Fall 2006
Student Research
Paleontology @ Carthage
Welcome!
... to the first Carthage Natural Sciences (CNS) Newsletter. This is a collaborative effort of the CNS faculty to maintain contact with our alumni and partners. We will continue to produce this newsletter on a semi-annual basis. If you have informational items to include in the Alumni News category, please send them to Kevin Crosby (Division Chair) for inclusion in the next newsletter. Do you know of an alumnus that we should feature in the next newsletter? Please let us know by forwarding your suggestions to the same address.
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In this issue:
Optical pump apparatus built by Chris Jerina (07) and Prof. Brian Schwartz during the 2006 SURE program.
SURE Research
The Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program, now in its 10th year, supported ten students and 8 faculty members in a broad range of research activities during the summer of '06. The SURE program is a critical part of our commitment to science education that provides real-world research and case-study opportunities for all students. Carthage science faculty strive to involve students in directed "generational" research in which senior students help train and mentor new generations of students in research methodologies and practices.
A sample of SURE research performed this summer is on the next page.
We need Your Support
Carthage supports mentored research through low-enrollment research courses, the SURE program, and participation in Sigma Xi and Pew Foundation activities. Local corporations and alumni have also generously supported student summer research by endowing an individual program, project, or student. If you are interested in helping support a summer research student conduct career enabling research, please let us know.
PEW!
Mike Bouma (08), Prof. Elaine Radwanski, and Jacob Burg (07) at the 2006 Pew life sciences research symposium.
Nineteen Carthage students presented their research at Pew Midstates Science and Mathematics Undergraduate Research symposia at the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis. Jacob Burg spoke on the invasive plant species, Alliaria petiolata (garlic mustard). His research team of 5 students in BIO 490 worked on basic characterization of the plant, including its fungal partners and germination criteria. Justine Rehak (09) spoke on her research on whether stocked salmon can find proper conditions to support spawning here in the Great Lakes area. Amanda Petrovic (08) discussed her work on fungal associations with invasive buckthorn in local areas like Hawthorne Hollow. More>>
Carthage students Alison Wojahn, Christy Brown, and Adam Ogle with Dr. Thomas Carr in southeastern Montana last July. The students participated in a field course in vertebrate paleontology and found many dinosaur fossils, including portions of one of the smallest juvenile tyrannosaurs from the American west.
Carthage Assistant Professor of Biology, Thomas Carr is associate curator of the new Dinosaur Discovery Museum (DDM) and directs the Carthage Institute of Paleontology housed in the DDM. Dr. Carr designed the main gallery of the DDM which features a walking tour of theropod evolution, from Eoraptor to modern birds.
Prof. Carr, DDM curator Chris De Santis, and students Alison Wojahn, Christy Brown (08), and Adam Ogle (09) returned from a summer dig in Montana with the news of an important discovery. During the last few days of the expedition, the team made the find of a lifetime - portions of a juvenile T. Rex. Little Clint, as the T.rex was named, is the smallest associated skull and postcranial skeleton of a tyrannosaurid (Dinosauria, Coelurosauria) from the Hell Creek Formation (Late Maastrichtian) of the western interior. The Hell Creak Formation is between 66.87 - 65.51 million years old. More >>
A New Place for the Science of Place and Space
Prof. Julio Rivera in the Carthage GIS Lab.
In the Fall of 2006, the geography department requested to be reassigned to the Division of Natural Sciences to better support their evolving curriculum and faculty profile. Courses and concentrations in GIS, remote sensing, and physical geography continue to grow and attract students to these interdisciplinary fields. We look forward to increased opportunities for collaboration with our new Divisional colleagues.
The Biology Department welcomes
Dan Choffnes to the faculty. Dr. Choffnes received his Ph.D. in 2006 from the University of California at Berkeley. He specializes in stem cell regulation in developing plants and bioinformatics. He will be teaching courses in developmental biology and plant molecular biology. His expertise in both light and electron microscopy will be very beneficial in guiding undergraduate research projects. In his free time, Dan enjoys working with antique disk and cylinder music boxes and phonographs.
Geography and Computer Science welcome 
Wenjie Sun to the faculty ranks. Dr. Sun comes from northeastern China and earned a B.S. in Geography from Beijing University in 1999. She then went to Indiana University Bloomington, where she received her master's degrees in Geography and Computer Science in 2002, and her Ph.D. in Geography in 2006. She specializes in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and land-use/cover change. She plans on developing courses and a research agenda related to GIS, Remote Sensing (RS), Spatial Analysis, Human Geography, and Geography of East Asia.
The popular introductory course in biology for non-majors “BIOL 101 Concepts in Biology,” was identified as an example of best practices in a national study of Biology courses conducted by the Center for Educational Policy Research (CEPR) on behalf of the College Board. A total of 149 courses from across the nation were reviewed. The study sought to identify "best practices" college courses that could inform the redesign of AP courses in Biology.
Professors Elaine Radwanski, Patrick Pfaffle, and Janet Huie designed the course to offer a comprehensive introduction to biology for non-majors.
