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Introductory Biology (formerly Biology 114, now Biology 152) Student Research

The following research posters were prepared by first year biology majors in Dr. Bill Capman's second semester introductory biology course. These posters report the results from semester-long independent lab research projects testing hypotheses of the students' own design. Many of these projects build upon the work of students in previous years (to name just a few examples, you can see this year to year progression in the first two plant projects and the first two Drosophila projects in the following listings).

The posters shown here are from research done in the years prior to Spring 2007. Approximately 15 additional posters from Spring 2007 will be photographed soon and added to this web page.

Bio 152 students please read: Click here for suggestions for using these posters for planning your own projects

Projects involving plant competition and plant community ecology - Biology 114

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The Effect of Fertilizer on Plant Competition

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Competition Among Wisconsin Fast Plants in High and Low Fertilizer Treatments

Studies of evolutionary and ecological processes in captive Drosophila populations and communities - Biology 114

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The Effect of Age and Interspecific Competition on Reproduction of Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila virilis.

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Effects of Interspecific Competition on Population Size and Biomass for Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila virilis

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Effects of Blindness on Survivorship between Wild and Ebony Flies in the Light vs. the Dark

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Possible Beneficial Effects of an Otherwise Harmful Allele: Improved Dispersed of Blind Ebony Drosophila melanogaster Under Artificial Laboratory Conditions

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Effects of Vision on Mating Success of Ebony vs. Wild Fruit Flies

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Relative Mating Success of Male Wild vs. Male Ebony Drosophila Melanogaster

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The Effects of Temperature on the Adaptability of Wild vs. Ebony Fruit Flies (Drosophila melanogaster)

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Advantage of Wild Type over Vestigial Drosophila melanogaster When Food is Difficult to Reach

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Effects of Varying Oxygen Levels on Strains of Drosophila melanogaster

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Frequency of mutant vestigial alleles in light and dark environments

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Natural Selection and Genetic Drift In Populations Of Fruit Flies: A Brief Look At The Effect Of Large And Small Populations On The Perpetuation Of Recessive Allele For The Mutant Apterous Phenotype

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Wild and Ebony Type Drosophila in Room and Warm Temperatures

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Mating Preferences Between Apterous and Held Out Drosophila melanogaster

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Drosophila Mating Choice Between Wild Type and Apterous Males
(Note: This was a very ambitious project involving direct observations of mating behavior)

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Natural Selection: The Eye Color of Fruit Flies

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The Influence of Wings on Reproductive Success in D. melanogaster

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Survival Rates of Ebony and Wild Type Drosophila melanogaster Exposed to Ultra Violet Light

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Growth Rate of Ebony vs. Wild Fruit Flies

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A Look At Natural Selection And Genetic Drift In The Eye Color Of Fruit Flies

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Changes in Mutant Allele Frequency in Large and Small Drosophila Populations

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Changes in Ebony Allele Frequencies in Light vs. Dark Conditions

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Survival Rates of Ebony and Wild Type Drosophila melanogaster Exposed to Ultra Violet Light

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Mate selection by mutant female ebony Drosophila melanogaster choosing between ebony vs. wild males

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The Effects of Lemon Juice on the Reproduction of Wild and Apterous Drosophila Melanogaster

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The Effect of a Lemon Juice Environment on Wild Fruit Flies Vs. Vestigial Flies

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Effects of Varying pH Levels on Wild and Apterous Fruit Flies

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Larval Competition Between Vestigial and Wild-Type Fruit Flies

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The Effect of Mate Choice on Offspring Produced by Wild Type and Vestigial Flies

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Drosophila Melanogaster: Difference In Successful Reproduction Between Wild Type and Vestigial Winged

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Mating Scarlet and Apterous Flies with Wild to Monitor the Decline of Mutant Phenotypes

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Visual Perception of Male Courtship Displays as a Factor Causing the Decline of the Vestigial Wing Allele in Laboratory Cultures of Fruit Flies (Drosophila melanogaster)

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Female Mate Choice in Drosophila melanogaster when given a choice between Bar Eyed vs. Wild Type Males

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Sexual Selection between Wild Type and Bar-Eyed Fruit Flies

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Natural Selection of Mutant Alleles and Phenotypes in White x Wild and White x Apricot Drosophila Crosses

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Will The Ebony Gene Be Maintained In The Dark?

