Zimmerman Blog – End of REU

The undergraduate research program has been a great experience.  Today is poster presentation at our final conference.  The poster was a lengthy chore but worth the effort.  I am almost have my elevator pitch down to a minute but it is hard for me to leave importatnt parts of the research out.  My poster link is below:

seed poster draft 4 pdf

This week I have continued to play around with different germination protocols to find the effective methods for germinating seeds of invasive plants.  Non-invasive plants such agricultural species are selectively bred to readily germinate.  Invasive have many subtle triggers for their seed germination including seed coats, light conditions, temperature restrictions, and /water conditions.  Below are pics of the invasive lamb’s quarter and agricultural quinoa:

Quinoa Seeds
Lamb’s quarter seeds

Thank you to everyone that made this program happen:  Dr. Ashcroft with the NSF grant, Dr. Kanier at Lone Star, Amoi Campbell – my mentor, Dr. Zafar with Rice. and Dr. McCary – head of the ecoolgy lab at Rice.

I value the research experience I received in the program.