In a first of its kind study at WSU, students taking introductory biology coupled with a service-learning project performed better academically and had improved first-year retention rates compared with students who did not participate in service-learning. The differences were most profound among first-generation and multicultural students. The study titled “Service Learning as a Portal to […]
Responding to the global need for more skilled professionals in health, social and environmental sciences, and public policy, the College of Arts and Sciences will launch an interdisciplinary degree in human biology this fall. The new degree is designed for rigorous study in the natural and social sciences, and will be unique in Washington state […]
Washington State University’s 2020 Winter Academic Honor Roll included six CAS outstanding student-athletes, four from women’s swimming and two from women’s basketball.
Why people cannot regenerate lost appendages the way some frogs and other animals do is the question at the heart of Robyn Reeve’s doctoral research in biological sciences. Explaining her work clearly in a mere three minutes won her both first place and the “People’s Choice” award in the College of Arts and Sciences’ (CAS) […]
From Instagram selfies to an ancient tattoo tool, research from the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) made headlines around the world in 2019. The University distributed press releases for more than 65 scientific papers last year, including many from CAS faculty and scientists. Together, the findings were seen potentially billions of times by readers […]
During the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge, which started on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, and runs through April 22, Earth Day, California residents are asked to report sightings of monarchs. The data they collect will give much-needed insight into the butterflies’ habitat needs during the spring months, so researchers can better target conservation efforts. “We are […]
Stephanie Porter, an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences at WSU Vancouver, has received a prestigious $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. Over the five-year grant period, Porter will study the symbiosis between plants and their beneficial microbes and how that relationship changes as people […]
Sea turtles spend almost their entire lives in the ocean. Even as babies, sea turtles’ bodies have special traits for living at sea, helping them glide and paddle through the water. After emerging from their eggs, baby sea turtles (called “hatchlings”) scramble to the ocean to live the rest of their lives. Only female sea […]
Tiny, symbiotic fungi play an outsized role in helping plants survive stresses like drought and extreme temperatures, which could help feed a planet experiencing climate change, report WSU scientists. Recently published in the journal Functional Ecology, the discovery by plant-microbe biologist Stephanie Porter and plant pathologist Maren Friesen sheds light on
With support from Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation Seed (IRIS) grants, CAS faculty and graduate students in diverse areas are combining forces with colleagues across the university to tackle critical questions by integrating knowledge in a wide array of fields—criminology, biology, English, medicine, archaeology, nursing, and more. “The IRIS grant program supports faculty efforts to build […]