Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  University of South Carolina Upstate

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  i'm a biologist who studies how plants get pollinated in nature. I consider myself a botanist, plant biologist and ecologist. I've studied questions like what kinds of birds and insects pollinate different species of plants, and whether plants need pollen from other plants to make seeds or whether they can use their own pollen. I've also studied how pollen grows from where it lands on a flower down to reach ovules, which can become seeds once they are fertilized.

  
  
• 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):

  When I was younger, I liked going outside and exploring in nature, but I didn't know I could make that into a career. I once went on a hike and was amazed when the hike leader could identify all of the different kinds of trees by looking at the leaves. When I learned that going outside and studying nature could be a job, I made that my career goal.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is best about being a scientist?

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

  What's fun about being a scientist is that you get to learn things about the world that nobody else has ever known. When you read a science textbook, it seems like we have already figured everything out. However, as soon as you start investigating a question, you pretty quickly come upon questions nobody has answered, or even questions nobody has ever thought of. As a scientist, you get to explore your interests and be creative in thinking about ways you can answer the questions you've found.

  
  
• 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):

  I once got to spend a year in New Zealand, an country near Australia. I studied the pollination of mistletoes there. Part of my job was measuring the amount of sunlight each plant received, and I did this with small dishes that contained light-sensitive paper. The more that the paper turned white due to sunlight, the brighter was the location. I put all of the dishes out and then came back a few days later to check on them. Several of them were gone! But this was way out in nature, far from where people would disturb them. Eventually, I found some of them broken in the grass nearby. Then I saw parrots in nearby trees. The parrots had pulled the dishes down and tossed them away, just because they were curious. I was pretty mad, but happy for their company all the same.

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

  (not set)

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

  3

  
  

Recent Posts

lhselligposfall2023 project 10 Ben Montgomery Nov 21, 2023

It's great that you're making progress and working on methods. I do have some questions. It looks like you are describing parts of 2 different experiments here. One experiment involves the use of bromythol blue to indicate the carbon dioxide…

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It's great that you're making progress and working on methods. I do have some questions. It looks like you are describing parts of 2 different experiments here. One experiment involves the use of bromythol blue to indicate the carbon dioxide concentration in the water. The other experiment involves leaf disks that float or sink. We wouldn't usually try to measure the effects of bromythol blue on photosynthesis; instead, we would infer the rate of photosynthesis by color change in bromythol blue.

For the bromythol blue experiment, I would make sure that your different treatments are as similar as possible except for the variable that you are experimentally varying. It sounds like you are varying light level by covering one tube with foil. If that is the case, then is there a reason that you are blowing into the covered tube but not the one under light? Remind yourself what blowing into the tube is supposed to add to the solution. Also, consider how you can use the color of the bromythol blue to make sure you blow similar amounts into both tubes. 

 Are you adding plants or leaf discs to the tubes? That wasn't mentioned. 

I would consider not looking at the floating rate of leaf discs in this study because the bromytol blue gives you an alternative way of measuring photosynthesis rate.

I hope that helps. Keep me updated, and Happy Thanksgiving!

mhsyuhaseposfall2023 project 1 Ben Montgomery Nov 20, 2023

That makes a lot of sense - a cloudy day would interfere. It sounds like your original hypothesis was refuted, because natural light was not better. However, based on what you saw, you could refine your hypothesis to takes into account the variation…

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That makes a lot of sense - a cloudy day would interfere. It sounds like your original hypothesis was refuted, because natural light was not better. However, based on what you saw, you could refine your hypothesis to takes into account the variation in the intensity of natural light to predict when artificial light will be better and when natural light will be better.

I'm glad it all worked out well - this was a successful study!

lhselligposfall2023 project 10 Ben Montgomery Nov 14, 2023

Hi Rebecca, That sounds like a good start! Variation is normal - I wouldn't expect them all to float, even if photosynthesis is occurring. I doubt that cup size is the most important condition. Was the light intensity high over the…

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Hi Rebecca, That sounds like a good start! Variation is normal - I wouldn't expect them all to float, even if photosynthesis is occurring. I doubt that cup size is the most important condition. Was the light intensity high over the uncovered dish? In which treatment did the 3 discs float - in light or shade (under the foil)? Three discs floating in the same treatment might be enough to answer your question.