David Hale (’15) works with biology professor Susan Fahrbach totransform a drinking straw into a honeybee harness.

David Hale (’15) didn’t want to wait until he was an upperclassman toparticipate in meaningful research. He found his opportunity, and muchmore, at Wake Forest.

It was my senior year of high school. AP Exams, extracurricular activities and grades were my focus. Butamong all of this work, I still had one of the largest decisions of my life to make: Where would I choose to goto college? I wanted to attend a university that represented what I believed in and a school that would pushme to further myself. Most importantly, I wanted a school that would provide me with limitless academicopportunities. As my senior year neared its end, I began to narrow my college choices down. All of theschools that I was considering had attributes that gained my attention, but there was an important questionthat I asked of each university: “Will I be able to participate in research after my freshman year?” The typicalresponse to my question was that research opportunities were reserved for upperclassmen, or that toparticipate in scholarly research, I needed to complete all of the lower divisional first. Coming from a smallercommunity where the opportunity to gain laboratory experience in high school was limited, I was eager towork side-­by-­side with a professor in his or her lab. When I asked this same question at Wake ForestUniversity, the response I was given was much different. I was told that if there was a class that I enjoyed orfound thought-­provoking, I could simply ask the professor if he or she would be interested in allowing me tobe a part of his or her lab. That is exactly what I did.

In the first semester of my freshman year, I was taking a variety ofcourses, but the class that I was most excited about was BIO114,Comparative Physiology, taught by Professor Susan Fahrbach. Theworkload continually challenged me, but my interest in the materialmotivated me to work diligently. I was enthralled by the content of thecourse and the way in which Professor Fahrbach presented it. Shewas constantly organized, extremely knowledgeable and always willingto help;; she was the type of professor I wanted to work with. Aftersuccessful completion of the course, I asked Professor Fahrbach ifshe would like to apply with me for the Wake Forest ResearchFellowship program, and she gladly said yes. We worked together toformulate a research question leading to the design of the procedureand the finalization of the fellowship application. Shortly after our

submission of the application, we were happy to hear that our project was funded and that we would beworking together during the summer.

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That summer, I was able to complete a guided research project that deepened my love for science. Moreimportantly, I was able to develop a mentoring relationship with Professor Fahrbach. During our weekly labmeetings, the lab members each established a set of goals to complete by the end of the summer. For me,one of these goals was to work with Professor Fahrbach to plan courses for the following year as well asthe continuation of my undergraduate research career. Together we discussed my courses for theupcoming year, the continuation of my research, my plans for the following summer and even my plans forpost-­graduation. At first Professor Fahrbach was challenging me within the classroom to study the subject Ilove, but now she was challenging me to reach my full potential as a student and as a person. Each time Imet with her, she pushed me to pursue every available opportunity. Professor Fahrbach was truly interestedin me as a student, and she wanted to see that I was successful.

With the opportunity that I had over the summer, I gained much more than just another item for my resume;; Ideveloped a long-­lasting mentoring relationship with a professor. Professor Fahrbach encouraged me towork hard, to be detail-­oriented and to prepare me for my future. She taught me that no matter what, I needto be proud of the work that I complete. I plan to take her advice with me as I finish my four years at WakeForest, as I continue my education and as I pursue the study of what I love.

CAN AN OLD HONEYBEE LEARN A NEW TRICK?

The short answer is yes. And for Hale and the membersof his research team, the fun was in the finding.

His team is studying the relationship of brain structure tofunction in bees, because they exhibit brain plasticity asforaging experience is gained. In older, more experiencedforagers, a higher-­order region of the brain called themushroom bodies enlarges. Hale’s project studied the learning abilities of bees of all ages byrewarding their response to bursts of blue and green light with a sugary snack.

After collecting bees of various ages, marking them with painted dots and fitting them neatly into acustom harness engineered from a drinking straw, the team fed the bees a sucrose solution untilthey could eat no more and gave them a 16-­hour nap. The proof was in the proboscis — theelongated, tongue-­like appendage that extends when a bee feeds. On each test day, the first 10bees to extend their proboscises for food were selected for the colored-­light experiment, where theirresponse or lack of response was recorded.

The end results indicated that of the 64 bees that completed the testing, the elder statesmen — evenif at a lesser learning rate than their middle-­aged peers — proved capable after all. It was theyoungsters, those bees less than 10 days old, that weren’t ready to learn. Hale plans to continue hisstudies in order to determine if a larger brain region makes for a smarter bee, in an effort to betterunderstand this dynamic insect on which we depend greatly.

ibelieve@wfu.edu 336.758.5237 © 2013 Wake Forest University

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