Question

Why did you choose this topic?

Answer

I started performing this research my sophomore year and I was looking for ecology research that involved aquatic animals. I also wanted to work with an advisor who was enthusiastic about their work. This amphipod metabolic scaling research under Dr. Glazier seemed to match well. When first started this research I hadn't had an ecology course, and knew very little about both amphipods metabolic scaling, but Dr. Glazier taught me what I needed to know and was supportive along the way.

Q

How did you feel presenting in front of an audience helped you as a student?

A

In my classes we rarely give oral presentations, so I really don't think the oral aspect helped for my Juniata classes. However, presenting at the symposium was good experience because I think it helped with my public-speaking skills, and gaining the ability to verbalize my research to a variety of academic levels. Both these are skills which will be vital in graduate school, and in a career. So, while I don't think it helped me as a student, it was certainly a helpful addition to my classroom learning.

Q

What is the most interesting aspect of your research?

A

What I find really interesting about my research is that we're working to better understand and find exceptions to a law in science. Also, it's well known that ecology can affect life history characteristics of prey species, but we are taking a unique perspective on this and trying to provide a metabolic basis for these variations.

Q

How do you feel your research will illuminate the topic and/or benefit society?

A

We are trying to explain exceptions to a law in science. Therefore, this research will have strong implication in the field of metabolic scaling. But also metabolic scaling is a factor in determining the metabolic rate of an organism. Therefore our work has implications in an array of fields including biogerontology and conservation biology/management because there have been theories suggested that metabolic rate determines longevity. Among other field there are also applications in veterinary medicine because dosing in depended on metabolic rates.