Expanding the Learning Experience
Undergraduate students and college faculty learn valuable lessons in the lab, field, and abroad
Even though Kristin Wahlberg spent her summer in a white lab coat studying cells and mice, her research project was far from a typical laboratory experience. The junior human nutrition, foods and exercise major from Shawsville, Va., was investigating a shift in the metabolic preferences of the skeletal muscle of obese mice using a cell model, the first step toward application to humans.
“Research encourages you to discover a problem or gap in the literature, form an opinion, and design an experiment to test that opinion. It encourages you to think for yourself,” says Wahlberg, who plans to attend medical school after college and pursue a career in patient care instead of medical research. “Doing research didn’t change what I wanted to do as far as my major or my career. It did
make me appreciate all the work involved and the possible applications to human patients, who I will be working with in the
future.”
Matt Hulver, an assistant professor of human nutrition, foods and exercise, explains that Wahlberg conducted research under his supervision for a summer pilot program that combined a weekly seminar with hands-on research opportunities in the department.
Wahlberg is one of many undergraduate students who are conducting research with faculty members in the college. These
students are not only supporting the college’s research endeavors but also gaining valuable experiences that help them prepare for their next step after graduation. In fact, a study published in an April 27, 2007 issue of Science indicates that undergraduate research helps students clarify their research interests and encourages them to pursue advanced degrees and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Sixty-eight percent of undergraduate students in the study reported that undergraduate research opportunities increased their interest in pursuing STEM careers.
Craig Nessler, associate dean for research and director of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, explains that research is “one of the most dramatic ways” of learning. “It is like reading a cookbook,” he says. “You can read about making a cake, but it is not until you actually make the cake that you begin to understand the process of baking.”
This learning process is beneficial for both students and the
faculty. “A curious student in the lab learns and teaches at the same time,” Nessler says. “The student learns the answers to his or her own questions and teaches by having the person who answers the question think about what he or she is doing in several different ways.”
According to Ian Doran, a senior biological systems engineering major from Cleveland, Ohio, this is both rewarding and challenging. “The learning curve can be steep,” he says. “It’s one thing to learn how to run an assay in a classroom lab setting. It took me the first year to understand how and why we did the assays.”
Doran, who says he chose to attend Virginia Tech because of its strong research component, began conducting undergraduate research as an engineering sciences and mechanics major. When he switched to the Department of Biological Systems Engineering, he began searching for research opportunities within his new field of study. Doran soon discovered the laboratory of Percival Zhang, an assistant professor of biological systems engineering.
“Ian found me,” Zhang says. “We have a new lab and not many students know about us.”
Doran took Zhang’s pretreatment process for biofuel conversion of corn stover and researched ways to adapt it for a similar process for switchgrass. Zhang explains that learning in the classroom is different than learning in a laboratory because no one knows the answer in advance in a lab. He adds that successful undergraduate students, such as Doran, “need to understand how to get good results and what is behind the results.”
Not all research takes place in a laboratory setting, though. Kyle Cromer, a junior animal and poultry sciences major from Churchville, Va., learned the value and importance of field research early in his college career. “I was interested in cattle,” he recalls. “I wanted to do hands-on research with cattle, but I didn’t want anything too highly technical because I was a freshman.”
Cromer approached Bill Beal, a professor of animal and poultry sciences, about research opportunities in the department. Beal suggested Cromer conduct a study that explores the effectiveness of freeze branding methods on crossbred beef heifers. Freeze branding is the process of permanently identifying an animal using a super-cooled branding iron instead of a traditional hot iron.
“I like to have undergraduate students tackle a problem that is practical to the livestock industry,” Beal says. “We take a problem that is common within the industry and try to solve it with research.”
Field research does not always take place near Virginia Tech’s campus, though. Christine George, a senior biological sciences major from Manassas, Va., confirmed her interest in international health work when she conducted research on vector-borne diseases last summer in Mali with Zach Adelman, an assistant professor of entomology.
“The key to this project is that no data had been collected in this country for dengue and yellow fever in the mosquito population,” George says. “We collected mosquito samples and human serum samples from five sites on the southern part of the country, where the risk for mosquito transmission of these viruses is high.”
George raised $25,000 in only a few months through creative fundraising at Virginia Tech to begin her research with the Malaria Research and Training Center in Bamako, Mali. The mosquito samples will be sent to an infectious disease laboratory run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for further testing.
The Department of Entomology, which does not have an undergraduate program, encourages students in other majors, such as George, to assist with their research. Adelman says that performing research for two years as an undergraduate student convinced him to pursue his career. “And now here I am, 13 years after setting foot in a lab for the first time, in a position to have the same impact on someone else,” he says. “It’s brilliant.”
For another example of an undergraduate research project helping Virginians across the commonwealth, see “Farmers’ Markets from Diverse Communities Benefit from Sharing”
Pratt Scholars Study Food Animal Nutrition
One avenue that allows undergraduate students in the college to pursue their research interests is the John Lee Pratt Animal Nutrition Program, which provides annual scholarships to rising seniors to aid in their research projects under the guidance of faculty advisors. The program began in 1986 after John Lee Pratt, a retired General Motors executive, approached Virginia Tech researchers about a problem with his beef cattle. More than 130 undergraduate students in the college have used the scholarship for their animal nutrition research since the program’s inception.
Jessica Bross, a senior dairy science major from Fredericksburg, Pa., is one of five students this year with a Pratt scholarship. Bross performed an experiment to screen for acetate production in the early lactation period. She examined blood samples from cows before, during, and after lactation to find ways to modify their diet to minimize health problems in the future.
“Many cows are culled in the first 30 days of lactation,” says Mark Hanigan, an associate professor of dairy science and Bross’s faculty advisor. “We are trying to determine how we can feed the cows better to keep them healthy.”
Bross, who plans to return home after graduation, hopes that the research will help her make better management decisions for her family’s 500-acre, 200-cow dairy farm. “I’ll have a better knowledge of nutrition and will be able to better understand what the feed consultants are trying to sell us,” she says.