From left, Edmund Priddis, Oscar Diaz, Tasneem Ashraf, Blake Suarez.
Cochise College biology students and instructors shared two undergraduate research projects at the Community College Undergraduate Research Initiative (CCURI) National Poster Session last month in Washington D.C.
Students Oscar Diaz and Blake Suarez, along with instructors Tasneem Ashraf and Edmund Priddis, answered questions from session attendees and displayed posters detailing their bean beetle and wildlife navigation research on Sept. 29. The four acted as representatives for the larger team of researchers that also include recent Cochise College graduate Ricardo Martinez and science lab manager Hannah Jones.
Blake Suarez speaks with a session attendee about wildlife navigation research.
The group and their projects are part of a national initiative to expand undergraduate research opportunities to community college students.
“This is something that will hopefully snowball in the future,” Priddis told the Sierra Vista Herald in the spring. The science students, faculty and staff said support from the college, former dean Bubba Hall, new Dean of Math, Sciences and Health Sciences Beth Krueger, and the National Science Foundation has been essential in the research iniative’s success at Cochise.
The bean beetle project involves the extraction and examination of proteins from the “agricultural pest” that feeds solely on the seeds of legumes. The wildlife navigation research investigates animal migration patterns along the San Pedro River by using camera traps equipped with motion sensors deployed at the Gray Hawk Nature Center.
Oscar Diaz explains bean beetle research to a session attendee.
Both projects have ongoing and future possibilities for new and incoming Cochise College science students who are eager to pursue project a little more challenging and unique than what is found in the everyday community college classroom.
CCURI is funded by the National Science Foundation Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM Type-III grant, which focuses on the development and implementation of undergraduate research at more than 30 colleges in the U.S. Cochise College’s students were two of more than 40 selected to participate in the national poster session.
Previously, the group of students showed their posters and presented their research at the CCURI Spring Student Colloquium at Mesa Community College last February.