My name is Michaela Brannum and I am working with Jimmy McCutchan this summer in the Department of Limnology, which is the study of inland waters. I am a Marine Biology major so limnology was about as close as I could get to learning something that would benefit my knowledge of my major in the future. The first couple of weeks were stressful as I was not really sure what direction my project would be taking. I did not feel comfortable because limnology is not something I have studied before and I certainly did not feel confident with what I was doing. I have also already concluded that limnology is not something that I am passionate about. For whatever reason, saltwater is more fascinating. I was surprised that I would be focusing more on the chemistry aspects of lakes this summer when that is unfortunately my least favorite subject. I really enjoy physics and biology. That being said, it was difficult to find the motivation to get excited about the subject I would be studying for the summer. However, I am now very excited about my project as it is finally rolling. I am feeling more confident and comfortable with what I am doing. My mentor and I recently went to the hardware store to gather materials and I set them up. I also received my first set of samples and they are now incubating in the pool. I am also thrilled that my project is set up in a greenhouse which is a serene environment to work in. I am looking forward to what the rest of the summer holds but I am still nervous as so much could still go wrong.<\/p>\n
Signing off for now,<\/p>\n
Michaela<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My name is Michaela Brannum and I am working with Jimmy McCutchan this summer in the Department of Limnology, which is the study of inland waters. I am a Marine Biology major so limnology was about as close as I could get to learning something that would benefit my knowledge of my major in the… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reccs-2016"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-19 21:40:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/reccs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/reccs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/reccs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/reccs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/reccs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/reccs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":518,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/reccs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions\/518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/reccs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/reccs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/reccs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}