Nouveaux étudiants, nouvelles expériences (New students, new experiments)

This past semester I have had the pleasure of working with four very insightful and talented undergraduate students here at Ohio Wesleyan University: Sierra Spears, Ciara Pettit, Wyatt McQueen, and Princeton Vaughn. After successfully writing a “Theory to Practice” grant early this semester to fund a trip to France, they have worked hard to put together some creative experiments to conduct with Podarcis muralis. We spent the first months of 2020 reading literature, building a lizard racetrack, 3D printing model lizards, learning to use temperature probes and thermal cameras, and preparing the logistics to spend six weeks in France this summer. We were all very excited and then, well, you know how everyone’s summer plans have gone…

Wyatt and Princeton show off their newly-constructed
2-meter lizard racetrack.

Ciara and her recently-painted
3D printed model lizard.

From left to right: Ciara, Wyatt, Charles, Princeton.

Sierra prepares to measure the thermal
qualities of the 3D printed model lizard.

Fortunately, OWU has been great and has deferred our funding until summer 2021. So we’ve got more time to prepare. This fall, we are planning on identifying sites where Podarcis muralis is established here in Ohio (more on that in a future post), honing our lizard-catching skills, and beginning some experiments.

Despite the interruption to their work, Sierra, Ciara, Princeton, and Wyatt put together presentations for the (virtual) Student Symposium this spring. These online presentations demonstrate the work they’ve done and their plans to address interesting questions with lizards both here in Ohio and in their native range. I’m very proud to share these presentations. Please check them out:

Ectotherms and Their Environment: Environmental Impacts on
Thermoregulation Strategy in the Lizard (Podarcis muralis)

Sierra Spears & Ciara Pettit

Link: https://www.owu.edu/about/offices-services-directory/academic-affairs/programs/student-symposium/project-information/projects-from-2019-2020/project-spears/

How Morphological and Physiological Mechanisms Affect
the Performance of a Lizard (Podarcis muralis)

Princeton Vaughn & Wyatt McQueen

Link: https://www.owu.edu/about/offices-services-directory/academic-affairs/programs/student-symposium/project-information/projects-from-2019-2020/project-vaughn/