Jay
My Research Experience as a First Generation Student
This blog was created to document my experience during my SRI Research that happened over the course of the summer. Also, I hope that my blog can inspire other first-generation students to participate in this research program when they have the opportunity to do so. I was skeptical to apply for the program first because I have never done research before which worried me. However, I am glad I took this opportunity because I was able to work on many skills such as critical thinking and teamwork which are critical in the real world as a working adult. I believe that it's always better to try something out and struggle than to not make an attempt because at the end of the day that struggle will provide a valuable experience that can assist you in the future.
Purpose
My Research
My summer research was based on how the Specific Leaf Area(SLA) of Russian olives responds to dams depending on where the Russian olives are located relative to the dam being upstream and downstream. Russian olives are a non-native tree that has uncontrollably spread across riparian ecosystems mostly in the western part of the U.S because it's the ability to choke out native trees and fix nitrogen into the soil. SLA is a measurable plant functional trait that is used in indicating leaf life span and relative growth rate. I developed this research topic for my summer research because the results could provide encouraging advancement in understanding the dynamics and invasion of Russian olives near dams. My poster and my results are located below in the PDF.
My Story
I am a first-generation student that was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. Both of my parents are from Ghana a country located in West Africa. I went to public schools for my whole life until I started my tertiary education at the University of Denver. I have always lived in a low-income but diverse community. Even though I have been through a lot of adversity living in such a community I have never let that bring me down and stop me from achieving my goals.
Lab &Field Work experience
Data Collection: The study was conducted at various parks and wildlife areas across Colorado. Leaves were sampled from Russian olives trees that had a basal area greater than 7.5 cm and were selected with stratified random sampling based on light exposure, distance to channel, and tree height.
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Leaf Samples: Leaves that were most exposed to sunlight were collected from the Mideast, Top East, Midwest, and Top west branches of 10 individual Russian Olives for each site. Leaves were then placed in Ziploc bags labeled with their abbreviated site name, tree number, and branch direction. This was done to preserve the fresh mass.
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Specific Leaf Area:12 leaves were sampled from the bags of each individual Russian Olive tree. After this the leaves were measured on an electronic balance to obtain the fresh mass, run through an LI-COR 3100 Area Meter to obtain leaf area, the leaves were put in labeled coin envelopes then into the Robbins Scientific Model 400 for 48 to72 hours to get the dry mass of leaves
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Robins Scientific Model 400
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Image of Russian Olive near Clear Creek
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LI-COR 3100 Area Meter
Milkweed
Magpie on a branch