Today@Dal

First-year Dalhousie Integrated Science Program (DISP) students presented their research to the public on Monday, April 8, 2013. Twenty posters lined the halls of the Life Sciences Centre foyer while the young researchers explained everything from the therapeutic potential of carbon monoxide in Cystic Fibrosis airways to the orbits of dwarf galaxies around Andromeda.

DISP is an alternative way for ambitious students to complete their first year of Dal science. It includes intensive group work and field trips, culminating in a research project of students’ choice.

“The group project was my favourite part of DISP.”  says student Mairi Keay. “The research project prepares you well for an Honours program.”

Kara Pearson agrees.

“It’s amazing what we do in DISP,” she says. “My group took our own photos using a scanning electron microscope. Where else can a first year have that experience?”

As DISP ends for the year, students reflect on the strong sense of community among their cohort.

“There’s great camaraderie within DISP,” says student Nikolas Harris, whose research group donned matching t-shirts for the event. “We’re all a team here.”

Photo caption: Team “Winkle Troop” poses in front of their research poster, “Life in a Periwinkle: Documenting symbiotic diversity of intertidal and subtidal Littorina littorea”. Left to right: Kara Pearson, Nikolas Harris and Isabelle Jubinville