Profile

• Time Zone

  Central

  
  
• Organization

  Northwestern University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My research interests relate to the practice of seed banking. Seed banking is a technique used in restoration and conservation where seeds are stored in cool and dry conditions long-term. Seeds are plant embryos and contain everything they need to grow into adult plants when given the right environmental conditions. By banking seeds, we are able to capture a genetically diverse group of individuals of a species. These seeds can be used in a variety of ways, including putting the seeds back into the wild for restoration and using seeds for scientific research. Banked seeds also serve as a genetic safeguard for species that may be rare or endangered or who’s habitat may be threatened.

  
  
• 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 explore your curiosity and creativity. Being a scientist requires you to listen to the world around you, ask questions, and wonder. Channeling all of those elements into learning new things about our world is exciting and fulfilling.

  
  
• 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):

  When I was about 5, I decided to plant popcorn kernels in a seed starting tray to see if I could grow a popcorn bush. My popcorn bush didn’t grow, but now I get to work with seeds every day!

  
  
• 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):

  In middle school, I became fascinated with the neurological condition synesthesia and the complexities of the human body and decided that I wanted to become a doctor. I went on to college and studied neuroscience, but came to realize that medicine was not for me. During the end of my time in undergrad, I spent a semester studying abroad in the Galapagos Islands and took a plant science class studying the native and introduced flora of Galapagos. On one particular field trip, my “plant blindness” faded away and my eyes were opened to the world of plants. I discovered that I wanted to continue down the path of plant conservation and that my idea of what research looked like was quite different from the reality of it and in fact was something I was very happy doing.

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

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

Stage IV Group 3 Sarah Hollis Mar 12 at 01:48am

It looks like you all made great observations about your celery on Monday!

Now that you have your data, it will likely be time to figure out what your data tell us.

Some questions you might want to think about: Which celery changed the…

more

It looks like you all made great observations about your celery on Monday!

Now that you have your data, it will likely be time to figure out what your data tell us.

Some questions you might want to think about: Which celery changed the most? What measurement (width, length, mass, amount of liquid) changed the most? How did they change? Is that what you expected to see? How was the celery in water different from the celery in 2g of salt and 30 g of salt? Why do we think we observed these differences? What would you do differently in the future if you did this experiment again?

A good place to go back to is your hypotheses you made last week. Do your findings support your hypotheses? In other words, based on the measurements you collected and what you observed, did your hypothesis turn out to be true?

I want to add that whether or not you were able to support your hypothesis is less important that what you were able to find out and learn from the process. We don't always get results that support our hypothesis in science, but getting results that support our hypothesis shouldn't be our goal. Our goal is to experiment, observe, and learn and there will always be something we can learn from an experiment, no matter how it goes! :) 

Stage IV Group 3 Sarah Hollis Mar 12 at 01:13am

Wow, I know Cameron described one of the celery as looking like curly fries and looking at the celery on the far right, I think that is such a good description!

Stage IV Group 3 Sarah Hollis Mar 12 at 01:12am

Hi all,

I am so blown away by the awesome work you’ve been doing! I wanted to catch myself up and check in.

1. I love all of your drawings you shared the first day! You all did such a wonderful job illustrating transpiration. I…

more

Hi all,

I am so blown away by the awesome work you’ve been doing! I wanted to catch myself up and check in.

1. I love all of your drawings you shared the first day! You all did such a wonderful job illustrating transpiration. I especially liked the magnified drawing of plant cells, the bubble pointing out stomata, and the arrow showing the direction that water moves through the stem.

2. Your hypotheses all showed you were thinking about what might happen to the celery in the water, the 2 g salt solution (a solution is a mixture of things, in this case salt and water), and the 30 g salt solution which is exactly what we want to do when thinking of a hypothesis, well done! When I write a hypothesis, I usually write what I expect to happen based on my variables (like 0 g, 2 g, and 30 g salt) and might say how they relate to each other. For example, my hypothesis/hypotheses might be “The celery in the water will be the least bendy, the celery in the 30 g salt solution will be the most bendy, and the celery in the 2 g salt solution will be bendier than the celery in the water but less bendy than the celery in the 2 g salt solution.” or I might say “The celery in the 30 g salt solution will be bendier than the celery in both the 2 g salt solution and the water.”

3. Looking at your data sheets, I love all of the ways you describe the celery. You did such a good job of observing and describing what you saw and I like how you paid attention to the appearance, texture, shape, and even smell of the celery. I think you did a great job of following up your observations with more questions too! I like that you noticed the mass of the celery changed a lot and asked where the mass went. Do you have any hypotheses on where the mass went?

4. I also think it's really cool you chose to test thin and thick celery! I’m excited to see what you found when you collected your data on Monday.