"I've had 8 to 10 UTRA students since coming to Brown eight years ago, and I'll have two in the lab this summer. Students are the reason I'm in this business. I enjoy interacting with young people who are bright and interested in pursuing a scholastic problem. It's fun and it helps me pay attention to what's going on in the world of science." Professor Ted Goslow
Growing up in New York City, Joshua Woolley '99 often amused himself by chasing pigeons. He discovered an amazing thing about pigeons: You could scatter them twice and they would land again close by. But on the third try they would fly away.
This childhood observation slipped into memory until Woolley came to Brown. He attended a lecture in which Professor Ted Goslow described the research he had done on pigeon flight: If confined to a small room with no place to perch, pigeons would take flight three times when frightened, eventually landing back on the floor. But on the fourth attempt, they would not disperse and could be picked up by hand.
Woolley couldn't believe his ears. He immediately made an appointment with Goslow, and together they came up with a research project for the summer. Woolley became an UTRA student.
Woolley is one of roughly 200 undergraduate students currently involved in research work with Brown faculty, says Karen Romer, associate dean for academic affairs. There are two types of undergraduate programs. The first is the UTRA - Undergraduate Teaching and Research Assistantship. This involves collaborative research work with faculty members. UTRAs are carried on in all academic disciplines.
When the research is focused on curriculum development, it falls under the Odyssey Program, which originally was created as a way for students and faculty to work together to rethink courses by incorporating material about diverse populations in the United States. Now Odyssey includes all projects that involve the collaboration of faculty and students in course revision and development.
The Odyssey Program was initiated in 1982 and the combined UTRA/Odyssey concept was supported with a challenge grant from the Ford Foundation in 1986. Since then it has been supported by a number of foundations, corporations and individuals, including a second challenge grant from Ford to establish an endowment for the program.
The UTRA program provides undergraduates with a side-by-side partnership with professors. Those outside the Brown community are often surprised at the high level of research done by undergraduates.
For example, Goslow's lab studies the structural and functional organization of the wing in birds capable of powered flight. The goal of this research is to determine the neuromuscular and musculoskeletal basis for wing control, and to use this information to reconstruct the pathways in the evolution of flight. Goslow is in Bio-Med's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Woolley is studying a particular muscle believed to be important in wing control, the M. coracobrachialis, Goslow said. During his UTRA internship last summer, Woolley studied several species of birds to obtain an overview of the anatomical organization of this muscle. He also performed muscle stimulation studies to observe its action in situ. In addition, he learned the techniques of small animal surgery, gained skills for the use of laboratory equipment, and learned techniques for studying the muscle's contractile profile via electromyography.
This summer Woolley will continue the research, attempting to prove that the M. coracobrachialis is the muscle a bird uses to rotate its humerus in the downstroke/upstroke rotation of the flight cycle.
While this research may sound esoteric, a better understanding of motor control has potential applications in medicine. "If we can further our understanding of complex movements of the body, we could help those suffering from multiple sclerosis," Woolley said. "While this work is not aimed at MS, it does have implications for its treatment. If science can figure out how nerves control muscles, we may find more effective treatments for the disease."
Part of the UTRA learning experience is to expose students to all phases of scientific research, Goslow said. "This is an opportunity for students to collect data, analyze it, put it into a report and share it. Publishing is an important aspect of science. If you don't publish results, your research is of little value."
In a poll of faculty who worked with students in the 1997-98 academic year, 42 percent said the work already had or soon would result in a presentation or publication, Romer said. She added that more than 80 percent of the faculty has been involved with the UTRA/Odyssey Program and that 100 percent of the faculty who participated reported that they would do so again.
Goslow enthusiastically backs up the statistics. "I've had 8 to 10 UTRA students since coming to Brown eight years ago, and I'll have two in the lab this summer. Students are the reason I'm in this business. I enjoy interacting with young people who are bright and interested in pursuing a scholastic problem. It's fun and it helps me pay attention to what's going on in the world of science," he said.
So what did Josh Woolley learn that day he attended Goslow's lecture? "It takes a lot more energy for a bird to get off the ground than it does to maintain flight. A pigeon stores enough energy in its muscles to take off three times, but on the fourth try it can't get off the ground. That's why when scattered more than twice, pigeons will fly away."
Cynthia W. DeMaio is a free-lance writer based in Jamestown, R.I.