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March 29, 2024, 05:05:09 am

Author Topic: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership  (Read 26169 times)

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homeworkisapotato

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #60 on: January 18, 2021, 01:35:08 pm »
+3
Hi BriMT! I've always read your journal but have always been very intimidated to reply! Your final year sounds very insightful and fun! Do you know what you want to do after uni or are you going to live in the moment and think about that later?
Looking forward to the net update :D
2020: Biology [43]
2021: Methods, Chemistry, HHD, English, Further
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Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #61 on: January 18, 2021, 02:51:39 pm »
+9
Hi BriMT! I've always read your journal but have always been very intimidated to reply! Your final year sounds very insightful and fun! Do you know what you want to do after uni or are you going to live in the moment and think about that later?
Looking forward to the net update :D

Hi!

I hope I don't give off too much of a scary vibe, thank you for following and replying :)

We've actually just gotten access to the Moodle page, not much info on there yet but it's still a nice thing to have. Hopefully it is both insightful and fun! The induction week topics look useful which is a good start.

After uni I want to focus on working for a while and some years later I want to do postgrad. Since the end of last year Monash has started sending me job emails for science grads and most of the ones that come up are some sort of data analytics thing. I like analysing data but more importantly I want to go into a role that I see as working towards a good cause. There are some roles that come up as environmental consulting which matches well with my skillset but if it's going to be helping companies exploit environmental legislation gaps then I'm not all that interested. I'm not sure if that fully answers your question but I hope that gives you a better idea!

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #62 on: February 05, 2021, 10:42:47 am »
+15
I have some things to catch up on and lots to get done today so I'm going to keep this short:

I start honours induction on Monday. I'm really happy with everything about my project: the external partner, Monash supervisor, my team (I'm working with a classmate I haven't worked with before but she's very driven and easy to get along with), and of course the project itself. This has meant that I am now super-keen for this academic year.

it's not a task I'm going to start on just yet but I'm looking forward to writing the lit review. I haven't done one before but it's going to be really interesting to see how other people have approached my focus in the project which is the spatio-temporal modelling side of things (coding is going to be crucial for this).


ArtyDreams

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #63 on: February 05, 2021, 11:48:24 am »
0
Good luck Bri  :)
I'm excited to see where the year takes you!!

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #64 on: February 27, 2021, 02:14:54 pm »
+9
Good luck Bri  :)
I'm excited to see where the year takes you!!

Thanks Arty! :)



Update!
[I thought about saying o-week update but I'm not exactly following the standard undergrad timetable anymore so that seems useless]

I'm now doing the project without a teammate. This is kinda strange (everyone else is in a team of at least 3) but mostly I'm really really grateful that I still get to do the project!
[Note to future gc-ers reading this: please don't take this to mean you can opt into a solo project, that's not how it works]

Reading the literature feels fantastic because it's very clear that the work I'm doing is genuinely new and useful. I also love how new the eDNA field is. Previously in high school and uni someone else it's been about repeating what someone else has done, doing a write up with the same motivations on the same data as your peers. Now I get to work on my piece of the puzzle and that's very motivating.

I've been spending some time in the global challenges honours office & we're slowly making it into really being our space that reflects our cohort. It's good to have a space where I can specifically focus on that and really get into that headspace. Out of all the projects in our cohort this one is definitely the one I want to be in but it's still very interesting to hear about the range of other projects

I have also been putting more intentional time and effort into taking care of my health & that's  paying off; I feel like I have more energy, I have more positivity, it's easier to focus etc.

My first assignment (the literature review) is due in 3 weeks. I'm a bit concerned about the 10 page maximum (including references!) with double spacing and 12pt font but I guess that just means I'll need to focus on what's most important. I really think that references are going to be the main issue here but we'll see.   @ people who have written a lit review before, how did you go with the page/word count?

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #65 on: March 07, 2021, 09:13:40 am »
+11
I feel like I'm getting somewhere & I'm starting to see what I'll actually be doing in my project a bit more.

Before there was a part that was like:
- meant to figure out this thing
- ok but how
- ????? I'll just work on this other aspect for a while

Now it's more:
- I have to keep in mind x, y limitations but here's an upper estimate
- to narrow that down, I can use this info from this field and combine it with that info from another field & that should mean...

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of answers I still don't have, but this feels nice.

Only two weeks until the literature review is due (eek)

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #66 on: March 17, 2021, 08:31:55 pm »
+12
Literature review due in 2 days!

I'm currently on the clayton-caulfield shuttle bus,  had no idea it ran at this time but I'm glad it does. There's something nicer about working in the office rather than sitting at my desk at home. I think most of that is the people and the remainder is having a dedicated space. 

I should probably have dinner,  but then I'll go back to working for a while.  Luckily I don't need to do major modifications but I won't have heaps of time to work on it tomorrow & tomorrow is Thursday so I'll sleep better if I get more done tonight. 

Just need to make sure I sleep enough to be able to think properly tomorrow. 

Edit: a counterpoint to the people idea is that I much prefer campus at night. It's so peaceful then.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2021, 08:33:48 pm by Bri MT »

Bri MT

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Re: A turtle's exploration of the world of science & leadership
« Reply #67 on: April 13, 2021, 08:15:38 pm »
+12
wooo! Avoided the 1 month warning!

Handed in the literature review, then yesterday I gave my intro talk. Originally it was going to be earlier but the dates were pushed back. I ended up working pretty late on Sunday since I noticed an issue in my code for the graphs but I ended up fixing it (and more importantly having pretty graphs)
 
I received positive feedback & had a lot of questions asked which was nice :)

I'm pretty lucky that since I'm not doing field trips I'm not needing to do risk assessments, ethics applications etc. I'm working with data that was collected before 2021 so I get to already be doing analysis which is v cool & a fairly unique position at this time of the year.

I've got a breakfast socialising/ networking event at 7:45 tomorrow so I probably won't stay on campus too much longer tonight but I showed up late today so I like to make up that time if I can (to an extent at least). I needed to come in today anyway as I had left my phone in a lecture theatre yesterday (whyyyy do formal clothes designed for women have tiny pockets if any) then had to go prepare for my presentation & after that the room was booked with back to back classes until 7pm so I didn't get a good chance to look :( Fortunately, I got my phone this afternoon.  (Shout out to the cohort-mate who picked up my phone yesterday and dropped it off in the office).

My next assessment coming up is the individual thesis due in 2 months. Definitely going to get started on that early.

Side note: I actually got the Easter public holidays! I'm so used to not getting them that it was a surprise when they happened. Didn't get midsem break off but I wasn't expecting to so that's alright.