Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  Grand Valley State University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  Plant respond to environmental stimuli or developmental cues in numerous ways. I am interested in how plants respond to light, and hormones. In particular, I study how responses at the molecular level takes place, including changing the activity and levels of proteins within the cell.

  
  
• 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):

  I used to work in a greenhouse, helping out with the cultivation of plants. I decided that plants were really neat and I wanted to learn more.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

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

  The orchid. So many different types, all so beautiful

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  (not set)

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

  (not set)

  
  
• 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

bcdegraffspring2018 project 14 Matthew J Christians Mar 29, 2018

Awesome!  It looks like you have some great results.  Can you make any conclusions based on your results?  Do your plants grow better or worse with salt? Why do you think salt might affect growth?  What would you like to do for a…

more

Awesome!  It looks like you have some great results.  Can you make any conclusions based on your results?  Do your plants grow better or worse with salt? Why do you think salt might affect growth?  What would you like to do for a future experiment?

bcdegraffspring2018 project 14 Matthew J Christians Mar 21, 2018

Hi All,

Sorry for the delayed response.  I am one of your mentors for the project.

Looks like you are well on your way in your project.  Nice job!

A couple of questions so I can catch up on your project. 

1.  I see…

more

Hi All,

Sorry for the delayed response.  I am one of your mentors for the project.

Looks like you are well on your way in your project.  Nice job!

A couple of questions so I can catch up on your project. 

1.  I see differences in your heights of your plants, but I don't understand what the different bins are?  Were plants in each bin treated differently?  Is it different salt concentrations?

2.  it is great that you did some statistics!  What did you learn from using statistics to analyze your data?  

3.  If different salt concentrations were used, what can you conclude about how salt affects growth?

Thanks,

Matt Christians

 

A Loose Goose using a Noose on a Moose to get out of Bruce the... Matthew J Christians Mar 21, 2018

Great!  Thanks for the update.  Looks like you are on your way to performing the experiment. 

Did you decide which plants you are going to work with yet?  

A couple of other things to think about:

1.  How often…

more

Great!  Thanks for the update.  Looks like you are on your way to performing the experiment. 

Did you decide which plants you are going to work with yet?  

A couple of other things to think about:

1.  How often will you add the extra nitrogen?  Do you think you can add too much?

2.  Is height the only way (or the most informative) you can measure seedling growth?  What other ways could you do this?  

3.  It sounds like you have been thinking about controls.  Why are controls necessary?  What are your controls?

Matt