Profile

• Time Zone

  Central

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am interested in studying gravity and how plants can perceive it, using various molecular and morphologic tools. In the past, I have studied plant growth on the International Space Station and in other altered gravity conditions. I am also interested in plant ecophysiology, how plants respond to their environments, and what conditions can change root growth and morphology.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

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

  Welwitschia mirabilis. It's an endangered gymnosperm that lives in the desert! There's nothing like it. Cycads are great too.

  
  
• 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 when I discovered I couldn't leave things alone. I was always asking, "Why?" and "How?" and the further I went in education, the more I realized that I could have a career asking these questions in a system that was really interesting to me.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is a typical day like for you?

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

  Lots of different activities. Some days, I am a pure molecular biologist--extracting RNA and DNA and running PCRs. Other days, I’m a computer programmer. And even other days, I’m an engineer, building imaging systems or fixing broken lab equipment. Not to mention instructing undergraduate researchers and other interested students!

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

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

dmsstiemfall2019 project 12 Eric Schultz Oct 17, 2019

Interesting results!  Have the results changed any in the past few days?

dmsstiemfall2019 project 12 Eric Schultz Oct 10, 2019

Hi team,

Soaking the seeds, or "imbibing," can help with germination for some species of plants.  Is your species one of those?  My caution is that too much liquid can prevent germination and actually cause the seed to rot, so…

more

Hi team,

Soaking the seeds, or "imbibing," can help with germination for some species of plants.  Is your species one of those?  My caution is that too much liquid can prevent germination and actually cause the seed to rot, so you'll want to be careful.  You will also want to document the amount or volume of water that you use, that way you know each seed is treated as similarly as possible.  These different parts of the experiment are called "variables," and we want to control as many of them as possible.  We only want to change one or two at most at a time.  In your case, the one you are changing is liquid type, so we want to try to hold everything else the same.

Back to an earlier question, why did you choose orange juice?  I am interested in why you chose that particular liquid.

dmsstiemfall2019 project 12 Eric Schultz Oct 8, 2019

Hi Tara,

Glad to hear you're thinking about the project!  I'll challenge you to take your hypothesis a few steps further, starting with answers to the questions of why did you choose orange juice in the first place?  What…

more

Hi Tara,

Glad to hear you're thinking about the project!  I'll challenge you to take your hypothesis a few steps further, starting with answers to the questions of why did you choose orange juice in the first place?  What about orange juice or the ingredients in it do you expect to change seed germination?

Looking at your procedure, I would also caution you on the amount of water you're giving the seeds.  How much (what volume) of water are you giving every other day?  And are you sure you need to water that much?