biology
Education holds the promise of preparing students to be engaged, thriving participants in a socially just democracy. For that ideal to occur, the structure and experience of the classroom must reflect both its constituents and consider the socially just imaginaries in which we would all like to inhabit. Using examples from the civil rights era's interrogation of our society, we will explore how an introductory biology course can help fulfill higher
Dr. Andy Sih | Sih Lab
Andy Sih’s laboratory works on the evolution of ecologically important behaviors (predator-prey, mating, and social behaviors) life history traits, and how these influence population and community ecological patterns, Most projects examine freshwater organisms e.g., fish amphibian larvae, crayfish, insects and other freshwater invertebrates. Current applied ecological interests include studying effects of pesticides on predator-prey interactions, and behavioral mechanisms underlying species invasions.
"Intraspecific Variability in Heat Stress Tolerance Across and Within Habitats in the Tropical Plant Marchantia inflexa"
"Swipe Right for White Pine: Do Divergent Host Preferences Generate Prezygotic Isolation in Pine-feeding Sawflies?"
"Insights for Trait Ecology from Island Biogeography"
"Sense of Touch between Species of Ducks"
Dr. Vinod Kumar | Kumar Lab
Abstract:
Cycles in biological systems are all-pervasive in nature. Birds, like any other species, express daily rhythms in activity/rest, hormone secretion, and several other rhythmic characteristics. Most bird species also show long-term cycles in feeding behavior, body fattening (in migrants), reproduction, molt, or migration. Both daily and seasonal behaviors are under the strict control of the endogenous clock mechanisms, but the role of the environment remains critical for optimal performance and ultimately survival. Synchrony with the environment is achieved through the interaction of clock components with external cues (e.g. photoperiod), and internal coordination among different rhythmic physiological correlates is achieved through neural and endocrine signaling. Thus, we are interested to learn about how birds achieve precision in timing their daily and seasonal activities in sync with the periodic environment. Our research effort mainly centers around the “Avian Circadian and Seasonal Systems: Study from Behavior to Molecules”. The working hypothesis has been that specialized cells localized in different tissues express genes involved in the clock circuitry, and different cell populations control the food intake, body fattening, reproductive axis, molt, and migration, in a way that each event can be timed and spaced with each other to optimize an ecological adaptation.