During this CURE course students will be engage in all aspects of research: literature reading and discussion, asking questions that can be answer during the semester, collecting, processing, and analyzing data, learning how to interpret analytical results and how to communicate the results to the public and scientific community. Students will learn that science is not about eureka moments! Good science takes time, involves failure, troubleshooting, discussions, re-evaluations, and yes frustration. Good science is always challenging at different levels, from collecting the data to its analysis. Finally, students will learn that not all research projects are equal! Different questions, systems, or species will require different approaches. For example, some research questions rely on well-planned experimental designs involving multiple controls. My research is field based so is bound to be limited by replication, sample size, lack of controls (because there are impossible to have!), logistics! However, field based projects are essential for our understanding of our biological world, and are often the spark for more sophisticated and controlled studies. In this blog CURE students will be sharing with you their experiences as they develop their projects in topics related to animal communication, soundscape ecology, and marine mammal ecology and behavior. Stay tuned!