Queen of Science - 4 Meeting

Fern’s face is flushed pink as her eyes dart around, looking at anything except Jameson’s eyes, and she says, “Hello, I’m here for office hours. I’m taking your intro to biology course- I sent you an email last night. I’m Fern White.”

Immediately happier because a student is asking for help, Jameson says, “Ah yes- I was just reading your email. Come sit down and let’s chat.”

Bobbing her head, Fern sits down in the comfy armchair. As she watches her professor get up and sit in the chair across from her, she says, “I know you’re probably super busy; I don’t want to keep you too long. I’ve been trying to fix my proposal by myself, but I just can’t figure out how to fix it.”

“Okay. Well, let’s see what we can do.” Jameson says, “Sorry, I have a terrible memory. Can you remind me what your research topic is and what my comments were?”

Pulling out her assignment document, Fern points to her writing and says, “I found this paper by Gregor Mendel in 1866; I thought that it would be interesting if I conducted a simplified version of the study in a modern context.”

“Oh, I remember your proposal! What a fascinating topic. I look forward to reading your report at the end.”

“Really? That’s super cool. I’m confused about how I’m supposed to use new evidence if my project is based on an older study.”

“Yep, so we should definitely keep that old study as a reference point. However, you are going to need recent evidence to support the argument that your study will make a meaningful contribution to our understanding of… heredity or evolution-whatever you think the study is important for”

Jameson pauses and asks, “Does that make sense?”

Nodding her head quickly, Fern says, “Yes- that makes total sense. I can’t believe I didn’t realize that.”

“Well, you’re taking an introduction to Biology course. Even fourth-year students forget this sometimes; we’re not expecting you to know this. I’m just happy that I could explain that for you.”

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Squinting down at Fern’s assignment document, Jameson says, “Anyways, I remember that your hypothesis didn’t answer your research question. I know that I said you should one or the other, but given you already have a solid research topic, I recommend that you change your hypothesis.”

“Okay, how should I change my hypothesis? Am I allowed to ask you that?”

“I probably shouldn’t directly tell you, but I’ll get you started. Did you write down what Mendel’s conclusion was?”

“Uhm, yes.” Skimming through her notes, Fern pulls up a highlighted section. “He said a couple of things: 1) offspring will inherit the dominant trait of two parents with different traits, 2) different traits have an equal likelihood of occurring together, and 3) offspring inherit one hereditary factor from each parent.”

“You’re definitely not going to be able to verify all of those conclusions in this small project. Let’s pick one to study.”

“Okay… let’s do the dominant trait one.”

“Great.” Prof. Jameson grabs a piece of paper and starts drawing a bunch of plants for a family-tree-like diagram. “Let’s do an example study design. Say your sample population is going to be 5 plants with purple flowers and 5 plants with white flowers. After these flowers grow, we’ll cross-pollinate the plants with purple and white flowers. Then, we’ll let the second generation grow and observe the colour of their flowers. If one of the colour factors is dominant, all of the flowers in the offspring generation will be that colour. So, without going beyond the scope of this course, what would the hypothesis be?”

“It would be… ‘In offspring generation, there will be a significant difference between the frequency of white versus purple flowers?’”

“Sure, that sounds fantastic. I look forward to seeing your updated proposal- was there anything else?”

“Nope. This was great. Thank you so much- I’m feeling much better.” Looking at the clock on the wall, Fern’s eyes widen and she says, “It’s been 45 minutes! I’m so sorry that took so long. Let me just pack my stuff and I’ll get going.”

“Eh don’t worry about it. I have a flexible schedule.” Standing up to shake Fern’s hand before she leaves, Jameson smiles and says, “Thanks for stopping by and asking some great questions. If you come up with any more questions, just send me an email or pop by my office.”

“Okay, thanks!”

With a bright smile, Fern shook the Professor’s hand and started her mission of finding Emily.