New Mexico State University assistant professor of biology Karen Mabry will receive a five-year grant for $910,000 from the National Science Foundation to support her research on the movement and social behavior of mammals. The NSF's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award is presented to junior faculty who combine research creativity with innovative teaching. The grant will be used to support students in Mabry’s small mammal research lab, implement educational objectives and initiate new projects studying the social and movement behavior of animals.
"Karen's combinational approach to both behavioral and evolutionary ecology is pioneering in both the use of the variety of data she is collecting as well as how behavior is shaped by adaptations to the environment," said Michele Nishiguchi, biology associate department head.
She will conduct her research at the Quail Ridge Reserve, a field site in northern California that has state-of-the-art automated animal tracking technology. The remote-sensing technology will enable her to track tagged mice throughout the rural area.
"If you've ever seen people radio tracking lions on the Serengeti on Animal Planet, this is exactly it, just scaled down to a very, very small size," Mabry said. "We put these little radio collars on mice (pictured above), and then these give off a signal and we can pick it up with a radio receiver and antenna and determine where the mouse is located."
The NSF grant will support a field course where undergraduate students can learn methodologies and use the advanced tracking system to conduct their own research projects, gather data remotely and collaborate with students from other universities. Students will share those experiences from the field through various social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter.
A partnership with the Asombro Institute For Science Education, an organization dedicated to increasing scientific literacy by fostering an understanding of the Chihuahuan Desert, will allow Mabry to develop educational programs that bring the tracking technology into Southern New Mexico elementary schools. As part of her outreach efforts, she plans to teach children in fourth through sixth grades how to use the tracking technology.
The Mabry Lab
Image contributed by Mabry lab.
Comments (0)