The Genetics class at Hampden-Sydney recently hosted students and faculty from the College of Charleston, Barnard College, the University of Georgia, Virginia Tech, and Oberlin College for a meeting in which participants shared their research on Arabidopsis thaliana, a model plant used for genetic, ecological, and evolutionary research.  The meeting was sponsored by CUREnet, a National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored group that promotes the development of undergraduate classroom research experiences (http://www.curenet.franklin.uga.edu), and was a meeting of members of unPAK, or Undergraduate Phenotyping of Arabidopsis Knockouts, an NSF-sponsored undergraduate research network of which Hampden-Sydney is a charter member (http://arabidopsisunpak.org).  Students and faculty from each school presented their research to the group at large in the form of both oral presentation and a poster session.

Meeting participants share their research at the poster session

Other meeting sessions focused on technical improvements to future experiments and strategies for implementing Arabidopsis based research experiences in the classroom.  Since its inception in 2011, the unPAK program has engaged 8 Hampden-Sydney students in collaborative independent research as well as provided research experience to the 29 members of the spring 2013 genetics course.

group photo of the meeting’s participants

Students are captivated by Arabidopsis thaliana!!!