Undergraduate Research

Current Undergraduate Research Projects and Grants at TMCC

Investigating the Presence, Movement Patterns, and Disease Prevalence of Suburban Bobcats in West Reno

Modality: In-person
Lead Faculty: Meeghan Gray
Description: Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are wide-ranging North American felids that have adapted to a variety of environments, including the suburban environment. With increasing human use of the landscape, including habitat loss and fragmentation, research on population health is especially important in this species. To date, little to no research has been conducted on Nevada’s bobcat populations, including the suburban bobcats located in Reno. We have been monitoring the presence of activity patterns of bobcats for the past three years using camera traps. These camera traps have recorded hundreds of thousands of photos that need to be analyzed. Students engaged in this project will examine these photos to find bobcats and document their location, activity, date, and time of day. In addition, we started live-trapping bobcats and have four GPS-collared cats. Students involved with this project can help with live-trapping efforts by developing trapping methods and setting traps, as well as helping with GPS data analysis.

Design-to-Data Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (D2D CURE)

Modality: In-person
Lead Faculty: Sharif Rumjahn
Other Faculty: Laura Briggs
Description: We are participating in a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project to implement a research-based experience version of our Biol 190 lab. This NSF grant has been awarded to UC Davis and is titled “Data-to-Design Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (D2D CURE): integrating molecular modeling networks to accelerate student learning and improve computational protein design”. TMCC was one of only three colleges asked to pilot its nationwide program. We are planning for a fall 2021 launch of this program (tentative due to COVID-19 pandemic).

TMCC Natural History Museum Development and Curation

Modality: In-person
Lead Faculty: Megan Lahti
Other faculty involved: Cecilia Vigil
Description: We are formalizing our existing specimen collections into a Natural History Museum, currently housed in RDMT410. We have an estimated 1,500 plant, animal, and fungi specimens that are being curated for teaching and research in both in-person and virtual settings. One important aspect is using ARCTOS to house a digital, open-access database of our museum collections that will be used to archive collection data as well as digital records of all specimens. This undertaking requires much work in several areas including the processing of specimens, ongoing specimen curation, database entry and import into ARCTOS, digital photographs for each specimen, and networking to facilitate the acquisition of additional specimens. This undertaking started last year, and in that time we have relied on the help of two undergraduate students (Assistant Museum Curators). In this time, a dedicated Museum space was established during RDMT410 remodeling and funds were used to purchase equipment and supplies to support the Museum's development. Currently, we have one student assisting with specimen intake and processing. We are seeking support for 2-3 additional students to facilitate this work in the areas of ARCTOS database import and management and specimen photography.

Assessing Bat Diversity At TMCC Sites Using Acoustic Monitoring

Modality: In-person or remote
Lead Faculty: Kellie Carter
Description: Bats are an extremely diverse group of mammals consisting of approximately 1,300 species worldwide. The United States has 47 known species with Nevada having 23 of these species. Due to their nocturnal tendencies and their ability to fly, they are very cryptic, thus making it difficult to detect them and survey their diversity. This project will use acoustic monitors to determine the species diversity of bats at each TMCC campus. Students can be involved in each part of the project, from literature reviews to data analysis. Students may have opportunities to develop individual projects based on the initial data collected. Students can be involved in person or remotely. A large portion of the project involves reviewing bat call recordings. This is a well sought-after skill set for those interested in continuing to the wildlife field and is used for bats, birds, frogs, and various mammals.

Assessing the effectiveness of a hybrid model of online supplemental instruction

Modality: Face-to-face or remote
Lead Faculty: Jon Lau
Description: A primary mission of the community college (CC) system is to democratize education by providing pathways to a 4-year degree no matter one's economic, ethnic, or educational background. As such, CC is the entry point into higher education for 50% of America's college students. However, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses at CC often have high rates of failure and withdrawal. Further, students of color, women, and first-generation students have lower rates of success in these courses relative to their white male counterparts. This has led to a lack of diversity in the STEM workforce. Previous findings suggest that attending synchronous online supplemental instruction (OSI) is a strong predictor of success among several student cohorts. However, students attend voluntary OSI at a rate of less than one session per semester on average. In order to see any benefit, a student must attend at least three sessions. Making OSI mandatory results in higher attendance, however, students preferentially enroll in sections without mandatory OSI and therefore these sections tend to get canceled before the semester starts. From friends and family (41%), to child care (33%), to parking (21%), students at CC report a myriad of obstacles preventing them from using academic suppository services such as SI.

The purpose of this project is to develop a model of SI which is more accessible to our student cohort and to increase student engagement in SI. Here, three supplemental instruction (SI) leaders will work with a lead faculty member to develop a hybrid model of OSI which runs on the Discord platform. Here, SI leaders will post weekly videos and associated material which students can engage with and then discuss in the chat channel. SI leaders will monitor the chat and engage students in real time to address questions and participate in discussions.

SI leaders participating in this project can expect to build their teaching and educational research skills. Further, SI leaders will develop coding skills in R as they develop statistical models to assess their quantitative research questions.

Past TMCC Undergraduate Research Grants and Projects

• Analysis of Bacteriophages in the Sierras (Trout Unlimited)
• Building Capacity in Interdisciplinary Snow Sciences for a Changing World (NASA EPSCoR)
• CyberCorps Collaborative Research (National Science Foundation)
• IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (Nevada INBRE, National Institutes of Health)
• Undergraduate Investigations in Psychology
• WC WAVE Visual Watershed Model (National Science Foundation/NSHE)