies. Research and writing the background section
of my proposal did take a lot of time that I could have been working on my
simulation, but it was essential for my understanding of honeybee ecology and
familiarized me with the literature on honeybees, particularly honeybee
communication. Thus, I’ve been able to develop a good idea of whether or not my
simulation is biologically realistic, while also being able to explain why my
simulation is set up the way it is.
Before this project, I did not have any experience with
designing an experiment to answer a specific question. I had always worked in
someone’s lab and the goal of the project was very well spelled out. For my
thesis, Prof Donaldson-Matasci already had a general framework in mind for this
project, but I got to work with her through the process of coming up with a
question, hypotheses to test, and how to test these hypotheses. Both doing an
oral presentation of my proposal and writing my thesis proposal itself were
fantastic ways for me to really go back through and think through my
experimental plan and thus solidify my understanding of not only how to do my
simulation, but also how to ensure that the simulation could be used to answer
my question and not just simulate a bunch of bees flying around.
Media Credit:
Beekeeper image, photo by Michael Gäbler:
Cat
image:
Code
image, photo by Owen Blacker:
Turtle
image:
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