Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  Syracuse University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My research explores how organisms interact in nature. In particular, I aim to understand how the environment affects interactions between plants and a type of fungus that lives inside plant roots. I am especially interested in how changes in the environment, such as rising temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations, will affect these interactions, and how these plant-fungal interactions influence where different species live.

  
  
• 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):

  One of the coolest things I have learned about plants is that they play host to an amazing diversity of bacteria and fungi. In fact, there can be hundreds of different microbes living inside a single plant! Some of these microbes help plants survive and grow, while others are diseases, but in many cases, the identity and the function of these microbes is still a mystery!

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is best about being a scientist?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  My favorite thing about being a scientist is that no two days are exactly the same because every day I learn something new!

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is tough about being a scientist?

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

  My favorite thing about being a scientist is also what (I think) makes it tough. As a scientist, my job is to ask questions about plants and design experiments to test these questions. I can make predictions about what I think will happen in my experiments, but there is often no "right" answer that explains everything. In fact, I often learn more when the results don't match my predictions. Thus, in order to understand how plants function I have to conduct many experiments, each one adding a small piece to the bigger puzzle.

  
  
• Availability

  I am NOT available, please temporarily remove me from the available mentor list

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

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

Green Tots Katie M. Becklin Apr 25, 2023

Congratulations on finishing your project! I have one last question for you...I noticed that the seeds in your moderate temperature treatment were different sizes by the end of your experiment. What does this tell you about why it is important to…

more

Congratulations on finishing your project! I have one last question for you...I noticed that the seeds in your moderate temperature treatment were different sizes by the end of your experiment. What does this tell you about why it is important to replicate experiments like this one? Do you have any hypotheses about what could cause variation in how quickly radish plants grow?

Cheers, Katie

frenzy farms Katie M. Becklin Apr 25, 2023

Hi team,

I'm also curious to know more about your experimental design. You mentioned that you will be measuring plant height. How often will you measure this trait? Are there other things you can monitor or measure about your plants that…

more

Hi team,

I'm also curious to know more about your experimental design. You mentioned that you will be measuring plant height. How often will you measure this trait? Are there other things you can monitor or measure about your plants that might give you more information about how well the plants are growing in each soil treatment? 

Cheers, Katie

frenzy farms Katie M. Becklin Apr 25, 2023

Hi team, 

Some of what you described as differences between garden soil and sand is related to soil texture. Soil texture is often described based on the size and type of particles in the soil. For example, sand has relatively large…

more

Hi team, 

Some of what you described as differences between garden soil and sand is related to soil texture. Soil texture is often described based on the size and type of particles in the soil. For example, sand has relatively large particles compared to loamy soil. I encourage you to do a little bit of online digging (pun intended!) to learn more about how soil texture affects the way water and nutrients move through the soil and the ability of the soil to store these resources.

Cheers, Katie