I'm on the way back from the Alabama Academy of Science meeting at Alabama A&M. According to Dr. Wilson, this is the 11th straight year that Judson students have presented at the Alabama Academy of Sciences.
It was a good experience! Public speaking is definitely something I want to work on. I presented my paper "The effect of photoperiod on hatchability and hatching time of Northern Bobwhite Quail (Colinus virgianus) strains Jumbo Wisconsin and Georgia Giant" covering the first two batches of quail from my honors project. Elyse McIntyre, a science education student from Judson, also presented a paper titled "Expanded coliform sampling of four Perry Lakes Park aquatic environments." Our faculty sponsor/advisor Dr. Thomas Wilson and Elyse's parents attended.
We got to hear several interesting presentations. One that really stood out was a by Dr. Brain Keener about an upcoming website called the Alabama Plant Atlas. The atlas will be a sort of plant encyclopedia for all vascular plants found in the state of Alabama. There is no current overall taxonomic guide for vascular plants in Alabama, just regional guidebooks. Once it is complete, anyone will be able to upload pictures they have of different species of plants which will be placed on the site after being checked by an expert. Other papers in our session were concerning vegetated roofs of buildings, another paper discussing human type coliform bacteria in the Fish River, a taxonomic study of Alabama Blenny Darters, an analysis of frog and salamander population studies, and one on chromosomal DNA inserts in mitochondrial DNA. It's definitely a small world! The moderator of our session was Dr. Brian Burnes, a former biology professor at Judson. Dr. Burnes taught me Physiology, Developmental Biology, and Microbiology, and also sponsored the Judson Chapter of Water Watch when I was a member.
