Completion of an Undergraduate Honors Thesis
In the Spring of 2013, I was awarded the Tiger Athletic Foundation Scholarship which funds Honors thesis research. Students applying for the scholarship must submit a short grant proposal to the Tiger Athletic Foundation.
In the Fall of 2013, I conducted genetics research under Dr. Sabrina Taylor in the Conservation Genetics lab of the School of Renewable Natural Resources. The purpose of my research was to determine the effects of the Drd4 gene, in birds of the genus Copsychus, on dispersal and home range size. My research was defended in front of a Thesis Committee comprised of my advisor, Dr. Taylor, and two faculty members. I then presented my research at the 2014 Undergraduate Research Colloquium, and submitted the scholarly paper to a thesis review board in May 2014.
My completed thesis can be downloaded here.
Image: Linda Cross (left) and myself at the 2013 Awards Ceremony. Photo credit to Kurt Ristroph.
Academic Achievements and Skills Acquired
Secondary Holmes Program
The Holmes: MAT in Secondary Education is a rigorous 12 month graduate program leading to a Louisiana teaching certificate in grades 6 – 12 and the Master of Arts in Teaching degree. Established in 1990, this program prepares teachers at the graduate level in secondary subjects (English, mathematics, social studies, biology, chemistry, physics).
Holmes students are divided into subject area cohorts for most of the year. The curriculum consists of 36 hours of education course work, student teaching internships at carefully selected host schools, and a research project. My student teaching internships were at the LSU Laboratory School, 7th grade Life Science in the fall, and St. Amant High School, 9th and 10th grade Biology in the spring.
Image: 7th Grade students at the LSU Lab School conducting an outdoor activity on ecological succession, Fall 2014.
GeauxTeach, Steps 1 and 2
In the Fall and Spring of my senior year at LSU, I enrolled in the first two course of the GeauxTeach program to explore teaching as a potential career path. I enrolled in the School of Renewable Natural Resources at LSU with the intent of going on to work for a zoo or the US Fish & Wildlife Service. However, I fell in love with animal education during my time volunteering for the Baton Rouge Zoo and decided to pursue certification as a teacher.
GeauxTeach introduces undergraduate students to teaching by placing student teachers in real elementary and middle school classrooms for several hours each semester. GeauxTeach students explore the process of creating a lesson plan and learn valuable classroom management techniques.
Image: A 5th grade class at Baton Rouge FLAIM, Fall 2013.
Some of the basic skills I have acquired through rigorous course work at LSU include: lesson planning, classroom management, time management, plant and animal ID, GIS & GPS modeling, orienteering, forest stand cruising, population estimates, data analysis, and how to read and write a scholarly journal article. I have attended professional development workshops on Project Wet, Project Wild, and Project Learning Tree, and on integrating GIS technologies in the classroom. I am currently pursuing certification as a Certified Google Educator Level 1, to showcase by ability to integrate technology in education.
International Student Volunteers - Australia
Rather than completing a traditional study abroad course, I received academic credit for my participation in a 4-week volunteer program in Australia. For two weeks, I worked with a team of 8 volunteers on Phillip Island to restore habitat for the largest population of little blue penguins in the world. During the remaining two weeks, our team traveled with 40 students from other ISV projects up the east coast on an adventure tour and cultural immersion experience. I visited many historic sites, gained new skills in carpentry and operating farming and landscaping equipment, and had the opportunity to speak with residents of Phillip Island and members of the Tjapukai aboriginal tribe.
Image: Some of the nest boxes that we built and installed on Phillip Island to increase the number of nest sites available for little penguins.
Course on Wildlife Management Techniques
Wildlife Techniques is one of the final courses in the Natural Resource Ecology & Management curriculum. Wildlife students are given the opportunity to learn valuable skills necessary to be a successful wildlife management professional. Through this course, I completed Hunter Safety Education, purchased a Louisiana hunting license, and learned to safely handle, load/unload, and fire a shotgun. Other skills acquired in this course included: archery, aging deer jawbones, buck scoring, duck wing ID, and population estimates. The course involved a large research project, in which we (as a class) studied how the rate of food consumption by hummingbirds changes with food color and feeder spacing. The study was conducted during the ruby-throated hummingbird fall migration, from August to October, 2013. The results of the hummingbird study were reported in a scientific paper, following the format of a Journal of Wildlife Management article. Click here to download the paper.
Image: Skeet shooting at the Woodworth Outdoor Education Center in Alexander State Forest, W.M.A., Louisiana, October 2013. Photo credit to Luke Laborde.
Course on Human Dimensions in Wildlife Careers
Human Dimensions is designed to introduce wildlife ecology students to public policy and human resources. It is a communication-intensive course that requires students to design a survey that will collect opinions from the public about a natural resources issue of our choice. We worked in groups to design the survey, collect and analyze the data, and present our findings to the class. Final results were published on individual websites. Click on the image to open my website in a new window.
While at LSU, I completed many communication-intensive courses with similar requirements, which included the creation of web pages, Wikipedia articles, and individual and group projects and presentations.