KCC FIG – Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice
Minutes of the Meeting of Wed, 10/11/2023, 10:00am via Zoom
Mary Theresa Ortiz – Facilitator
Present: Homar Barcena (KCC PHYS SCI Faculty), Dmitry Brogun (KCC BIO Faculty), Christina Colon (KCC BIO Faculty), Lilja Nielsen (KCC BIO Faculty), Mary Theresa Ortiz (KCC BIO Faculty), Kristin Polizzotto (KCC BIO Faculty)
The meeting began at 10:00am.
- Mary welcomed everyone, thanked them for coming.
- Mary apologized for forgetting to include in the minutes from the last meeting the following link Christina provided. Here it is:
https://www.amnh.org/research/center-for-biodiversity-conservation/convening-and-connecting/sccs-ny
- Mary gave an update on her BIO2100 Comparative Anatomy students using the beach for the Bird Research Project. One week no officers came to the beach. Last week an officer tried to call her students off the beach and Mary explained to him that her class had permission to be there. She had to show her ID and the email giving the class permission to be there. Discussion followed.
- Christina asked if the teaching labs are wired for Wi-Fi, and if technology can be used in the labs. According to the safety sheets, technology (cell phones, laptops, notebooks, etc.) is not to be used in the labs. Discussion followed. Are chargers a fire risk? We could let students know the risks (ex. spillage of fluids on keyboards) before they use the technology. Kristin suggested that a meeting could be set up with Ed Rios/Celeste Creegan/Kenneth Green to discuss the rules on campus for using facilities and how doing research with students could be more accessible. Kristin/Mary will contact Mary Dawson about setting up this type of meeting.
- Christina discussed the Jamaica Bay/Floyd Bennett Field research undertaking by CUNY with other partners. CUNY would want us to use this facility (a building), but what about the rules there? There was a meeting last week where CUNY signed on with Floyd Bennett Field, but it is not clear what this would mean for KCC. Brooklyn College is involved. $12.5M was allocated to CUNY. This is not enough for the building, staff and maintenance. Discussion followed.
- Dmitry shared that his students won first prize at the CRSP conference this summer. At the CUNY-wide Research Day the same students won first prize in the Molecular and Cell Division.
- Mary shared that the results of the research project her BIO/MAT9100 – Biostatistics class did last semester on usage of the garbage bins on campus will be presented by her at the KCC Sustainability Meeting on 10/19/2023.
- Christina and Dmitry discussed encouraging the decrease of waste as opposed to recycling. Dmitry has his BIO1400 class do presentations on microplastics/plastics. Christina said recycling is a myth and spoke about this.
- Mary will send out the minutes from this meeting and post them to the Commons.
- The next meeting of our FIG will be via Zoom on Wed Nov 29, 2023, at 10am. Zoom info to follow.
Meeting adjourned at 10:39am.
Minutes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz
This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license.
