Faculty and Student Research

We strongly encourage our students to become involved in collaborative research with faculty. 

In past years, several students have taken advantage of this opportunity and conducted research examining the movement patterns of copperhead, Agkistrodon contortrix, plant competition, amphibian diversity and breeding phenology in a local pond, macroinvertebrate community structure, and parasite community structure of salamanders, just to mention a few, and many have presented their research at professional conferences.

Undergraduate research will provide you with hands on experience and a better understanding of the scientific process and will help you tremendously whether you are planning to enter the work force or continue your education in a graduate or professional schools.  A new green house and aquatic research laboratory have been constructed to support undergraduate research.  Students interested in participating are strongly encouraged to contact faculty members. 

FACILITIES

The department of Natural Sciences is housed on the top 2 floors of Rome Hall, we have 6 traditional classrooms and 1 smart classroom as well as 9 fully equipped laboratories.

Ecology and Field Biology majors now have access to a new greenhouse and an aquatic research laboratory. These facilities support undergraduate research collaborations between faculty and students interested in plant sciences, ecology and conservation biology.

Our student researchers also have access to an environmental chamber, radiotelemetry equipment, a backpack electrofisher, a small boat/outboard, dissolved oxygen/pH meters, conductivity meter etc., as well as sampling gear for the collection of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrates.

Connor Museum

The Robert T. Connor Museum houses more then 200 animals mounts.  It includes species endemic to Georgia and the southeastern US as well as specimens from Africa and South America.  Most of the mounts have been donated from the collections of four Georgians, Dr. R. T. Connor, Mr. and Ms. Robert Wilson and Mr. Arnold Dorfman. 

The museum opened in August 1985, after Ms. Connor donated her late husband's collection.  Since then over 3,000 guest, mostly school children on field trips, have visited the museum.  If you are interested in a tour for your school group, please contact Dr. Craig Allee or his administrative assistant Dixie Abrams at 706-233-7260.

Stergus Pathology Collection

This very unusual collection includes over 250 specimens of diseased human organs. The late Dr. Ingrid Stergus, a Rome pathologist, donated the specimens to Shorter College in 1975.  The collection contains every organ in the human body as well as pre-natal embryos and fetuses from age two weeks to five months. 

The collection is housed in Rome Hall. If you are interested in a tour for your school group, please contact Dr. Craig Allee or his administrative assistant Dixie Abrams at 706-233-7260.

Marshall Forest

Shorter College is adjacent Marshall Forest, a 311 acres Nature Conservancy Preserve. This forest ranges in elevation from 600 to 900 ft. and is one of the few remaining old-growth forests in the Ridge and Valley Province, a corridor that extends from Pennsylvania to Alabama. It is home to hundreds of plants and animals and serves as a "natural laboratory".

Many of our courses have field components which take student into the forest to experience the natural environment first hand, and faculty in collaboration with students are currently conducting research on the ecology of amphibians and plants of this forest.

ADDITIONAL RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

Ossabow Island, Georgia

Each Spring, students can enroll in NAS 2301 Ecology of Barrier Islands.  This course consists of weekly lectures on the geology and ecology of Barrier islands. 

The highlight of the course is a 5 day camping trip to Ossabow Island, the most pristine and undeveloped of the Georgia barrier islands.  Students and faculty camp on the island and experience the various habitats and the unique fauna and flora of this wonderful place, as well as great food and camaraderie.