During the Spring 2020 semester I took an upper-level biology elective called Developmental Biology. This course took an in depth, conceptually challenging take on animal development and much of the genetics that underlies it. I opted to take the laboratory portion of this course as well.

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​Within the laboratory component, we were tasked with partnering up and designing our own experiment regarding Sea Urchin fertilization and development.  We took a week of lab to learn about how normal fertilization and development of sea urchins takes place, watched it happen live under microscopes, and then were set off to create an experiment that manipulated one aspect of fertilization to see how our urchin embryos turned out (basically whether or not fertilization would occur, and if so, what the embryos would look like). This was a crazy experience because we were given the task of being the primary scientists in this experiment (with Dr. Sharlin's guidance and input, of course).

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​My partner and I decided to extract the element calcium from our seawater, because calcium plays a large role in fertilization due to urchins breeding in sea water. We collected gametes from a male and a female urchin, created 2 control groups, and 2 experimental groups, portioned out all of our solutions, began the fertilization process, saw it all through the end, and completed this project with a scientific write up that showcased our results.

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I believe this experience helped me to meet 'original research' levels 1-4. I met level 1 when I identified my own research question with intent to further the knowledge in this particular field. My research thesis read, “The experiment conducted tested the role of extra-cellular calcium in sea urchin fertilization. It was hypothesized that if there was no extracellular calcium present in the sea water that held the sea urchin embryos, fertilization of the embryos would not be achieved.” (linked in my portfolio artifact). I met level 2 because I was able to develop said research question by reading other scientist’s findings in scholarly articles that furthered my knowledge and narrowed my question down to studying only extracellular calcium in sea urchin fertilization. I met level 3 when I conducted primary research with two live sea urchins, took raw data, and drew conclusions from those. All results are outline in my report as my artifact. Finally, I met level 4 when I completed this research project with conclusions that contributed to this scientific field specifically; “The results stated above suggest that extracellular calcium, when absent, can inhibit the process of fertilization from taking place.” (from my report). These results add to the scientific knowledge surrounding this topic by providing another source including firsthand research results on the topic of sea urchin fertilization.

 

This project helped me learn that the process of research can be messy at times; there will be roadblocks, but there’s always a way to get around them ethically and keep moving forward. I feel as though I now have the capabilities to pursue future original research projects like this one.

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Sea Urchin Fertilization in a Calcium Free Environment

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