We help students build their science communication skills by providing opportunities to share their work with a wide variety of audiences. This includes:
- Informally sharing their research with interns at partner institutions as well as staff and students in other Chicago Botanic Garden programs
- Presenting their research at a public symposium at the Garden
- Creating and screening a video of their research, later posted on the Garden's YouTube channel
- Working with mentors after their internship to write and publish the results of their research in a wide range of publications.
Poster Symposium Abstracts
The summer research internship culminates in a public symposium at the Chicago Botanic Garden where students present their work. Posters and presentations are judged by three distinguished judges and students receive awards for best poster, best presentation, and best overall.
Check out abstracts from previous research symposia to learn more about the impactful work of prior interns:
Symposium 2023
Symposium 2022
Symposium 2021
Symposium 2019
Symposium 2018
Symposium 2017
Symposium 2016
Symposium 2015
Symposium 2014
Symposium 2013
Videos
Videos are an excellent way to share and explain complex concepts to a wider audience. Students are taught and encouraged to create a video related to the themes of their internship project. This is another way we support various types of science communication.
Check out videos on the Garden's YouTube page:
Publications
Publishing research results is an important part of the scientific process and numerous students have worked with their mentors following the official completion of their internship to publish papers. Selected papers include:
Barak, R., T. Lichtenberger*, A. Wellman-Houde*, A. T. Kramer, and D. J. Larkin. 2018. Cracking the case: Seed traits and phylogeny predict time to germination in prairie restoration species. Ecology and Evolution 00:1-12.
Kildisheva, O. A., T. E. Erickson, D. J. Merritt, M. D. Madsen, K. W. Dixon, J. Vargas**, R. Amarteifio*, and A. T. Kramer. 2018. Do Abrasion- or Temperature-Based Techniques More Effectively Relieve Physical Dormancy in Seeds of Cold Desert Perennials? Rangeland Ecology & Management 71:318-322.
Williams, E.W., E.M. Gardner, R. Harris III*, A. Chaveerach, J.T. Pereira, and N.J.C. Zerega. 2017. Out of Borneo: Biogeography, phylogeny, and divergence date estimates of Artocarpus (Moraceae). Annals of Botany119:611-627.
Hintz, L.*, A. Foxx, M. Eshleman, and A. T. Kramer. 2016. Population differentiation in early life history traits of Cleome lutea var. lutea in the Intermountain West. Western North American Naturalist. 76(1): 6-17.
Gardner, E. M., K. M. Laricchia, M. Murphy*, D. Ragone, B. E. Scheffler, S. Simpson, E. W. Williams, and N. J. C. Zerega. 2015. Chloroplast Microsatellite Markers for Artocarpus (Moraceae) Developed from Transcriptome Sequences. Applications in Plant Sciences 3:1500049.
Riebkes*, J.L., R.S. Barak and A.T. Kramer. 2015. Evaluating seed viability in prairie forbs: a test of three methods. Native Plants Journal. 16:96-106.
Larkin, D.J., J.F. Steffen, R.M. Gentile* (Hesselink), and C.R. Zirbel*. 2014. Ecosystem changes following restoration of a buckthorn-invaded woodland. Restoration Ecology 22:89–97.
Witherup, C., D. Ragone, T. Wiesner-Hanks*, B. Irish, B. Scheffler, S. Simpson, F. Zee, M. I. Zuberi, and N.J.C. Zerega. 2013. Development of microsatellite loci in Artocarpus altilis (Moraceae) and cross-amplification in congeneric species. Applications in Plant Science 1:1200423.
* = REU student
** = high school student mentored by REU student