A recent Ohio University graduate wants to study monkeys this summer, and he’s asking for your help to do so.
Morgan Chaney, who earned his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from OU in 2010, is in the process of receiving his master’s degree in anthropology at Kent State University. This summer, he plans to study primates in Costa Rica.
Chaney is taking an unusual approach to funding his research experience. After being granted a research award by Kent State’s Graduate Student Senate, Chaney decided to use a crowd-funding method to earn the rest of money required.
Of his $1,000 goal, 81 percent was met in less than a week and soon after that, he met his original goal. Since then, he has set additional goals to cover the cost of more components to his research, including a statistical package.
“I just needed to find a way to fill in the gaps in my funding, and I thought of the website Kickstarter.com,” Chaney said. “I figured, if board games and art projects can get crowd-funded, why shouldn’t I try to fund my thesis research?”
However, he realized that Kickstarter may not be the best choice since almost every other project was not scientific. After another student told him about Experiment.com, Chaney signed up right away and has been using that site for his fundraising.
To help Chaney accomplish his funding goals and to read more about his research, visit:
https://experiment.com/projects/learning-to-live-or-living-to-learn
. Less than two weeks remain to donate to Chaney's cause.
Chaney, who will arrive at his field station on June 17, was a teaching assistant in a biological anthropology lab last semester.
“He came to Kent with an interest in (primate) development, which has many aspects: social, ecological, neurological, etc.,” said Marilyn Norconk, an anthropology professor and Chaney’s advisor at Kent State. “He will be studying capuchins in Costa Rica who are well-known extractive foragers.”
Chaney’s research focuses on how young capuchins learn the necessary skills to find food.
“I think his current research will be an interesting project and contribute to our understanding of learning in non-human primates,” said Nancy Tatarek, an anthropology professor at OU who knew Chaney when he was in Athens.
But unlike past capuchin research, Chaney’s work has a new twist.
“A lot of work has been done on the complex skills that these monkeys display, but research is really lacking in how long it takes them to acquire these skills,” Chaney said. “That’s where my research attempts to fill in some gaps.”
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