SRAP Alumna Courtney Gettel: Snail tails, writing skills and college life

Courtney collecting samples this summer

Snails may not have been Courtney Gettel’s ideal creature to spend the summer studying, but what they may have lacked in excitement they made up for in learning experiences. Courtney, a freshman at the University of Wyoming majoring in Zoology, spent the summer working with snails and in rivers for her Summer Research Apprentice Program (SRAP) project. The snails became the means for adjusting to living away from home, preparing for college and working on paper writing and research skills.

“It was a great experience,” Courtney says. “I learned quite a bit. It was a good introduction to more-complicated-than-high-school stuff.”

Leaving home for the first time to go to college can be difficult, especially for family people. It was one thing Courtney was worried about as high school came to an end. Her transition from high school to UW however, was eased by her participation in SRAP.

“My family and I feel that SRAP was helpful in the transition to college because living away from home for those six weeks was a good amount of time to get used to it and to get used to the freedoms, but having the responsibilities,” Courtney says. “It made coming to college a lot easier.”

By the time SRAP ended, Courtney was ready to return home to Denver, but was looking forward to coming back for the start of fall semester. Along with her first taste of living on her own and getting through homesickness, Courtney’s love of science was solidified through her project.

Courtney worked in Dr. Amy Krist’s lab alongside graduate student Brenda Hansen. The focus of their project overall was determining if snails have a preference for food with better nutrients.

“My project itself was looking at the differences of nutrition within plants in different parts of a river,” Courtney says. “Specifically, we were looking at phosphorus levels in plants.”

Part of the work involved writing a research paper. For Courtney, this was both frustrating and a great learning experience.

“It was frustrating at times because I kept getting back these papers that just had ink all over them,” Courtney says. “But then I learned quite a bit, and actually it bettered my writing for coming into college.”

Hansen’s tough grading, while wearisome at first, has served Courtney well in college.

“I don’t know if it was specifically Brenda, but my writing was definitely much more prepared for college and I’m seeing that in my labs,” Courtney says. “Some people are having trouble figuring out the labs, but I feel like I have an advantage from working with Brenda, and her expecting me to write an almost paper ready edition of my project.”

Courtney at the Laramie River this summer.

Along with the research component, SRAP introduces students to the fun things to do in the area. It aims to balance work and play, which Courtney really appreciated.

“Our weekend programs were really fun,” she says. “We got to see a play and do a ropes course at Colorado State University. That was all really fun. Even the working part was pretty fun. I liked getting to work in the lab because that’s hopefully where I’ll be when I graduate.”

Although graduation is still a few years down the road, Courtney is interested in going to graduate school for Marine Biology or to veterinary school. For now, however, she is getting the hang of studying and time management, while enjoying the college life.

“College has been wonderful,” Courtney says. “I really have enjoyed it.”

To learn more about SRAP, please visit: http://www.uwyo.edu/epscor/fellowships-and-student-programs/srap/index.html. Applications for the Summer 2013 program are due March 15^th, 2013. 

By Kali S. McCrackin
Photos courtesy of Dr. Amy Krist

Evolutionary Ecology: Snail tails

Confidence building through science: A glimpse into SRAP research life
The Student Research Apprenticeship Program (SRAP) is a paid summer research program at the University of Wyoming for high school students in tenth through twelfth grade. It is sponsored by Wyoming EPSCoR and funded by the National Science Foundation. This is the sixth of eleven stories about the laboratories where this year’s SRAP students are working.

Courtney Gettel works in the Laramie River.

In the fall, the Zoology Department will add numerous students to its undergraduate class, but one student in particular will shine above the rest. Courtney Gettel is a newly graduated high school student, and she’ll be coming to UW with more than a high school diploma. She’ll be coming with a full research paper to her name and real life experience in the shoes of an evolutionary ecologist.

This summer, Courtney is working in Dr. Amy Krist’s lab studying snails with graduate student Brenda Hansen. The snails in question are an invasive mud snail from New Zealand. They are found in rivers all over the western states, but no one is quite sure how they got there. While this is perplexing, Courtney, Brenda and Dr. Krist are more interested in what makes them invasive and how they survive in Wyoming rivers.

Past research indicates that the snails excel because they can withstand being crowded, unlike the native snail spices. Additionally, they don’t produce tons of offspring. Rather, the individuals grow a lot, which means that they are adept at finding and utilizing phosphorous, which all organisms need to grow. Phosphorous is found on rocks in algae. The algae are high quality food sources when they contain a lot of phosphorous and low quality when they do not.

This is where Courtney’s research comes in. She is trying to find out how much variability there is in food quality in a single rock and within varying measurements in a river.

“If the snail really can choose (between high and low quality food), how relevant is that to the snail?” Dr. Krist asks.

This is what Courtney is trying to determine. If there is a high variability in food quality within a rock and within a given space in a river, then the ability to choose is very relevant.

“This variation in phosphorous content at such a small scale means that different quality food is available to snails without moving far,” Dr. Krist explains. “If snails can detect differences in food quality, they can increase their growth rates by choosing high quality food". 

To determine variability in phosphorous content, Courtney and Brenda are studying rocks in the Snake River and Laramie River in Wyoming. They scrub rocks and run tests on the algae to find out the percentage of phosphorous in the rock. Courtney is totally into it.

“She has a great attitude,” Dr. Krist says. “She is really motivated and on it.”

This is the first time Dr. Krist has done SRAP. She heard about the program from a colleague and immediately wanted to join, having been a mentor in the past to undergraduate and other high school students.

“It’s super interesting and super fun working with these students because of the outreach component, but also because you get to interact with this person,” Dr. Krist says. “You get to tell them about your work, get them involved, and get them excited about going outside and what’s going on in nature.”

Brenda was just as thrilled about SRAP as Dr. Krist. “She is really interested in outreach,” Dr. Krist says. “She really likes the idea of working with the public.”

While Courtney may have started out as a member from the community outside evolutionary ecology, she is on her way to being a future colleague of Brenda and Dr. Krist. Her research paper is off to a great start and she is making great strides into the life of a scientist.

“She’s amazing,” Dr. Krist says. 

By Kali S. McCrackin

Photo courtesy of Dr. Krist