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Over the summer, neuroscience major Grayson Sipe ’10 (Lititz, Pa.) took part in ongoing research focusing on vision and perception with James Dearworth, assistant professor of biology. As an EXCEL Scholar, Sipe studied the turtle’s iris and its sensitivity to light.
Dearworth has explored this area for many years, involving numerous students. “Gray is completing a long-term project which has identified that the iris of a turtle can respond intrinsically to light without feedback from the brain.”
Sipe has learned more than just anatomy through the interdisciplinary project. “Besides the professional expertise in vision that Professor Dearworth taught me, I have learned a myriad of useful information across several fields, including physics, computer science, and chemistry. Because these subjects were integrated into a biology setting, I gained a greater comprehensive understanding of my research topic.”
Sipe plans to attend graduate school for a neuroscience degree focusing on the biological mechanisms associated with vision, perception, and cognition. “This research experience is invaluable because it has allowed me to learn what the lab setting is all about,” he says.
Sipe also believes that working on an individual level with a professor is by far the best opportunity that Lafayette offers its students. “I could not have asked for a better working relationship with Professor Dearworth. Together we made decisions, discussed and resolved problems, analyzed data, and reached conclusions. I was not just a lab assistant doing manual labor, which made the experience all the more enjoyable. The classroom level teaching at Lafayette is excellent, but the teaching on an individual level is indispensable.”
As well as the benefits student researchers take away from Dearworth’s ongoing project, students in his courses also gain from the research.
“One course I teach is anatomy of vision, which covers the eye’s anatomy and the neural pathways connecting it to the brain. Gray’s project is an excellent resource for demonstrating to students in this class a method for determining the physical anatomy underlying a visual behavior or response,” says Dearworth.