I hadn’t presented research before this event. I enjoyed telling people about what BETA has been working on. Everyone who talked to me seemed interested in learning more. I thought the conference went smoothly. It was a low key event and wasn’t stressful. Everyone there seemed to be enjoying the event. I enjoyed presenting my poster and talking about the Devonian Period with people. This experience helped me feel confident for future conferences. -Will
Almost all the other undergraduates were presenting research in the field of chemistry. I had the only geology poster at the event. There was one student studying the effects of diet on the mental well being of the elderly. My favorite non-BETA research project used Raman spectroscopy to analyze the cement a sea worm creates to hold sand grains together to construct its home. -Will
The hardest part of the day was trying to do homework in the car. I learned a lot about how research conferences are structured and what to expect in the future. I also got to see how other students present their work. Everything I saw will better prepare me for graduate school if I choose to take that path. I got great experience presenting a project I’ve been working on. I had a really enjoyable time telling people about Devonian geology and how we can interpret Devonian climate from the rock record. Everyone at the conference seemed to be having a good time and was excited to see other students’ work.
This is my first conference. The talks were very interesting and opened my eyes loved all the creative research ideas. It was interesting to see how many different research ideas there were. Everything from the bitterness of beer to amount of lead in lipstick to the effects of some food on dementia was explored. -Astoria
I learned about the experimental design and process of several projects as well as how to present research. I gained experience in presenting and it opened my eyes to how many different topics can be researched. -Astoria
I really enjoyed getting to network with people from other schools and other areas of chemistry. It was a small group so it went really well. The audience was ready to ask questions and the presenters did a great job answering them! -Nicole
I got to gain more experience in talking in front of people which was really good for me. I always get very nervous before I present so for me it was getting over my nerves [that was a challenge]. Overall it was a great experience and it made me excited to continue doing research! -Nicole
The most memorable part of the presentations was the epic background music from Josh and Nina’s chromatotron video which made a few people laugh. -Astoria
Josh and Nina made quite a few people laugh with their chromatotron video! -Nicole