Profile

• Time Zone

  Pacific

  
  
• Organization

  University of California - Riverside

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My research interests are in what kinds of proteins and molecules can make and how they make them. I want to be able to understand the process of what and how they're made, and one day I want to be able to manipulate these processes and breed plants to make tastier, healthier, and tougher plants!

  
  
• 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):

  Mustard, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Kohlrabi, Kale, Cabbage are ALL the same species! They all started off as wild mustard and just have been bred over a long time for their different traits!

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What was the first science experiment you ever designed? How did it turn out?

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

  The first science experiment I ever designed was in 5th grade. My project was on whether or not people could taste the difference between regular and diet coke. The results were very conclusive: yes people can tell the difference. The truth is, I designed that experiment so I could have an excuse to bring coca cola to school! That's a lesson that you should enjoy what you do in science, and it'll make it a lot more fun haha

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What lessons have you learned in your career about how science works?

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

  When I was younger, I thought that the best scientists already knew the secrets of the world and they just did experiments to prove it to other people. While some few scientists ARE like that, most science is conducted in a way you find all the wrong answers until you get to the right one! It's like a process of elimination!

  
  
• Help represent the outreach efforts of your societies. Please click all those organizations you are a member of:

  (not set)

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

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

loscashmanwosspring2024 project 6 Sarah Lam Apr 24 at 03:29pm

OMG that sucks... accidents do happen but that's still rough. I'm glad that you still were able to get some data. I'm here to help if you need anything when you're interpreting what your data could mean!

About the plants and the…

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OMG that sucks... accidents do happen but that's still rough. I'm glad that you still were able to get some data. I'm here to help if you need anything when you're interpreting what your data could mean!

About the plants and the pH, I don't believe your plant would have changed color- I used hydrangeas as an example because they're a special case where you can directly see the effect of acidity in the flower. That being said, plants tend to be healthier in slightly acidic soil and that may explain why the plant with your most acidic treatment performed the best and lasted the longest out of the three. I hope this helps with some of the data that you collected!

hhsbembryfogbspring2024 project 6 Sarah Lam Apr 11 at 11:04am

Hiya Andrea! Hope y’all had a great Spring Break! To save Brassica seeds, you should let the pods mature and dry on the stalks (I haven’t saved these kinds of seed before but I believe the pods should get crispy-ish) and you can cut the…

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Hiya Andrea! Hope y’all had a great Spring Break! To save Brassica seeds, you should let the pods mature and dry on the stalks (I haven’t saved these kinds of seed before but I believe the pods should get crispy-ish) and you can cut the plant, hang them upside down to completely dry out in paper bags. The pods can break open on their own like this, but once they’re at the point of being light tan and crunchy, you can also crush them to remove the seed. You can either blow away the plant material (winnowing) or float them away with water and dry the seeds well in a single layer on a piece of paper/towel/parchment for 1-2 days :)

loscashmanwosspring2024 project 6 Sarah Lam Mar 20 at 07:25pm

Hello Cayden! Awesome observations! A little fun fact: plants can have different traits in different pH soils (for example, hydrangeas can have pink, blue or purple flowers depending on the acidity). This can be due to a lot of things such as how…

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Hello Cayden! Awesome observations! A little fun fact: plants can have different traits in different pH soils (for example, hydrangeas can have pink, blue or purple flowers depending on the acidity). This can be due to a lot of things such as how the plant moves the acidic molecules around or because of how different nutrients are more available to the plant in acidic soil. Do you think that this might be related to what you're observing?

Keep up the good work!