Kate Eisen
Profile
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Time ZoneEastern
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OrganizationCornell University
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RoleScientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online
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Research Interests (300 words)I study the interactions between flowering plants and the animals that pollinate them. I am curious about why pollinators may be attracted to certain plants and if this changes depending on which plant species co-occur in a habitat.
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Profile Question 1When and why did you decide to go into a science career?
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Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):I didn’t really like science when I was in middle school and high school, but I’ve always loved spending time outdoors--hiking, rock climbing, kayaking, and sailing are some of my favorite things to do.
When I was in college, I took an ecology course for the first time and I realized that ecologists get to spend a lot of time out in nature, designing research projects to address questions they have about the natural world. That sounded like a pretty cool job to me, so now I’m in graduate school studying why flowers have flashy traits like bright colors, stinky scents, and different shapes.
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Profile Question 2What is your favorite plant? Why?
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Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):This is such a tough question for me--so many plants are so cool in lots of different ways!
My top 3 favorite plants are:
1. the saguaro cactus (they are so tall!)
2. Passion flowers (check out their flowers!)
3. Birds of paradise (again, pretty neat flowers!)
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Profile Question 3What is a typical day like for you?
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Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):One of the things that I love about being a scientist is that I get to do lots of different things, so the work that I do each day varies a lot, depending on the time of year and how my research is going.
When I’m on campus during the school year, I might spend parts of my day helping to teach an undergraduate course, thinking up an idea for a new project and writing a grant proposal to fund it, or analyzing data I’ve collected from a summer field research project. Sometimes I grow plants in a greenhouse on campus, and I’m always trying to find time to read lots of scientific articles to see what other people are studying and what they’ve been learning about plants and pollinators.
During the summers, I do field research in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in southern California. It’s a really beautiful area, and I get to hang out with lots of other scientists who are doing research in the area, so we have a lot of fun. We also work really hard because our plants are only flowering for about six weeks each year! A typical day in the field might involve watching bees pollinate plants, measuring floral traits on plants, or looking for new sites where our species occur.
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AvailabilityI am NOT available, please temporarily remove me from the available mentor list
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Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?2
Recent Posts
Agriculture Kids
Kate Eisen
Hi team,
Thanks for sharing some of your ideas about your results!
Omar, in dish 2, it makes sense that the seeds probably did absorb a lot or most of the water that you added. But, when you measured the mass of the seedling, were you…
more
Agriculture Kids
Kate Eisen
Hi Omar & team,
Thanks for the update! That's great to hear that you were able to complete your experiment. Here are a few things to think about regarding your results:
-First, I'm curious about how big the difference was between…
more
Agriculture Kids
Kate Eisen
Hi team!
I'm Kate, another scientist metnor on PlantingScience. I'm going to be working with you for the rest of your project.
I took a look at your project info and it looks like you were getting started on an experiment! How is…
more