Daren Glore ’22 — First, I want to thank the Olive Research Fund, Dr. Bradley Calrson, and Wabash College for making my internship a reality. This summer, I have had the incredible opportunity to work as a research intern in the Biology Department at Wabash College.
In particular, I helped Dr. Bradely Carlson obtain data and answer questions about a population of Eastern box turtles (terrapene Carolina Carolina) in the Allee Memorial Woods. The main question was relating the immune systems of the turtles to their behavior. We wondered if differences in the shyness or boldness of the turtles would correlate to differing levels of bacteria-killing or hemagglutination. To test this question, we recorded a behavior test for each turtle we found, and for some, we took blood samples. For the first three days of each week, we went into the field and search for turtles while surveying the woods; Getting behavior tests and blood samples drawn whenever we could. Then, running assays and different test runs with the plasma from the blood samples on the last two days of each week.
This internship has taught me much about the scientific method and about getting good and precise data. It also has taught me a lot about perseverance in the face of uncertainty. We ran into a lot of trouble during the optimization of the assays we were running. The results were not turning out the way we hoped, so we made adjustments. Also, going to a large patch of forest and searching for a small animal did not have the most rapid success rates. But amid the uncertainty, wondering if the assays would work, we still pressed on and received meaningful data. The internship also taught me a lot about teamwork and brotherhood, getting to work with three classmates. Learning from Dr. Bradley Carlson showed me how much fun we had during the internship.
