Student Research and Activities

L - R: Sarah Cook presents her senior Capstone project at NCUR-2009; Samantha Botzum recieves 1st prize for her poster at the 2010, Tri-Beta Distirct-3 Undergraduate Research Symposium; Samantha Botzum with her prize-winning poster; Westminster students at NCUR-2009

Student Publications

Coates, K. and Robertson, K. (2012) Muscarininc Acetylcholine Receptors are Required for Nestmate-Odor Memory Retrieval but not for Olfaction in Harvester Ants. in press in BIOS

Cook, S., Walter, R. and Robertson, K. (2009) Dark-reared Drosophila melanogaster Adapt to their Environment by Acetylcholine-driven Changes in Olfactory Sensitivity. Proceedings of the Society for Comparative Cognition 8 (7) 10-12

Student Presentations

Students that do research projects in my lab are encouraged to present their findings and national or regional conferences. Listed below are some recent student presentations that resulted from work done in my lab.

Hunter McClevish (senior): (2012) The Effects of Serotonin Inhibition on Memory and Learning in Red Harvester Ants. Presented at the 2012 National Conference for Undergraduate Research, Weber State University, Ogden, UT

Marissa Carr (senior): (2012) The Effects of Pentylnetetrazol on Olfaction Sensitivity in Harvester Ants. Presented at the 2012 National Conference for Undergraduate Research, Weber State University, Ogden, UT

Michael Dever (senior): (2012) Determination of the Role of GABA in Drosophila Olfaction by the use of GABA Agonists and Antagonists. Presented at the 2012 National Conference for Undergraduate Research, Weber State University, Ogden, UT

Kaylynn Coates (senior): (2012) Muscarininc Acetylcholine Receptors are Required for Nestmate-Odor Memory Retrieval but not for Olfaction in Harvester Ants. Presented at the 2012 District 3, Tri-Beta Conference, St. Francis College, PA. Kaylynn won second prize for her oral presentation

Samantha Gibson (junior): (2012) The Role of Acetylcholine in Olfaction. Presented at the 2012 District 3, Tri-Beta Conference, St. Francis College, PA. Samantha won an honorable mention for her presentation

Samantha Botzum (senior): (2010) Characterization of GABA expression in the Drosophila Brain. Presented at the 2010 District 3, Tri-Beta Conference, Gannon University, PA. Samantha won first prize for her poster presentation

Sarah Cook (senior): (2009) The role of Acetylcholine in Insect Olfactory Plasticity. Presented at the 2010 National Conference for Undergraduate Research, University of Wisconsin La Crosse, La Crosse, WI