Second annual open house, research symposium for biological sciences department set April 29 in Gale Life Sciences Building

The Idaho State University Department of Biological Sciences will hold an open house and research symposium from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 29 in the foyer of the Gale Life Science Building.

The symposium is open to public and refreshments will be served.

The research symposium will feature more than 30 research posters highlighting the diversity of research currently being conducted by ISU Department of Biological Science faculty and their students.

The symposium will not only include undergraduate and graduate research projects, but will also include research posters presented by students enrolled in the department’s field ecology course and in the Authentic Mentoring of Engaged Biologists Alliance (AMOEBA) program that is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

The AMOEBA program at ISU aims to incorporate discovery-based research into the freshman biology curriculum in place of traditional laboratory exercises. This is accomplished by assembling cohorts of freshman biologists, student mentors and faculty mentors that are each centered on a research question.

Each AMOEBA cohort works through the scientific process during a semester and the work culminates in a poster presentation at this symposium. Students who go through AMOEBA as freshmen have the option of returning to the program as research mentors.

For more information on the symposium, contact the ISU Department of Biological Sciences, 282-3765.