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Dirk Vanderklein

Profile

  • Time Zone
    Eastern

  • Organization
    Montclair State University

  • Role
    Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  • Research Interests (300 words)
    I study how plants respond to changes in their environment and how plants change our environment.

  • Profile Question 1
    What is your favorite plant? Why?

  • Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):
    Larches are my favorite tree (a kind of plant) because they are pretty and they lose their leaves even though they are conifers (which are mostly evergreen).

  • Profile Question 2
    When and why did you decide to go into a science career?

  • Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):
    I decided to go into science as a career when I was an undergraduate student. I got to work on some research projects involving trees as an undergraduate and got very interested in the questions that were being asked and the way people were going about trying to answer those questions.

  • Profile Question 3
    Can you share a funny/interesting lab or field story?

  • Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):
    An interesting story happened to me one summer. I spent 2 months trying to set up a new experiment in a forest when one day I discovered that someone or something had vandalized my instruments. This made me upset, but I put everything together again only to find everything messed up again 2 weeks later. At that point I discovered claw marks on the container holding my instruments. It was a bear and apparently he/she did not like my research! I was never able to collect any usable data that summer because, no matter what I did to dissuade the bear, it kept coming back and knocking all my instruments on the ground. The following summer, I took measures and got a stronger box to hold my instruments and pounded stakes around the box so that the bear could not knock it over. After that the bear left things alone. I also put a sign on the box explaining what the research is about. I guess the bear decided it was okay with what I was doing.

  • Availability
    I am currently available for mentoring, please send me team match invitations

  • Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?
    2

Recent Posts

The Greenish Thumbs Dirk Vanderklein

Dear Greenish Thumbs,

I would love to hear from you. Did your seeds grow? If not, no biggie. That is the beauty of working with plants. If they die, they die and you try again. Also, don't be worried about getting the "right…

more
The Greenish Thumbs Dirk Vanderklein

PS: I am curious to see how your plants respond to the different treatments (i.e. levels of fertilizer application).

Dr. V.

The Greenish Thumbs Dirk Vanderklein

Dear Green Thumbs,

Great Name! I am sorry I did not respond sooner. I have not been getting automated updates (which should happen). So, I have a few questions for you. First: which plant seeds are you going to work with? The next question is…

more

Skills & Endorsements

  • Challenges Student Thinking
    Marina Borges OsorioKristen Stiem+1
  • Encouraging
    Marina Borges OsorioKristen Stiem+1
  • Knowledgeable
    Marina Borges OsorioKristen Stiem+1
  • Responsive
    Marina Borges OsorioKristen Stiem+1
  • Experienced
    Marina Borges OsorioJason Keeler

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NSF_Logo.jpg This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #2010556 and #1502892. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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