Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  Bard College

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My MSc research involved looking at the influence of disturbance, host type and soil type on ectomycorrhizal communities in the boreal forest. Currently I work in a lab focused on the influence of plant traits, seeds and abiotic factors on plant-soil feedbacks.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  When and why did you decide to go into a science career?

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

  My decision to go into science as a career really just started because I didn't want to be stuck inside all day. As I got further into my high school education and started to research different types of scientific pathways for college, I became interested in environmental science because it utilizes many types of science and contributes to solutions for real world problems such as ecosystem recovery after a disturbance and global climate change.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  Do you have advice for students about preparing for a science career?

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

  The advice that I normally tell students is be prepared to work very hard in all of your classes in middle and high school, not just science and math. Being a scientist means having a well rounded skill set. It doesn't matter how good you are at problem solving if you can't properly communicate your results. Writing is such a big part of being a scientist, something I didn't realize when I was younger.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

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

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

  I honestly didn't think too much about plants until I had a professor for my basic biology series in college who was very passionate about them. The fact that they are so quick to adapt and so versatile still blows my mind every single day. The orchid family is a great example, in some species the flowers have adapted to look like female pollinators to attract males and that is just awesome. Of course right now my current fascination is with mycorrhizal fungi and how vital the symbiosis is to the survival and health of many plant species.

  
  
• 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?

  3

  
  

Recent Posts

bchswelchfall2019 project 24 Natalie Marie Scott Nov 22, 2019

Hey team!

Great poster, thanks for uploading. I just have one note and that would be on your graph to indicate which plant was associated with which fertilizer treatment. The plants being labelled 1-6 is nice, but I am unsure as reader which…

more

Hey team!

Great poster, thanks for uploading. I just have one note and that would be on your graph to indicate which plant was associated with which fertilizer treatment. The plants being labelled 1-6 is nice, but I am unsure as reader which plant was grown with which amount of fertilizer. 

Plant care can be very tricky, you said you wish you watered the plants more and that may have given you different results. That is a great observation, it is always important to think about how to improve a project! Besides what you wrote, are there any other follow up experiments you would like to conduct based on what you learned?

It has been so great working with everyone. Let me know if you have any more questions for me. 

bchswelchfall2019 project 11 Natalie Marie Scott Nov 22, 2019

Hey Jessica and the rest of the team!

What a great poster of your experiment. Looks like your results matched your predictions pretty well. After doing this experiment with everything you learned, what are some follow up questions you have? Is…

more

Hey Jessica and the rest of the team!

What a great poster of your experiment. Looks like your results matched your predictions pretty well. After doing this experiment with everything you learned, what are some follow up questions you have? Is there another experiment you would like to do?

It has been so fun watching this team conduct this experiment and get some cool results. Let me know if you have any more questions for me. 

lhsbradleybgfall2019 project 3 Natalie Marie Scott Oct 31, 2019

Hey Sophia,

That does sound very tricky! It is good to do tasks like that in a group, questioning each other is important and all part of the scientific process. It seems like you are looking at color and trichomes as traits. Anything else you…

more

Hey Sophia,

That does sound very tricky! It is good to do tasks like that in a group, questioning each other is important and all part of the scientific process. It seems like you are looking at color and trichomes as traits. Anything else you are interested in? I am excited to see what you find out.