Biology 395
in the
Westneat Lab
Undergraduate research is a superb opportunity for students seeking to do science rather than just read or hear about it. In my lab, students have a range of choices from working with free-living animals in natural habitat, studying subjects in more controlled aviary setting, to analyzing DNA in the lab from samples collected in the field. Some students have combined these and so gained experiences in several research settings. Students learn
how to ask interesting questions about organisms from a variety of perspectives,
to integrate approaches from different subfields of biology,
a variety of techniques, from handling birds and observing them in the field to molecular procedures for analyzing DNA,
about alternative explanations and what evidence is needed to distinguish them,
how to present findings to others,
to interact with others in doing interesting research
Projects available (Spring/Summer 2007)
Some recent students and their projects
