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My teaching philosophy contains 3 main components:
I plan my courses with an eye toward making Biology come alive to students. We use current, popular media to analyze the science of everyday life. Students develop analytical skills that allow them to connect current class biological concepts with larger ecological and environmental issues. My research interests span cellular to ecological, and have included experiments in the laboratory, greenhouse and field. To date, I have supervised two senior undergraduate students. One who explored demography (turnover) of roots as a response to nutrient patchiness using rhizotron boxes in a greenhouse setting (Virginia Tech, 1999-2000). The second student examined the antibacterial properties of spices with respect to three common plant pathogens using plate inhibition tests in a lab setting (R-MWC, 2003). Another area I’m interested in researching is phytoremediation. In phytoremediation, plants are used to ‘clean up’ environmental contamination. Specifically, we have shown from greenhouse experiments that corn plants can take up significant amounts of lead and translocate the lead to their shoots for easy removal. Future research will focus on refining the technique so that it can be used to absorb lead from actual contaminated sites in the Lynchburg area. When I'm not in the office, I enjoy spending time with my family. My husband Andy and our two boys, Justin and Connor, enjoy spending time hiking, bike riding and swimming at Smith Mountain Lake. Our golden retriever Cameron loves to swim too.
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Thelma Dalmas
(e-mail)
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Jo Anne Pierce
(e-mail)
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For me, Randolph struck a chord during my first visit to campus. I was impressed with the campus and the facilities, but most of all, I was awed by students. More than 80 students attended my first talk, and not only were they eager to participate, they asked great questions. I knew this was a place where I could have meaningful interactions with the students. I've always been interested in science, and my interest in teaching blossomed after graduation from college when I joined the Peace Corps and was stationed in Cameroon, West Africa. There, I taught farmers in the rainforest how to build and maintain fish ponds. After my time with the Peace Corps, I lived in the Netherlands before coming back to the United States to pursue graduate work so I could teach at the college level. For me, education is about more than grades, classes and lectures. I believe one can learn so much more when information and theories learned in the classroom can be experienced in the laboratory. I think that students need to own the knowledge, not just be able to recite it. I want to excite and empower students so they can teach to others what they have just learned. I teach cell biology, developmental biology, immunology and introductory biology. My lectures and laboratories are small, which means I'm able to connect to the student at her own level. I teach the students current techniques in the laboratory, and in turn they see the things they are learning in lecture applied in the lab. Research is something near and dear to my heart literally. My doctoral research involved conducting stem cell research with mice. I am now trying to apply the techniques I learned with mouse stem cells to chicken stem cells. My current area of research is the embryonic development of coronary vasculature (the blood vessels which feed the heart muscle itself.) This semester, there is a student, Karishma Rajani, engaged in an independent study in my laboratory working on this research. In the picture, she and I are looking at cells through the inverted phase contrast microscope in my laboratory. Chickens are organisms which easily lend themselves to the study of embryonic development. You can put a window in an egg shell and watch the dynamic developmental processes. Through this window you can also manipulate the chick embryo during development, study the effects, and observe the outcome. The research going on in my lab could help scientists in the quest to develop better ways to treat and prevent heart disease. More importantly, my research enables me to show students how science can be applied to real life issues. I want my students to learn, but I also want them to empower them to reach as far as they can in life. Mentoring plays a huge role in what Ive chosen to do. Although I'm originally from Dayton, Ohio, I now live in Lynchburg with my two dogs, four cats and a house full of fur!
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I became a biologist because I'm interested in why the world is the way it is, and the areas in which I specialize - behavior, ecology, and evolution - provide lots of answers. I've studied animals ranging from ravens to lemurs, in places as close to home as the Randolph campus and as far away as the Serengeti plains of East Africa. Currently, I'm working on a research project in Ireland that focuses on the chough. This rare species of bird is ecologically linked to the traditional agricultural practices still in evidence along parts of Ireland's west coast. When I'm not teaching, I like spending time with my family, reading, walking, watching birds and baseball, and discussing biology's philosophical implications with my students and friends. I also greatly enjoy exchanging emails with Biology alums, many of whom are engaged in fascinating careers and research.
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