Sara Harsley has just started a job with TPWD at the Possum Kingdom Fish Hatchery. She will be conducting algae counts and assessing water quality. Sunni Taylor finished her Masters degree at Texas State University and is now working on a PH.D. there. She is looking at hybrid speciation in irises that occur in Louisiana. Cassie Cox is park interpreter at Ray Roberts Lake SP for TPWD and is considering graduate school.

Dr. Nelson and undergraduate students Elizabeth Watson and Mark Nelson (along with colleague Dr. Goetze at Laredo Community College) are pleased to announce that their research on the state threatened Texas kangaroo rat has been accepted for publication.

Nelson, A. D. , J. R. Goetze, E. Watson, and Mark Nelson. 2009.
Changes in vegetation patterns and its effect on Texas kangaroo rats
(Dipodomys elator). Texas Journal of Science.

The Tarleton Chapter of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), sponsored by Dr. Allan Nelson in the Department of Biological Sciences, has had an active semester. Officers and members have helped faculty members in the department during three contests this semester. These include the ecology contest at the Regional Science Olympiad and University Interscholastic League (UIL) contests. At the Regional Science Olympiad, NSTA members graded contestant papers and helped contest directors Dr. Chris Higgins and Dr. Allan Nelson during the contest where middle and high school students answered questions on ecology and interpreted scientific data from desert and forest ecosystems. NSTA members also helped administer and grade high school Science University Interscholastic League (UIL) tests at a practice meet and the regional 2A contest. Members served as graders and monitors to assist the contest director, Dr. Allan Nelson.
Students involved in these activities include officers of NSTA, Aaron Manous (president), from Aledo, Hunter Hughes (vice-president) from Grapevine, and Jeanette Rogers (secretary), from Waldorf, Maryland. Members involved in the three activities include Jennifer Douglas (Flower Mound), Kymberlee Trnka (Caldwell), Lauren Hatton (Eastland), and Jamie Whitehead (Weatherford).

Lin Huffman, a PhD candidate at University of Texas and alum of the Tarleton Biology program, presented her research in a seminar Friday. Her presentation was entitled “From dud to stud: African cichlid fish as a model of social transition".

Faculty and students from the Department of Biological Sciences at Tarleton State University attended the 26th Annual Meeting of the Texas Society of Mammalogists at Junction, Texas on February 22-24.

Two graduate students, Sam Kieschnick and Terry Johnson gave oral presentations at the meeting. Sam’s paper entitled “Assessing population genetic structure of Baird’s pockect gopher with AFLP was coauthored by Dr. Russell Pfau and Dr. Philip Sudman from Tarleton.

Terry’s presentation entitled “Population genetics of the Texas mouse” was coauthored by Dr. Russell Pfau from Tarleton and Dr. Gregory M. Wilson from the University of Central Oklahoma. Four undergraduate students also made presentations at the meeting.

Cassie Cox presented “Influence of woody vegetation on small mammals in shortgrass prairie” coauthored with Dr. Raymond Matlack from West Texas A&M University. Cassie won the Rollin H. Baker Award for her presentation. This award is presented for the best overall oral presentation by an undergraduate student. [Way to go Cassie!]

Elizabeth Watson presented a poster entitled “An analysis of the ecological preferences of the Texas kangaroo rat”. Coauthors for this poster included Tarleton undergraduate Mark Nelson, graduate student Danielle Breed, Dr. Jim Goetze from Laredo Community College, and Dr.
Allan Nelson from Tarleton.

Kim Fehlis, Biomedical Science major, ranked in the top 2% of the nation on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). With a score of 37, she holds the new record high score for Tarleton, beating the old record of 34. 45 is the highest score possible. Kim is double majoring in Biomedical Science and Spanish and plans to attend medical school to become a bilingual pediatrician. Congrats Kim!

For more follow the link below:

http://media.www.thejtac.com/media/storage/paper1248/news/2007/09/27/News/madHatter.Has.Medicine.Skills-2996837.shtml

Three students from Tarleton State University‚s biological sciences department
have been named as recipients of the Texas Collaborative for Excellence in
Teacher Preparation (TxCETP) $1,000 scholarship for the spring 2007 semester.
All three recipients, Juanita Britton and Shari Flanigan, both of Weatherford,
Texas; and Hannah Elkins, of Springtown, Texas, plan to become life sciences
teachers after graduation.

TxCETP is a collaborative endeavor involving faculty and students from the
departments of science, mathematics, engineering and education from 10 partner
institutions including the Texas A&M System campuses, Texas Woman's University
and Angelo State University, along with associated community colleges and
pre-kindergarten through grade 12 teachers.

"The three students that received the scholarship are all very deserving and
are going to be fine science teachers," said Dr. Allan Nelson, associate
professor of biological sciences at Tarleton and the TxCETP campus leader for
life sciences.

TxCETP is funded by the National Science Foundation and is committed to the
recruitment, education and retention of the next generation of science and
mathematics teachers.

Officers and members of the Tarleton State University
Chapter of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) readily
volunteered their services in three recent interscholastic competitions. The
NSTA is sponsored by Dr. Russell Pfau and Dr. Allan Nelson, professors in the
Department of Biological Sciences.

The first competition NSTA members helped in was the ecology contest at the
Regional Science Olympiad and University Interscholastic League (UIL)
contests. At the Regional Science Olympiad, Tarleton students graded
contestant papers and helped contest directors Dr. Chris Higgins and Dr. Allan
Nelson during the contest. This competition required middle and high school
students to answer questions on ecology and to interpret scientific data from
aquatic and forest ecosystems.

At the regional 2A contest and practice meet, NSTA members helped administer
and grade high school science UIL tests. Members also served as graders and
monitors in assisting contest director Dr. Allan Nelson.

Tarleton students involved in these activities included NSTA officers Vanessa
Pugh, president, from Glen Rose, Texas; Shari Flanigan, vice-president, from
Weatherford, Texas; and Juanita Britton, secretary, from Weatherford. Other
NSTA members involved in the three activities include Casie Davis from
Brownwood, Texas; John Epps from Georgetown, Texas; Courtney Greene from
Early, Texas; Kale Haschke from Junction, Texas; Ben Kunze from Lagovista,
Texas; Taylor Reed from Bedford, Texas; Cassandra Thompson from Big Spring,
Texas; and Amy Wilson from Grapevine, Texas.

Christina Dobson recently graduated with a BS in biology and has been accepted into the PhD program at the University of Texas Southwestern. Congradulations Christina!

Terry Johnson and Sam Kieshnick, both graduate students, presented their research at this weekend's meeting of the Texas Society of Mammalogists. Both did exceptionally well, and Sam received the best presentation award in his category--he was recognized during the award presentations following the banquet. Our students were in competition with Master's and PhD students from Texas Tech and Purdue University. Overall, Tarleton students and faculty represented over 10% of the people attending the meeting (15 out of 134).

Terry and Sam are studying genetic variation in Texas mice (Peromyscus attwateri) and pocket gophers (Geomys), respectively.