Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I have studied food web interactions, specifically the interactions of plants, animals, and fungi, with fungi being the main focus of my undergraduate and graduate research.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is the coolest thing you have discovered or learned about plants?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  I have 2.
  1. Plants take air and sunlight and make sugar. How cool is that?!?!
  2. Plants seem static because they're immobile, but they interact with so many things around them - insects, herbivores, fungi, other plants... The depth of connections in a forest is mind boggling.

  
  
• 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 liked science when I was in high school, but I was never super good at math. I ended up going to school to get a music degree. A year after I graduated, a friend commented that I should consider the Applied Biomolecular Science program she was in. I hated it - it was really hard to get back into school when I hadn't studied science or math for 5 years. Then one day in botany class I was daydreaming and when I looked up, the professor had a huge photo of a tree with buttress roots and was talking about their adaptation to thin soils. I was instantly hooked on plants. I learned how to study (school is much easier with study skills!) and I've been going forward ever since.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is best about being a scientist?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  I learn something new every single day! Sometimes it's a new way of figuring out an old problem, sometimes it's something new in science news, and sometimes it's something no one has ever tried before. But every day is different and every day I learn a little more about how the world works.

  
  
• Help represent the outreach efforts of your societies. Please click all those organizations you are a member of:

  (not set)

  
  
• Availability

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

  
  
• In addition to English, I am comfortable communicating with students in the following languages:

  (not set)

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

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

Sarcastic Seeds Kate Sidlar May 7, 2018

said

Hey Sarcastic Seeds!

I just read over your project info and conclusions and I think you've done a great job!  The only think I want to caution you about is how you said some plants were more successful because of their colour.  Look…

COM_PROJECTS_MORE

Hey Sarcastic Seeds!

I just read over your project info and conclusions and I think you've done a great job!  The only think I want to caution you about is how you said some plants were more successful because of their colour.  Look outside - you can see many different shades of green (and some leaves that aren't green at all!) and all of those plants are doing well.  It's good to write observations about things like colour, but you have to be very careful when you use them in your conclusions because it's hard to know exactly what they mean.

I think overall your experiment was great.  I hope you enjoyed doing it and that you've learned a bit about how scientists do these kinds of experiments.  Hopefully what you've learned here will help you in the future!

Happy planting!

Kate

 

Cheery Cherry Blossoms Kate Sidlar May 7, 2018

said

Hi Cheery Cherry Blossoms,

I just read your revised conclusion and I think it's great!  You pointed out what parts of your hypotheses were correct, and where you may have made errors.  This is perfect for the next scientists who…

COM_PROJECTS_MORE

Hi Cheery Cherry Blossoms,

I just read your revised conclusion and I think it's great!  You pointed out what parts of your hypotheses were correct, and where you may have made errors.  This is perfect for the next scientists who want to replicate your work - they'll know exactly what to watch out for!

I hope you've enjoyed working on this experiment and that it's given you some new insights into how scientists do these kinds of experiments.  

 

Science on!!

Kate

Cheery Cherry Blossoms Kate Sidlar May 3, 2018

said

Hi Cheery Cherry Blossoms!

I've been looking over the files you posted and I think the graphs and journals I've seen are really great.  I have a question about your conclusion, though.  The last sentence is that the whole embryo…

COM_PROJECTS_MORE

Hi Cheery Cherry Blossoms!

I've been looking over the files you posted and I think the graphs and journals I've seen are really great.  I have a question about your conclusion, though.  The last sentence is that the whole embryo needs to be present in order for the plant to grow, but the graphs show that there was some growth in all of them.  Do you think it's accurate to say that a plant won't grow without the whole embryo?  Is that what your data shows?  

It's OK to say that they grew but didn't grow well.  It's also OK to say that you were wrong in your hypothesis - that's what science is all about!!  Regardless of your hypothesis, it's more important to make accurate statements about your experiment than to be "right." 

I really enjoyed this project.  I've been mentoring with Planting Science for many years and although I see a lot of the same experiments year after year, this is the first time I've seen this one.  I think it was a really creative idea and very interesting to find out what would happen!  Great work, Cherrry Blossoms!