Scott Geller and his CABS team have just collaborated at completing two interdisciplinary seed grant proposals for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), which could lead to significant GRA support if the preliminary research findings are promising. One project is entitled, “The Cats in the Bag: An exploration of the benefits associated with taking a cat for a walk in a backpack.” As the title reveals, this project will evaluate the physical and psychological benefits of taking a cat on regular walks with a backpack or a stroller designed for cats. The cats’ urine will be collected and analyzed to assess cat stress.
The second project is entitled, “An Innovative Large-Scale Approach to Protect Our Environment: Empowering children to promote and support energy conservation,” and will implement an education/training process to teach children—from Grades 3 to 6–how to use the Internet to monitor the electricity usage in their homes and to conserve home energy use with simple behavioral strategies. These young energy conservation agents (ECAs) well also learn how to prompt and support various energy conservation behaviors from the members of their family. Each of these CALS seed grants will require substantial behavioral training and evaluation, which will be accomplished by the undergraduate research students in CABS.