Lessons Learned in Time Management When Conducting a Capstone

Rebecca Andes, Verrazzano Class of 2024, completed major in General Biology

The past year has taught me a lot about the crucial lesson of the importance of time. Four years of college have flown by, and the idea of a capstone project that had once seemed so far away since freshman year, soon became a reality. I often told myself there was plenty of time, but eventually, time caught up with me.

Selecting a topic for my capstone it was not an easy task. There were so many different ideas and interests available, making it a challenge to focus on just one area. Thankfully, with the guidance of my mentor, Professor Antonella Guadagnino, I decided on my topic, "Reviewing the Role of Carbon Dioxide for Seizure Intervention in Humans and African Naked Mole-Rats."

Completing my capstone project had many different challenges, but as I overcame these challenges, I learned valuable lessons. At first, the whole project felt daunting, but with perseverance and patience, I discovered my ability to push through. The importance of communication was another lesson that I learned during my research. By learning how to communicate more and to ask for help, it made it easier for me to organize my thoughts and gain more knowledge about my topic.

Lastly, time management was one of the biggest lessons that I had to learn, due to it not being my strongest skill. Through careful organization and planning, I improved significantly in managing my time.

Throughout this journey, I not only improved academically but also grew personally from the many lessons I have learned. Each challenge and success helped me learn more about myself.

The Circadian Rhythm of Naked Mole Rats

Ashraqat Mahmoud, Verrazzano Class of 2022, completed major in Psychology 

During the process of developing and completing my capstone project, I learned many things. My project summarized my research on the circadian rhythm cycles of two types of mole-rats, African naked mole-rats and Damaraland mole-rats. We worked to determine the role of colony members, specifically the colony queen, in relation to the colony as a whole.

In the lab, we used RFID-based tracking of the movements of animals in two colonies of African naked mole-rats and three colonies of Damaraland mole-rats. Through doing this, I learned how to properly use radio identification (RFID) to track and record the movements of animals. By using a program called R-studio, I was able to save the recordings of the animals’ movements, and used a package known as Lomb to convert the recordings into a periodogram. This taught me several coding skills, which I was able to enhance the more I practiced recording the animal movements and saving them.

In conducting this research, we found that colony differences in activity patterns have not been previously reported, and we plan on following up by observing whether social factors play a role.

We observed differences in the concentration of colony nests. In the naked mole-rat colonies, for example, we saw that the Teddy colony tends to have a densely occupied single nest, while the Layla-Felix colony has a nest that is spread over a few chambers. By measuring the frequency of behaviors specific to the nest environment, we could determine how social behaviors influence daily activity patterns.

My experience conducting research has improved my communication and collaboration skills. Although our lab consisted of several students working on different things, we always worked together and shared ideas with one another. Collaborating with my fellow lab members allowed me to enhance my problem-solving skills, as well as make new friends and new connections. This made my research experience much more enjoyable.