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Evolutionary Fitness in White vs. Apricot Drosophila melanogaster

Studies of predator-prey interactions and community ecology in protozoan and rotifer communities - Biology 114

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Establishment and growth of two protozoans at different temperatures: Paramecium caudatum and its predator Didinium

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Effect of Lower pH on Didinium nasutum Compared to Paramecium caudatum

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Survivorship of Coexisting Paramecium caudatum and Didinium nasutum Cultures within Systems of Varying pH Levels

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The Effect of Salinity on Paramecium and its predator Didinium
(This was a very nicely done project, despite the obvious problems with the layout of the poster!)

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Examination Of Population Growth Differences Between Rotifers And Paramecium In Structurally DifferentEnvironments

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Finding the threshold density of Paramecium at which Didinium can thrive.

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The Effects of an Interfering Organism on the Predator-Prey Relationship of Didinium and Paramecium Caudatum

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The effect of a larger food supply on Paramecium and Didinium

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Effects of Temperature Variation on the Community Size of Paramecium Caudatum vs. Aurelia

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Overall and Relative Abundance of Rotifer and Paramecium Communities at Different Temperature Extremes

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The Effect of Temperature on Paramecium and Blepharisma

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The Predator-Prey Relationship Between the Ciliates Didinium nastum and Its Prey, Paramecium caudatum: The Effect of Environmental Complexity on the Interaction Between Didinium nastum and Its Prey Paramecium caudatum

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The Effect of Blepharisma on the Didinium Predation of Paramecium

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Effects of Temperature Variation on the Population Sizes of Paramecium caudatum and Rotifer Cultures

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The Effects of Certain Temperatures on Population Sizes of Paramecium and Rotifers

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Effects Of habitat Complexity on Paramecium caudatum in the Face of Didinium Predation

Introductory Cell Biology (formerly Biology 215, now Biology 253) Student Research

For several years, students in Dr. Dale Pederson's third semester introductory biology course (taken in the Fall semester of the second year) prepared poster presentations of their independent research:

Studies of factors affecting yeast growth - Bio 215

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Growth Rate of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae in 1.3 M and .65 M NaCl Culture Mediums: Implications for People on Low Sodium Diets.

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Effect of pH Changes on the Carbon Dioxide Production of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

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Growth of Yeast in High Salt Concentrations: The Implications for a Saltier Snack

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Effects of Hydration Temperatures on Saccharomyces cerevisiae

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Effects of pH Variance on Saccharomyces cerevisiae Growth Rate

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Variations in Growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Due to Different Carbon Sources: Starch and Sucrose

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Effects of Monosaccharide Fructose vs. the Disaccharide Sucrose on Yeast Cell Growth

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The Growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae under Acidic Conditions: Implications of its use as a Leavening Agent in Lemon Breads

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Yeast Growth Response to Limited Sucrose Levels Gives Hope to Diabetics

 

Other Posters from Student Research

Research by a student working in the lab of Augsburg professor Dr. Mark Strefeler

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Molecular taxonomy and the pursuit of a plant barcode

Research conducted by students in Dr. Bill Capman's Marine Biology of the Florida Keys field course (previously taught in alternate years during January term):

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Successional Patterns in Epibiotic Communities on Thalassia testudimum

Summer research project conducted under the supervision of Dr Bill Capman

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Quantifying Nutrient Import and Export in a Coral Reef Aquarium: The Algal Turf Scrubber

Summer research internship at the University of Minnesota:

Behavioral Characterization of the Motor Disorder of Granule Cell Yellow Cameleon Transgenic Mice

Additional Research Presentations in PowerPoint Format

Students in Dr. Bill Capman's Ecology course (Bio 481) conduct semester-long research of the students' own design, testing a variety of hypotheses dealing with the interactions among plants in plant communities. These projects culminate in PowerPoint presentations. Some of these PowerPoint presentations have been converted into web pages for presentation below (additional PowerPoint presentations will be added once they have been converted for the web).

Soil Composition and Inter-Species Competition – A Comparative Study of Plant Community Structure

Comparative Growth Patterns for Annual and Perennial Rygrasss – Low and High Fertilizer Treatments

The Effects of Competition and Increasing Salt Concentrations on Four-species Plant Communities (Chenopodium album, Kochia scoparia, Trifolium repens, Poa pratensis )

PowerPoint presentations from marine biology research in Florida Keys course:

The effects of differing Astrea americana snail densities on turtlegrass (Thalassia testidunidum) epibiont communities near Big Pine Key, Florida