Brugia Malayi - Clark Science Center - Smith College

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Lab Analysis of Samples Collected from Early Triassic Moenkobi Formation Carbonates in Nevada Sophie Westacott The Early Triassic is a period of slow recovery following the most massive extinction event in Earth’s history. 1 Studying the fossil record from this time provides insight into what characterized that recovery in terms of diversity, abundance, body size, and other factors, which in turn reveal what the environmental conditions were like. The focus of my project was the lab analysis of samples I collected in the field this past January from the Virgin Limestone Member of the Moenkopi Formation at two localities in the southern Nevada Muddy Mountains where silicified fossils are present. Identifying and determining abundance of microscopic fossils while they remain trapped in rock is difficult if not impossible. One solution to this problem, if the fossils are silicified, is to dissolve away the carbonate matrix in acid, freeing the fossils and isolating them in the undissolved residue. This method is particularly useful for identification, as the entire 3-dimensional fossil can be examined from every angle and under different microscopies, including the SEM. The residue can also be quickly separated according to size using sieves. A drawback is that unsilicified or less well-preserved fossils will be underepesented. To balance that bias, a second method was used in conjunction with the first. Thin sections, very thin rock glued to a microscope slide, were made from each sample using rock saws, polishing wheels and other equipment. When these are viewed under a petrographic microscope, both silicified and non-silicified fossils can be identified along with other material. Pointcounting, which entails identifying the material directly under the cross-hairs at 200 evenly spaced points on the slide, gives quantitative data on the relative abundance of everything in the sample, from bivalves to carbonate cement. 2 The localities these samples come from are known to have formed during the early Triassic, but more precise ages can help to contextualize them beside other scientists’ work. Small, superficial holes were drilled into a cut slab of each rock sample, and the powder created by the drilling was collected in test tubes (process depicted in accompanying photos). The tubes have been sent away for testing, and the result will be a carbon isotope profile that can be matched against a profile with known ages. I will continue this project during the academic year as an honors thesis, the ultimate goal of which is to compile data using the methods described above to form an idea of what was happening at these localities during the early Triassic, and in doing so contribute to our knowledge of this unique period of recovery. (Supported by the Schultz Foundation) Advisor: Sara Pruss References: 1 Pruss, S. B., and Bottjer, D. J., 2004, Early Triassic Trace Fossils of the Western United States and their Implications for Prolonged Environmental Stress from the End-Permian Mass Extinction, Palaios, v. 19, p. 551-564. 2 Payne, J.L., Lehrman, D.J., Wei, J., and Knoll, A.H., 2006, The pattern and timing of biotic recovery from the end-Permian extinction on the Great Bank of Guizhou, Ghizhou Province, China, Palaios, v. 21, p. 63-85. 2012 143
Early Research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at Smith College Kate Aloisio How do early Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) research programs impact academic outcomes in the STEM fields? This summer we investigated this question with the Office of Institutional Research at Smith College. Smith works to create more opportunities for undergraduate research in many academic fields including the STEM fields. Smith College is a leading institution for offering early research opportunities (research conducted in the first two years of college); one particular program, the primary focus for this research, is the Achieving Excellence in Mathematics, Engineering and Sciences program (AEMES). AEMES, introduced in 2007, is a Smith program dedicated to building a community of diverse students in the sciences, math and engineering who engage in early research with one-on-one faculty mentoring and peer mentoring 1 . The first cohort included fifteen students who are members of groups traditionally underrepresented in the sciences including students of color and firstgeneration college students (for whom neither parent earned a bachelor’s degree) and indicated that they planned to major in science, math or engineering. Since then each year approximately twenty first-year students who indicate that they are interested in science are invited to join this early research opportunity. At the time of this analysis, there are three active cohorts and two graduated cohorts. We are interested in the characteristics of these cohorts and the program’s impact on the students’ academic path through Smith. We first observed these students participation, perseverance, and achievement in science gateway courses. We also explored these students’ later Smith careers. Specifically, we investigated if they became natural science majors and whether they participated in independent research projects including Science Departmental Honors, Science Special Studies, and SURF. Once we developed data structures optimized for analysis representing a history of these AEMES scholars, culled from institutional and survey data sources, we wanted to explore the propensity of all Smith students interested in science to participate in STEM gateway courses, STEM majors, and STEM honors research compared to students in AEMES. To model these relationships we used linear and logistic regression models. The analyses for this project were conducting using SPSS. (Supported by the Susan M. Rambo Fund in Mathematics) Advisors: Minh Ly, Cate Rowen and Nicholas Horton References: 1 http://www.science.smith.edu/mentoring/programs.html. 2012 144
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