The Senior Program

At the core of the Senior Program in biology is the senior project, an intensive two-semester field or laboratory research project carried out in association with a faculty member. The project concludes with a written project and an oral presentation given in the second semester of the senior year. The senior project is an opportunity to synthesize and focus previous coursework. It culminates in an original work of scholarship that provides an in-depth examination of a particular empirical or theoretical issue.

The scope and variety of undergraduate research is indicated by the following examples of student projects in biology:

• Establishing the function of the novel TBHR protein
• Effect of atrazine on corticosterone expression in Cuban treefrogs
• Defining and characterizing cryptic communities within Pacific coral reefs
• Chromatin accessibility in redundant and reused enhancers during Drosophila development
• Investigating CENP-K and CENP-S as potential Zea mays kinetochore proteins using immunofluorescence
• A leap into diversity: exploring variations in frog sperm across tropical habitats
• Plant neighborhoods impact seedling growth in temperate forests
• TBhR in the ovaries of Drosophila melanogaster
• The effect of seasonal habitat (subnivium) formation on rodent activity and size-dependent seed predation
• The Frog Prince: examining the relationship between reproductive traits in male green frogs
• Discovering the cryptic species diversity of Pacific coral reefs through genetic barcoding
• Using intronic regions as polymorphic sites to trace the lineage of Saunders' peonies
• Examining the healthcare experiences and transitional stage of pediatric and young adult sickle cell patients
• Investigating the effect of pH on phenol oxidase activity in salt marsh soils
• Eggjelly structure of the Green frog and American toad
• Assessing the key driving factors of predator composition in a high-Arctic ecosystem
• Habitat and seasonality influence rodent predation risk and foraging behavior
• False springs followed by freezing temperatures prevent and delay tree seed germination
• Examining nutrient removal by intermittent draining biofilter in high-BOD nutrient-polluted water
• The ecology of archaea in Fayetteville Green Lake
• α-Mangostin alleviates systemic lupus erythematosus pathology by initiation of apoptosis in pathogenic leukocytes
• Investigation of Zea mays AB10 Kindr and Knob180 interactions in budding yeast
• The effects of lead on chromatin accessibility and gene expression during Drosophila oogenesis
• Assessing Cremophor EL as a solvent alternative
• Assessing gene flow of freshwater crustaceans among turloughs (seasonal lakes) in Ireland