Campus Connection

Twenty-nine students presented research at the 3rd annual College of Science and Health research poster session Aug. 6. Three of the students and their presentations include:

• UW-L senior Jessie Hermes, left in photo above, a biology major from Green Bay, presented "Is Simulated Climate Change Driving Microevolution in a Northern California Meadow?" Northern California is predicted to have increased rainfall due to impending climate change. Her poster demonstrates the research she did on how adding water via sprinklers to a plot of northern California grassland might influence species change over time. Hermes has a minor in chemistry.
• Danielle Balistrieri, right in photo above, is working on an Early Adolescence — Adolescence Licensure in education, and has broad field science and biology majors. The UW-L senior from West Allis will graduate in December. She presented "Connecting Scientific Research and the Classroom." She worked with Meredith Thomsen, and Tim Gerber, both biology, to create a lesson plan connected to her research experiences that will expose students to how science is conducted outside the classroom.
• UW-L sophomore Yer Lor, below, photo center, of La Crosse is majoring in cellular and molecular biology. Her poster, "Morphology and DNA Phylogeny in the Land Snail Family Polygyridea," illustrates research she and colleagues performed using DNA sequencing to help determine if current relationships and species identification within this family of approximately 400 species of land snails is accurate or needs to be reconsidered.

For more information, visit www.uwlax.edu/universityrelations/campusconnection/2009/summer/july/27/index.html#poster. Photos and article by Larry Sleznikow, Educational Technologies.