Profile

• Time Zone

  Mountain

  
  
• Organization

  Fort Lewis College

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am a Plant Systematist. As a Plant Systematist I am interested in understanding the patterns of plant biodiversity and understanding the underlying processes that gave rise to the diversity that we see today. To address these questions I use a variety of tools from field observation to laboratory investigations to decoding the genomes of plants. A particular interest is contributing to the conservation of rare plant species by understanding their evolutionary history. My research has taken me across the central and southwest United States, Mexico, and South America and I am now working on projects in the Galapagos Islands.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is best about being a scientist?

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

  Being a scientist allows me to ask questions and work to answer those questions to provide for a deeper understanding of the world around me. The questions you ask as a scientist can open up doors you never even imagined existed and can lead you down an unknown path of adventure.

  
  
• 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):

  To be successful you must have a passion for what you study. Science is hard. Not all of your experiments will go according to plan. It can be easy to get discouraged. But if you are passionate about your field and scientific inquiry you can get past those little bumps in the road. As you prepare for a career in science take time to explore and learn what it is that you are passionate about.

  
  
• 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):

  This is both a funny story and a critical moment in high school when I realized (now with 20/20 hindsight) that I was a botanist. For a Biology class I had to turn in a collection of properly identified leaves. I did the collection the morning it was due (not recommended by the way) since I knew most of the local tree species. As I had studied trees on my own I wrote the scientific names of the species on each of the sheets thinking that was correct and turned it in. When I got the assignment back my teacher had marked them all wrong. The reason - my teacher didn't know scientific names or how to judge if they were right or not. It's probably the only failed assignment I was ever actually proud of.

  
  
• 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

TEAM JAB Ross McCauley Apr 24, 2018

For graphing are you gong to be collecting these values over time or just once?  If over time then your sampled values are what we call your dependent variables and these should be placed on the y-axis and time, your independent variable,…

more

For graphing are you gong to be collecting these values over time or just once?  If over time then your sampled values are what we call your dependent variables and these should be placed on the y-axis and time, your independent variable, should be on the x-axis. For measuring over time I would recommend a line graph.  If you are making the measurement once than a bar graph.  Draw out an example of such a graph and send me a photo.  Make sure as well that you label your axes correctly.  If you send me a photo I can help you with that.  As for your '"data" question I'm assuming you mean the pronunciation?  Data is with a long "a" on the first "a".

TEAM JAB Ross McCauley Apr 10, 2018

Hey team - how's it going? Sorry to hear about the death of the plants. Hope that your second set will be more successful.  Regarding the stomatal counts it will be hard with the nail polish technique to tell if they are open or…

more

Hey team - how's it going? Sorry to hear about the death of the plants. Hope that your second set will be more successful.  Regarding the stomatal counts it will be hard with the nail polish technique to tell if they are open or closed.  It is best for looking at stomatal density.  And I think between your treatment groups that might vary.  To do the technique make sure you have clear nail polish.  Brand doesn't seem to matter much but believe me, the colored ones don't work.  Paint on a little polish to the underside of the leaf.  Wait 15-20 minutes.  You want to make sure it's good and dry and it takes longer to dry on a leaf than on fingernails.  Then take a razor blade and carefully peel the polish off and place it on a microscope slide and look at it.  The power you use will depend on your microscope and the size of your stomata so I can't give you advice on that one.  But it will be easy to figure out the field of view and determine the density of the stomata.  Here is some work for you.  Could you tell me how you would determine the field of view under your microscope?  Hint. Think a little about geometry and circles. Let me know if you need another hint. 

TEAM JAB Ross McCauley Mar 26, 2018

Thanks for the update team. How about light in this box.  Will the plants be able to get a good level of light? What are your plans for this week?  Have you decided yet on what measurements you are going to make?