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Summer Research Experience: Student Blog

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July 25, 2018, by Jerilyn Jean M. Calaor

Farm to Fun

Committing to an 11 week scientific program – especially one that bears the prestigious name of Harvard – can be pretty intimating. However, you (prospective students) need not to worry. While it is true that the research may be challenging at times, the people you’ll meet and the adventures you’ll venture in your weeks at Harvard Forest make the battles with field work, data entry, R, and deadlines seem so small. Here, I share highlights of two summers in Harvard Forest's Summer Program for Ecology – from farm to fun.
July 24, 2018, by Nia Riggins

Blue vs. Wild

Blue vs. Wild is an upcoming comic book about a girl and her adventures at Harvard Forest. It is a tale of friendship, science, and a whole lot of other things too. She and her field partner explore the wilderness and make observations through measuring seedlings, harvesting trees, taking canopy photos, and collecting soil samples. The woods can be a
July 24, 2018, by Faizal Westcott

Hemlock Hospice Documentary - Work In Progress

As a visual creative working in a science research environment, I’ve come to find that there’s a lot to be said about the conjunction between art and science. Most people would say that they are polar opposites from each other and might never put two and two together (that’s probably why I haven’t understood half the things people have tried
July 24, 2018, by Grace Duah

Life at the Harvard Forest

Before spending the summer at Harvard Forest, I was not exposed to real scientists. Interning here this summer allowed me to both witness and learn from real life scientists; seeing their daily interaction with their research. Life at Harvard Forest is the right type of fast pace. Upon arrival I was nervous to be so far away from home for
July 20, 2018, by Annina Kennedy-Yoon

Sketches of New England Wildlife

Part of my work this summer involves setting up camera traps to show the diversity of wildlife within the area. This is part of a larger project that intends to convey the presence of these animals within the region. Within the first month of the cameras being set up, we have captured animals that some people have never seen during
July 19, 2018, by Kyle Wyche

L.I.F.E : Living In a Forest Ecosystem

It's 5am and the Sun rays are barely reaching over the horizon when you hear your mentor yell “IT’S A BEAR! GET TO THE CAR!!” . Now, research at the Harvard Forest can lead to some crazy experiences depending on what project you’re on, but don’t worry because if you don’t like bears, experiences like this one, which a fellow
July 18, 2018, by Ruth van Kampen

Fields of View

The words of my lab instructor rattled around in my head on the first day of introductory biology lab—“If what you see doesn’t interest you, you’re not looking close enough.” Annoyed, I fiddled around with the stage location and the coarse focus knob of the microscope, convinced I wasn’t going to see anything in the gross pond water with which
July 18, 2018, by Joe Wonsil

The Forest

Watch The Forest using the link below! Here is the link Description: The Forest is an American television sitcom that aired on HFBC from July 5, 2018, to July 5, 2018, lasting one episode. Not everyone at the Harvard Forest goes out into the field. To the field workers, it may seem like the indoor workers have it easy sitting
July 13, 2018, by Meghan Slocombe

Harvard Forest Field Guide: The Common Trees Found on Prospect Hill

As a Harvard Forest REU student, I am outside taking measurements everyday. These measurements range from things like diameter at breast height (DBH), tree height, the distances between trees, leaf area index (LAI), and percent cover by different lichen species. However, this blog post does not explain how I did any of those, or even what those measurements mean, and
July 13, 2018, by Emory Ellis

The FUNstrations of Field Work

Once you have finished designing your summer project, it may seem easy: collect samples, process those samples, input the data, interpret the data, and present your findings. Easy… right? Not so much. Timing is everything. How can you finish your project if there are not enough hours in the day? This summer I am researching how silica fluxes and concentrations
July 10, 2018, by Seanne Clemente

It’s Just a Name – Don’t Sweat It

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” Romeo and Juliet (2.2.46–47) You’ve probably heard it before, haven’t you? This timeless quote from a timeless tragedy written by a timeless author. Perhaps you have a faint recollection of an English teacher from high school. Do you flash back to
July 9, 2018, by Saloni Shah

Fashion Forward Forest Style Guide

Saloni is a rising Senior at Boston University studying Earth and Environmental Sciences.
July 6, 2018, by Evan Waldmann

Landscape Modeling and Horror Movies: A Great Way to Spend a Summer

My summer research project involves expanding upon the mechanistic model, LANDIS-II, that is intended to simulate forest growth over rather vast landscapes. With the use of the Thompson Lab’s Land Use Plus extension, I have been tasked with creating dynamic and reactive responses to fire occurring across the Klamath, a National Forest in Northern California. One of my first big
July 6, 2018, by J. Marcos Rodriguez

The Keys to a Good Research Community

As an undergraduate researcher here at Harvard Forest my particular project involves sampling the smaller seedlings of the forest’s woody plants (trees and shrubs) within one of the station’s largest observational plots. In measuring these plants, my partner and I are working to not only provide a more complete picture of the distribution of woody plants, but also test unanswered
July 4, 2018, by Monica Velasco

Things to Know About HF

If you’re wondering what the experience in the Harvard Forest program is in regard to the research, then you’re in the wrong post. I’m here to talk about the important stuff: people, food, housing, and fun things to do when you’re not working. All 25 people in the program, plus the proctors, are incredible people. People came from all over
July 3, 2018, by Shreena Pyakurel

A Day as a Harvard REU Student

It is 7:00 AM on a Friday and I wake up as I remember that it is Friday, or as Jerilyn, one of my research partners, says Chai Day! Friday is a special day because it starts with enjoying Tim’s amazing hot breakfast with chai. I think almost everyone makes it to Friday breakfast even if they do not make
July 3, 2018, by Katja Diaz-Granados

Under Pressure

It’s hard to fathom the idea of negative pressures. Pressure is always a force added, something pushing against and weighing down. What a tree does to move water goes completely against both gravity and our sense of what pressure can do. Thanks to a few simple properties, like the fact that water molecules stick to each other and that trees