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Post Date: 05.03.16
Posted By: Jessa L. Watters, Cameron D. Siler

Involving Undergraduates in Research – Herpetology, Spring 2015

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As part of the Spring 2015 Herpetology Course (BIOL 4083) taught by Dr. Cameron Siler at the University of Oklahoma, students took part in a semester long, small group writing assignment that formed a large basis of their final course grade. The class was broken up into three groups of seven or eight students, and each group was assigned a distinct lineage of Brachymeles in the Philippines to describe, under a structured writing and mentoring program aimed at incorporating genuine undergraduate research experiences into the classroom teaching environment.  In each study the students described the new species and commented on its ecology, distribution, and conservation status, with the help of Dr. Siler, graduate students Aaron Geheber and Drew Davis, and Herpetology Collection Manager Jessa Watters.  These manuscripts were submitted for publication in the journal Zootaxa in August 2015, and will be were published open-access in summer 2016. The course documents are attached, as a reference to another other professors who may want to involve undergraduate students in research activities.

Course Document List:

Publications from the course:

  1. Geheber, A.D., D.R. Davis, J. L. Watters, M.L. Penrod, K.D. Feller, C.S. Davey, E.D. Ellsworth, R.L. Flanagan, B.D. Heitz, T. Moore, M.D.C. Nguyen, A. Roberts, J. Sutton, M.B. Sanguila, C.W. Linkem, R.M. Brown and C.D. Siler. 2016. Additions to Philippine slender skinks of the Brachymeles bonitae complex (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) I: a new species from Lubang Island. Zootaxa 4132: 1–14. pdf
  2. Siler, C.D., D.R. Davis, E.S. Freitas, N.A. Huron, A.D. Geheber, J. L. Watters, M.L. Penrod, M. Papes, A. Amrein, A. Anwar, D. Cooper, T. Hein, A. Manning, N. Patel, L. Pinaroc, A.C. Diesmos, M.L. Diesmos, C.H. Oliveros and R M. Brown. 2016. Additions to Philippine slender skinks of the Brachymeles bonitae complex (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) II: a new species from the northern Philippines. Zootaxa 4132: 15–29. pdf
  3. Davis, D.R., A.D. Geheber, J. L. Watters, M.L. Penrod, K.D. Feller, A. Ashford, J. Kouri, D. Nguyen, K. Shauberger, K. Sheatsley, C. Winfrey, R. Wong, M.B. Sanguila, R.M. Brown and C.D. Siler. 2016. Additions to Philippine slender skinks of the Brachymeles bonitae complex (Reptilia: Squamata: Scincidae) III: a new species from Tablas Island. Zootaxa 4132: 30–43. pdf

These research projects were also featured in the Sam Noble Museum’s Tracks Newsletter and on the University of Oklahoma homepage in December 2016.