From Theory to Practice

From Theory to Practice

Congratulations to OWU’s first round of grantees!

Several Ohio Wesleyan students and professors are readying their binoculars, collection bags, microscopes, and hiking boots for especially heavy use after this week’s announcement, by Provost David Robbins, of the recipients of the first round of OWU’s Theory to Practice grants.

Funded by members of the President’s Circle, the program is designed, as OWU President Rock Jones explains, to provide an immediate opportunity for faculty and students to receive funding for experiences that connect theory and practice on and off campus.

“These experiences may include significant undergraduate research enhanced by working in laboratories, field settings, archives, and libraries in various places away from campus; volunteer experiences close to home or in developing countries; international study-travel experiences; and more,” says Jones. “While we cannot introduce any student to every culture or to every nation, we can challenge every member of the OWU family to develop cross-cultural sensitivities and to acquire the capacities for working successfully across national boundaries and cultural differences.”

As Robbins shares, the first of the three cycles of funded research grants supports experiences scheduled for the 2009-2010 academic year and includes the following six selected projects, which range in funding from $1,261 to $26,720:

“Bringing Molecular Systematics to Ohio Wesleyan University Through the Evolution in Xylopia (Annonaceae).” The proposer of this project is OWU senior Gregory Stull, and the project advisor is Professor David Johnson from the botany-microbiology department. Stull will travel to the New York Botanical Garden during winter break (December 28-January 9), where molecular systematic studies of Annonaceae are being performed. As Johnson explains, the New York Botanical Garden has the largest collection of dried plants-and plant museum herbarium—in the world. Using his professor’s previous Fulbright-funded research on Xylopia as a foundation, Stull says he will confirm Johnson’s ideas of how the group has evolved. “Seeing how these plants have evolved can be applied universally to other plants,” he says, sharing that he will bring plant material from OWU’s laboratories to New York for testing. The goals of this project are to establish a molecular systematic research operation for class experiments and independent studies in systematic biology at OWU. As Johnson explains, through this research, “we are asking those who participate, to think about how what we are doing relates to the wider world, a responsibility shared by all scientists.”

“Bolivia, Ecology, Poverty, and People.” A new interdisciplinary summer course in Bolivia providing a model for understanding the interaction between ecological disturbances and social problems, this project was proposed by Professors Mary Howard from the sociology-anthropology department; Dennis Radabaugh, recent retiree from the zoology department; and Sally Waterhouse, from the zoology department and academic advising area. They, along with as many as seven OWU students, will travel to Bolivia, one of the poorest nations in the world, from May 17 to July 3, to participate in truly interdisciplinary research melding the social sciences with natural sciences. They will visit the capital, La Paz, Santa Cruz, and Buena Vista to experience and study history, ecology, and culture, while meeting the people of the highlands who, because of draught cause by climate change, are forced to migrate to the lowlands, where a different ethnic and cultural environment exists. Group members will spend time in an orphanage built for the poor street children, while traveling through poverty-ravaged cities, and then shift gears to hike through the many rainforests of Bolivia to observe a variety of insects indigenous to the area. “But we’ll also rub shoulders with movers and shakers, such as the co-founder of Amboro National Park, a nature reserve in central Bolivia, with more than 800 species of birds and more than 125 mammalian species. “The professors will be learning [alongside] the students, and we’ll all be ready to expect the unexpected,” says Radabaugh. Students will keep journals of their observations and reactions for ongoing discussions and synthesis of what they are learning.

“High-Resolution Conodont Biostratigraphy.” This project, proposed by Professor Keith Mann of the geology and geography department, is designed to enhance the current paleontological laboratory at OWU and also increase the volume sample processing conodonts (fossils). The project, as Mann explains, will support individual student research on conodont biostratigraphy and conodont-based biostratigraphic research within the “Sedimentology and Stratigraphy” course at OWU. In addition, this project supports a specific student research project: “High-resolution Conodont Biostratigraphy of the Dundee Limestone, Lucas County, Ohio.” Sophomore Jen Schmitt and students enrolled in Geology 330, “Sedimentology and Stratigraphy,” are participating in this research project.
 
“Sex Differences in Environmental-Dependent Tolerance to Ethanol and Diazepam in Mice.” This project was proposed by OWU senior Robert Pence under the guidance of Professor Jennifer Yates of the psychology department. This campus-based research is a follow-up extension to previous research in the laboratory to discern gender/sensitivity differences in reactions to receiving injections of ethanol (gauged by the amount of sleep time) and diazepam. Pence’s data will be analyzed, and if significant differences are found with regard to previous research, results will be prepared for publication. The project duration is January 11 through May 6, 2010.

“The Effect of Monosodium Glutamate on Amphetamine-Induced Psychosis in the Rat: Integration of the Dopamine and Glutamate Hypothesis of Schizophrenia.” This project was proposed by OWU senior Tayler O’Connell, under the guidance of Professor Jennifer Yates of the psychology department. The project goal of discovering more successful methods of treatment for schizophrenia requires refinement of animal models of psychosis to investigate other factors contributing to the etiology of schizophrenia. O’Connell will target these initiatives through her campus research involving the integration of two well-studied theories of the disorder: the dopamine hypothesis and the glutamate hypothesis. Her research will be conducted between January 7 and April 25, 2010.
 
“Natural History of the New River, Lamanai, and Chan Chiche, Belize.” This proposal, developed by Professor Jed Burtt from the zoology department, features funding for airfare for two Ohio Wesleyan student guides who will accompany Burtt and several OWU alumni to Belize, from March 6-13, 2010. The students, senior Jack Stenger and junior Sean Williams, will act as guides and present one or more evening seminars to introduce alumni to the flora and fauna of Belize. These students also will help to identify birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians of Chan Chiche and Lamanai. Both students plan to teach at the college level and pursue their research in ornithology. Treks through rainforests, Mayan ruins, as well as seminars and various field trips led by Burtt and the students, will show alumni as much of the natural history of the area as possible.
 
“I want to congratulate all of our grant recipients and encourage other members of the OWU community to participate in this wonderful Theory to Practice Grant Program,” says Robbins.

– Pam Besel

Published for Connect2 OWU, December 17, 2009