Summer Research

Students enjoy spending summers in Chestertown, but the College’s 10-week summer undergraduate research program makes a great experience even better.

Biology students work closely with one of their professors on a research project of their choice. Professors’ particular interests—in fish acoustics and behavior, water quality, bird populations, and plant genetics, for example—often inspire student research. Recent projects have investigated the biological impact of pesticides, fuel byproducts and antibiotics on fish and bird species. One project examined the species-area relationship as applied to summer breeding and winter non-breeding bird species on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

The summer research program provides housing and paid stipends, in addition to four earned credits. This student/faculty collaboration often leads to publication in professional journals, as well appearances at regional and national conferences.

In addition the annual poster presentation held on campus each fall, students may also be invited to present at the TriBeta Conference. In the microbiology section in Spring 2008, pre-veterinary student Tonie Domino ’08 took first place at both the regional and national conferences for her poster presentation on mastitis, a common udder infection in dairy cows.

Video Features

Washington College science students work on independent research projects with faculty mentors during the summer.

Tyler Brice ’13, Hannah O’Malley ’12, and Brendyn Meisinger ’13 studied the landscape ecology of the eastern painted turtle (Chrysemys picta picta) with Assistant Professor of Biology Aaron R. Krochmal in 2011.

Research in Biology

In 2011, Dr. Martin Connaughton and summer research student Kathy Thornton ’13 focused on fluoxetine (Prozac) and its impact on the startle response in Zebrafish.