Poughquag resident publishes research in 'CBE Life Science Education'

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Christina Catavero. Credit: A. Sue Weisler

ROCHESTER, NY (01/08/2013)(readMedia)-- Poughquag resident Christina Catavero has published her first research paper in CBE Life Science Education.

Catavero, daughter of Carol and Mark Catavero of Poughquag, N.Y., is a third-year student at Rochester Institute of Technology. She majors in biotechnology in the College of Science and biomedical sciences in the College of Health Sciences at RIT, and is in the honors program.

Catavero published the article, "Students Fail to Transform Knowledge of Chromosome Structure to Topics Pertaining to Cell Division" in the winter 2012 issue of CBE Life Science Education with her co-authors and mentors Dina Newman and Kate Wright, assistant professors of biology at RIT.

Their study investigates the tendency among biology majors to misapply content knowledge to essential concepts and interrelationships regarding chromosomes and cell division. The authors found that students create roadblocks to deeper understanding when they think about biological processes in a vacuum instead of as part of a larger system.

Catavero also gave a poster presentation at the Rochester Academy of Sciences meeting in October about textbook assumptions of meiosis, or cell division that creates ova and sperm. She hopes to turn her research into another paper.

"We want to highlight the mismatch between expectations and actual knowledge," Catavero says.