Writing these mock proposals was a lot of fun, and I have learned a lot about the different types of peer review. The process has influenced me to become more familiar with proposals so that I have more of an understanding for the future.
When reading the proposals of course I also had mine in mind. I really liked reading everyone’s ideas, this inspired me to keep finding topics I find interesting to research. The fun part is that microbes are everywhere so anything can be fascinating.
From this process I learned that focusing the proposal was really important, as well as experimental design. Thinking of how to measure the differences between the two environments in this case was just about the 16s rRNA, but I think it could be more difficult in the future. Thinking about how to make an experimental design is something I haven’t had to do in a microbiology lab before, and I think these proposals gave some practice in this.
