Email: pgruetter@burlcoschools.org

Biology Teacher

Rm. C303

I have been teaching biology and other life science electives for 7 years and I'm excited to be at BCIT this year.

I have a passion for giving students opportunities to do real science by inspiring curiosity through inquiry and giving students the space to explore. 

My goal for this year is to inspire my students to learn how to ask scientific questions and develop methods to explore those questions. A long-term goal of mine is to mentor students in publishing in scientific journals such as the Journal for Emerging Investigators.

This past summer, I participated in a research experience working in a lab connected to Michican State University  studying the evolution of a plant called Arabidopsis thaliana. About ten years ago, a grad student with the lab recognized that one of the small organs of the plant seems to be disappearing in some individuals that grow at low elevations and altitudes. By taking a variety of approaches, the lab have designed a number of experiments using seeds of plants collected from Spain to Sweden. The goal is to understand if this trait loss is occurring due to genetic drift, pleiotropy, or natural selection -- or some combination of the three. 

If you have questions about how you can get involved in research, don't hesitate to ask! It's never too early to get started with research. Just this year, a 10-year-old student in Kobe, Japan named Jo Nagai started out with a simple question driven by his observations: Do butterflies retain memories formed during their caterpillar stage despite undergoing metamorphosis? This led him to developing a new method to studying butterfly behavior and writing a 33-page manuscript which he sent to a scientist at Georgetown. If you encounter something that makes you curious, no questions are too small to explore.