Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

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

  Kalanchoe - because it can grow tiny plantlets on the edge of its leaves, often while they are still attached to the plant! Even before these plantlets form, the leaves can be used to grow full plants - just by breaking them off and putting them on soil. They are so entertaining to watch grow and have the potential to answer some very interesting research questions in the future.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

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

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

  My 4th grade science fair; I did an experiment on how the aquatic plant, duckweed, grows at different pHs. I got to wear a lab coat and use every-day chemicals like bleach to make different pH solutions - it was so interesting to see the distinct physical changes occurring and to gain an understanding of why it was happening. I have loved plant science ever since!

  
  
• 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):

  The most important lesson I have learned is to not get discouraged and to always look for the silver lining in any mistakes or surprises. Often, experiments don't work or don't give you the results you expect, but even in those moments you learn something valuable about what is going on and it adds to your understanding of the work. One of my best insights came from an accident that ended up actually improving my experiments!

  
  
• 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?

  1

  
  

Recent Posts

shsnewhousespring2020 project 4 Kaitlin Palla Mar 13, 2020

Hi gang, I was wondering if you could talk me through your experimental design - 

I think your choice of light colors is great, and white is the perfect control. How are you making your different light colors?

Are you placing three plants…

more

Hi gang, I was wondering if you could talk me through your experimental design - 

I think your choice of light colors is great, and white is the perfect control. How are you making your different light colors?

Are you placing three plants under each light (total of 12 plants)? I just want to make sure I'm reading it right.

Also, height is a great dependent variable to measure. I would advocate for including additional DVs like number of leaves, shoot or leaf mass (weigh them on a scale), or even plant appearance (scale of 0-3: 0 = dead, 1 = growth looks poor, 2 = growth looks ok, 3 = growth looks strong). It's nice to plan on taking as much data as possible in case the one DV you choose to measure doesn't capture the differences you're seeing in plants under different treatments (it's saved me a few months of having to repeat experiments in the past!).

Another thing I'd like to know is what your control variables are (the things you'll keep the same between all the groups)? An example would be placing all the lights at the same distance from the plants.

shsnewhousespring2020 project 4 Kaitlin Palla Mar 11, 2020

Hi gang,

I think your question is great, but that your prediction could benefit from looking up information on the different wavelengths of visible light. Right now I think you are confusing energy and temperature - cool colors don't mean the…

more

Hi gang,

I think your question is great, but that your prediction could benefit from looking up information on the different wavelengths of visible light. Right now I think you are confusing energy and temperature - cool colors don't mean the light is actually colder or lower energy (the opposite is true actually!).

Also, consider that plants have different pigments that will each be responsible for absorbing different wavelengths of light. The main pigment used in photosynthesis is chlorophyll, which will absorb blue light and red light (so I think it's great you're looking at those in your experimental design - we know the plant pigments will absorb them!).

If you don't know where to start, check out the information in this link. It walks you through the energy of the different wavelengths of light:

https://www.greenhousetoday.com/does-the-color-of-light-affect-plant-growth/

shsnewhousespring2020 project 4 Kaitlin Palla Mar 11, 2020

Hi gang,

I see you have chosen a topic to explore and I'm excited for your research question!

Can you walk me through your thought process on why you're predicting warm colors will give plants more energy, while cool colors will give…

more

Hi gang,

I see you have chosen a topic to explore and I'm excited for your research question!

Can you walk me through your thought process on why you're predicting warm colors will give plants more energy, while cool colors will give plants less energy?