Journal of Undergraduate Research

Faith Hathenbruck and Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jamie Jensen, Department of Biology Introduction: The Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning1(LCTSR) is a content-independent measure of scientific reasoning abilities including conservation, proportional reasoning, identifying and controlling variables, probabilistic reasoning, correlational reasoning, and hypothetico-deductive reasoning. A relationship has been seen between scores on this test and a student’s […]

PJ Tatlow and Faculty Mentor Stephen Piccolo, Department of Biology Over the course of the past year I have been able to put a lot of work into creating a tool for scientists, those with computational background and without, that provides a simple web interface for downloading data from large, publically available datasets. It allows […]

Corinne Sexton and Faculty Mentor: Perry Ridge, Biology Introduction Bacteriophages are viruses that specifically target bacteria. With antibiotic resistance on the rise, some researchers are looking to bacteriophages as a viable treatment alternative. Phage therapy would be effective for a host of reasons, some of which are because phages are 1) highly specific to their […]

Jackson Birrell and Faculty Mentor: C. Riley Nelson, Department of Biology Introduction Plecoptera (stoneflies) are important insects in aquatic ecosystems worldwide. They cover a wide array of functional feeding groups and provide various ecosystem services (1). Stoneflies are sensitive to reductions in water quality, allowing managers to use their presence or absence to denote if […]

Jared Meek and Faculty Mentor: C. Riley Nelson, Brigham Young University, Biology Department Introduction The Provo River in central Utah flows from its headwaters in the Uinta Mountains, down the heavily agricultural Heber Valley, through the urban center of Provo and Orem, and out into Utah Lake. Beginning in the 1950s, the Provo River underwent […]

Rebecca Clement and Faculty Mentor: Dr. Seth Bybee, Department of Biology Introduction Anax dragonflies are found worldwide, with many species migrating across continents. One species of Anax, A. junius, makes annual migrations travelling thousands of miles each fall from Canada to Mexico (May 2013). Researchers from all over the world use Anax to learn about […]

Samantha Smith and Seth Bybee Introduction: Damselflies (Zygpotera) exhibit diverse mating behaviors, with the family Calopterygidae known for its pigmented wings and territorial behavior (Cordoba-Aguilar, Cordero-Rivera 2005). The genus Hetaerina, or rubyspot damselflies, has been used in numerous studies due to mating behaviors, morphology and a high density along certain streams (Anderson 2010, 2011; Contreras-Garduno […]

Keni Reid and Dr. John Kauwe, Biology Department Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder caused by an irreversible degeneration of nerve cells. It is developed in response to a growth of proteins, tau tangles or amyloid plaques, which disrupt communication between neurons in the brain. Because the nerve cells no longer function, they die. It […]