Profile

• Time Zone

  Central

  
  
• Organization

  Emporia State University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am currently working on a project with a professor at my university studying the impacts of climate change on flowering in grasses using herbaria. What are herbaria, you might ask? Herbaria (herbarium singular) are like libraries of plant species with many different copies of those species that were collected by different people at different times. We are looking at stages of flowering over the course of a year, noting the date the plant was collected, and comparing those dates to historical records of precipitation and temperature. Climate change may lead to earlier flowering times in the grasses we're looking at, which could have negative consequences for the wildlife that depend on them. We'll observe this by graphing the relationship between flowering time, precipitation, and temperature for each stage we've identified.
  As a student, I am broadly interested in plant ecology: how plants interact with biotic and abiotic factors in their environments, and the composition of plant communities (how many different species live in an area, and how successful are they?)

  
  
• Profile Question 1

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

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

  One of the coolest things I've learned about plants is all about wind pollination. Wind-pollinated plants have feathery stigmas to catch the pollen from anthers that hang from their open flowers. Their flowers are not showy like many of the flowers you're most likely familiar with that are insect-pollinated. Have you ever seen grass flowers -- or did you know that grasses have flowers? They're small and reduced, modified from the flowers we might usually see in gardens. That's because they use wind as a vector for their pollination! It's cool to me also that some of these wind-pollinated plants still rely on insects for pollination, which opens up a whole range of questions to ask about their ecology.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  Can you describe your attitude toward science when you were in high school?

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

  In high school, I was involved in a STEM program. There, we focused a lot on engineering and computer science. I found these topics super interesting and felt supported as a girl who was interested in science. Having a learning disability, I struggled with math since elementary school and received 504 accommodations for this. This made those engineering classes hard and began to turn me away from STEM. In high school, it took a while to feel like I was capable and develop confidence in science and mathematics. While I had a great biology teacher, we never had the chance to learn in-depth about ecology or our state's native plants. It wasn't until I reached my senior year, and after graduating, that I knew I wanted to learn more.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

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

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

  As a kid, I would spend most of my days outside and loved to visit natural history museums, zoos, and aquariums. My passion for science and nature was built from a young age! It was much more recently that I decided to pursue science seriously. I've always had so many interests and it felt impossible to choose just one thing -- I love learning about anything and everything. As a junior in college, I've realized that I want to pursue research and keep on learning for as long as I am able. With plants, it took some time to find my stride: as someone interested in ecology, nature itself is fascinating. A plant taxonomy course I'm taking right now has opened me up to the world of plants. Now, I'm starting to look at graduate schools to earn a PhD in ecology and evolution!

  
  
• 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?

  2