Profile

• Telephone

  1-513-785-3244

  
  
• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Gender

  Male

  
  
• Organization

  Miami University

  
  
• Employment Status

  Retired / Unemployed

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My research focuses on the effects of environmental factors on the development of root systems and stress-induced programed cell death in plants.
  
  Recently my collaborators and I have been experimenting with using computers to produce virtual 3D reconstructions of root tip structure from microscope slides.

  
  
• Do you have previous experience in mentorship or educational outreach? Please list here (200 words)

  I have been an advisor of college botany majors at the undergraduate and graduate level for 29 yr. I have participated in Planting Science since 2008. I created a children's anti-plant blindness outreach program for the entire Hamilton Ohio City School district involving in classroom activities and field trips to the Miami University Conservatory that ran for a decade and served ca. 8000 children.

  
  
• Which of the following best describes your career stage?

  Emeritus/Retired

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What was the first science experiment you ever designed? How did it turn out?

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

  As an undergraduate I had a lab job assisting a doctoral student who needed to isolate DNA from the root apical meristems of pea plants. We did not have polymerase chain reaction technology to amplify small amounts of DNA in those days, so he needed very large numbers of root tips to get sufficient DNA for an experiment. Based on my classwork and some experiments some other students in our lab had done, I thought I could use elevated temperature to significantly increase the number of cells in these meristems, and therefore reduce the number of root tips we would need to collect to get enough meristem DNA. The experiment was pretty much a failure with respect to its hypothesis and objective, but it serenipitously revealed a lot of surprising effects that elevated temperature had on the development of pea roots. This ultimately led to my own doctoral dissertation research project and subsequent life's work.

  
  
• 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):

  When I was contemplating going back to college after 18 yr in other occupations, I discovered it was not necessarily required that one live and work in a city to do science. I wanted my children to grow up in a non-urban environment, so I decided to study agronomy and botany.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is best about being a scientist?

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

  Being able to make a living discovering new things about the world and sharing those discoveries with colleagues and students.

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

  Botanical Society of America
  Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists

  
  
• How did you hear about PlantingScience?

  Partner Organization E-mail

  
  
• Preferred Student Level(s)

  Middle School Students (Grades 6,7,8)
  High School Students (Grades 9,10,11,12)
  Undergraduate Students

  
  
• Preferred Investigation Themes

  The Wonder of Seeds (seed germination and growth)
  The Power of Sunlight (photosynthesis and respiration)
  What about Pollen? (pollen and pollination)
  Celery Challenge (plant anatomy, osmosis and diffusion)
  C-Fern in the Open (sexual reproduction, alternation of generations)
  Agronomy Feeds the World (where does food come from?)

  
  
• Challenge, ELL, Honors

  Academically Challenged
  ELL - English language learners
  Honors or AP - Advanced Placement

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

  None of the Above

  
  
• Videoconference Ability

  Yes

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

  3

  
  

Recent Posts

muddy buddies Daniel K. Gladish Mar 29 at 07:33pm

Dear Muddy Buddies:

Now that your plants are growing, please make your measurements (height in centimeters?) on a regular basis, and record the date and time.  When it is time to end the experiment, I recommend that you make measurements of…

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Dear Muddy Buddies:

Now that your plants are growing, please make your measurements (height in centimeters?) on a regular basis, and record the date and time.  When it is time to end the experiment, I recommend that you make measurements of shoot system total fresh biomass from each of your pots.  Accumulated biomass is a better measure of growth than height is because it will tell you how successful your plants were at making food by photosynthesis - a clear measure of plant healthy growth.  

To do that you will need an accurate "balance" (scale).  (Hopefully your teacher has access to one.)  With a small pair of scissors, quickly clip each stem off right at the soil surface.  Weigh the shoot systems (stems and leaves) of all the plants from each pot all together at the same time.  That number, divided by the number of plants, will tell you the average shoot system biomass per plant.  Set up and be ready at the beginning to write all the results down as you take the weights, do it quickly so they don't start to dry out before you weigh them, and don't forget to set the balance to zero before you do each measurement.  Oh, and try not to get any soil particles on the balance; that will skew your results.

I can't wait the see how your experiment turns out.  I've never mentored or supervised students who have explored this subject before, nor have I done an experiment of this kind myself.  I can only guess at the possible results.  This sort of science is the most fun - solving a mystery.

Cheers, Dr. Dan

mhsmirandaaftwspring2024 project 7 Daniel K. Gladish Mar 28 at 10:26pm

Dear Team 7:

I haven't heard from you in almost 2 wk.  What's up?

DKG

mhsmirandaaftwspring2024 project 16 Daniel K. Gladish Mar 28 at 10:25pm

Dear Team 16:

I haven't heard from you in 2 wk.  What's up?

DKG