Profile

• Time Zone

  Mountain

  
  
• Organization

  Colorado Mesa University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am a plant systematist, meaning I study the identification, description, and classification of plants and study their evolutionary relationships. I work on the plant genus Solanum that contains economically important species like the potato, tomato, and eggplant.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is best about being a scientist?

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

  The best thing about being a scientist is getting to indulge your curiosity. As a biologist, I am curious about the world around me and as a scientist I get to try to figure out the "how's" and "why's" of nature.

  
  
• 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 become a scientist because I love to be outside biking and hiking and skiing. During these activities I became interested in better understanding the world around me. If I saw a cool flower I wanted to learn the name of it so I could tell other people about it.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  Can you share a funny/interesting lab or field story?

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

  On my first plant collecting trip we were in a dugout canoe going down a river to spend 6 weeks in a remote rainforest. On our second day down the river our boat, which was loaded down with all of our gear for the next weeks, sank! I had to frantically swim and try to gather all the gear I could. In the end, we only lost a bit of our food (although we missed it at the end of the trip when we were very, very hungry) and were able to keep going.

  
  
• How did you hear about PlantingScience?

  (not set)

  
  
• Availability

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

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

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

nhspandaposfall2023 project 3 Stephen Stern Sep 24 at 08:31am

Hi Team,

I am Stephen, a professor at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, Colorado. I am excited to work with you all on this project!

PLANTIN WIT DA GANG Stephen Stern Apr 25 at 01:27pm

Thanks for the updates and conclusion. Did you post up the full measurements you made? I could see from the pictures that the no fertilizer seeds looked the best. 

I like your idea that testing fertilizer once the seeds have germinated would…

more

Thanks for the updates and conclusion. Did you post up the full measurements you made? I could see from the pictures that the no fertilizer seeds looked the best. 

I like your idea that testing fertilizer once the seeds have germinated would be a great additional test. I think it is valuable to know that over fertilizing early on may actually harm the plants due to mold. People wanting to grow plants from seeds would find that information very useful!

PLANTIN WIT DA GANG Stephen Stern Apr 13 at 01:27pm

It looks like some of the plants have really grown! 

I can not see your full experimental design but it looks like you have multiple treatments (varying fertilizer amounts in different petri dishes). That is great, the more replicates you…

more

It looks like some of the plants have really grown! 

I can not see your full experimental design but it looks like you have multiple treatments (varying fertilizer amounts in different petri dishes). That is great, the more replicates you can do, the more confident you can be that the results you see are valid and not just a fluke from having few samples.