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| Sara M. Lindsay Welcome! to the Lindsay lab at the University of Maine, where we cultivate an appreciation for good mud, cool polychaetes, the complexity of sensory systems, and the importance of asking good questions. The overviews below are just that. If they catch your interest, then follow the links above for more details. My CV and publications can be found under Research. Stop by the Gallery to check out some of the cool images of various microscopic organisms that we've captured under our microscopes. Research Overview: I am an integrative biologist. My research interests span marine invertebrate community ecology, behavior, sensory biology and molecular biology. Some of the questions that intrigue me are: 1) How do sensory systems, such as chemoreception and vision coordinate ecologically important behaviors? 2) How do processes such as predation and disturbance (and their interactions) structure communitites? 3) How do predation risk and injury affect feeding behavior, bioturbation, and competitive interactions? I am especially interested in the links between individuals, populations, and community ecology. Right now, I am investigating these questions in spionid polychaetes. I use many approaches including field and laboratory experiments; video recording; light,confocal and electron microscopy; immunohistochemistry; molecular biological techniques; computer simulation and mathematical modelling. Current projects are described on the Research page. Teaching Overview: My undergraduate experience
at Smith College greatly
influences my teaching philosophy. I firmly believe that research benefits
teaching and vice versa. That is, students need (and usually want) to
know what scientists in their field are doing right now. It is also important
to understand how past research defines what we present in lectures and
textbooks as “fact”. My goal as an instructor is to both inform
and engage students, and providing relevant research examples can be a
useful hook. I am committed to finding creative ways to present science;
I regularly use techniques for active learning and try to provide “real
life” context for students. My current teaching
at UMaine includes: Outreach Overview: As an extension of my NSF-funded research, Jill Fegley and I have been developing several WebQuests that focus on sensory biology in the the oceans. Check out the first of these on right whales and acoustic signals on the Outreach pages. You can also learn about the Silver Wake Phytoplankton Project, which officially ended in 2004, but is now in a "virtual" phase. The Silver Wake was funded by the EPA to foster partnerships between coastal community phytoplankton monitoring volunteers and K-12 teachers. |
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