dOinG rEsEaRcH: fUn oR nOt?

As I remember the months that have already passed, I remember how our group struggled each day on how to go about our research. We even started meeting summer last year just to plan out everything that we have to do to be able to make a successful research study.

It all started during the last part of our junior year when our teacher, Mr. Jover Nuñez asked us to make a research proposal. Each one of us had to make a research proposal and defend it at the end of the semester for clearance purposes. The Science teachers will then choose the top sixteen projects that will be executed in the next year.

And so, after months of preparation, doing a lot of research work and defending for the panel, the top 16 projects were chosen. We were also informed after the school year about our groupings and to whom we'll share the project with. Our project is about the worms and is like a continuation of the project made by the previous batch. I found out later that my group mates were Arvin, Jann and Daisy. First, I did not know how to react or how to mingle with Arvin and Daisy because we did not become classmates before. But after our first meeting, I already knew that making this project will not be as hard as I thought.

We met in the summer and we had constructed a plan on how to go about our research study. At first, we had some arguing and debating and we then agreed to have researches and to study the project more before starting the whole project.

When the classes started so did our project. We were even asked to have a notebook for our journal which will be a record of our research procedure, plans and findings of our study. For me, it was a very useful notebook because it also served as a daily account of what's happening on our research study.

Doing research is never easy. You have to be patient enough and be extremely vigilant on taking care of your subjects so that you would not have to start all over again. You also have to bond with your group so that cooperation in the group will show. You also have to do the procedure promptly so as to prevent biases in the study. And lastly, you must also love your work because if you show love for your work, everything will just come out so well.

I never saw research a difficult task or even treated it as a burden. I have always thought of it as a time for our group to bond and to have fun. Although there occured a lot of shortcomings during the whole research project and also involved a lot of money, I still thank God that this research project only made our batch closer and also made our batch enjoy every research period we have. It showed that every little thing that you do, also affects another in some other way. It also showed the cooperation we have in the senior batch because even though we have to think about our project, we still manage to help other groups even in a minor way. I'm also glad that even though we had a lot of misunderstandings and a lot of arguing about some stuffs, our batch were still able to come out alive after this war- like challenge. It only showed that the seniors are survivors: never giving up and never quitting.