1. Two things that I learned in drafting my research question for the final project is that
A. It is easier to come up with a question in an area that you are interested in studying. I thought I had been interested in looking at the distribution of maternal gene products in developing embryos, but I was actually more interested in genomic imprinting and epigenetics! At first, I was initially focused on looking at the RNA-binding protein, Smaug as it plays an important role for pattern-differentiation. However, because I was more interested in genomic imprinting and epigenetics, I switched my interest and have decided to look at H19.
B. I learned that reading lots and lots of primary articles on the interested gene/protein/RNA gives a good understanding of what has been understood, what hasn’t been understood, and how other researchers have approached their hypothesis. I expected to learn these lessons for sure. I didn’t expect myself to stick with the first question that came to me. I actually expected myself to explore what was out there in the literature before I found something that I was happy with studying.
2. I had expected myself to read conflicting results from researchers as I would be looking at an area of active research. I was also expecting myself to have difficulties in reading the paper and critically evaluating the experiment. For the most part, I have not come across any controversy on H19, nor any conflicting results. This could be because I haven’t read enough papers yet though! As for difficulties reading papers, I’ve yet to encounter any difficulties in understanding papers.
3. In developing a sound, well-research hypothesis, my strategy is to 1) do my research 2) know exactly what I want to test 3) make sure my hypothesis is testable and 4) Decide if it will be a 1-sided or 2-sided hypothesis. As the hypothesis will influence the research design, I’m sure I’ll be spending time fleshing out my question!