Analyzing the genetic makeup of plant samples from across the world is a rare treat for college students—and nearly unheard of for high school. Leo Bruederle, associate professor and chair of the Department of Biology at UC Denver, is using his own method of peer mentoring in the research laboratory to change this. 

With 2,000 species worldwide, and new species being discovered every year, Carex is one of the largest genera of flowering plants in the world. At least six species within the genus Carex exhibit a “bipolar distribution,” meaning they can be found in both extreme northern and extreme southern hemispheres. For well over a century, scientists have debated the cause of this unusual biogeographic pattern. Some argue that migratory birds dispersed seeds over these long-distances. Others claim geological or climatic events disrupted historical biogeographic patterns.

Bruederle is using molecular biology to put these two hypotheses to the test. With the help of a faculty development grant, he is collecting plant tissue samples from locations across the globe including Alaska, British Columbia, Colorado and Argentina. Using genetic fingerprinting techniques, the scientist will develop genetic markers that he will use to clarify the evolutionary history of the species.

Bruederle is integrating this research with his own pedagogical model of peer mentoring. In what he calls “near-peer mentoring,” college students who have had research experience are trained to mentor other students who are novices in the laboratory. Bruederle is developing a new model called “not-so-near-peer mentoring,” which extends the opportunity to high school students. Students from the Denver School of Science and Technology will be mentored by experienced undergraduates at UC Denver, who in turn will have undergone training from a team of graduate students and Bruederle.

“I am interested in determining if a mentored research experience can influence attitudes toward science in high school students,” Bruederle says.

“Although the practice of peer mentoring has been used extensively in the traditional classroom, its effects have not been studied in the research laboratory,”  he says. As such, the proposed research contributes to university initiatives to provide unique educational experiences for our students, training them to apply molecular techniques to solve evolutionary questions.