Texas A&M Entomology Research Network

Outreach

Students swarm to Insect Expo at McKenna Children’s Museum

by

Video by Paul Schattenberg, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

Story by Paul Schattenberg, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

A volunteer at the Bug Expo shows students a tarantula. (Texas A&M AgriLife Communications photo by Paul Schattenberg)
A volunteer at the Bug Expo shows students a tarantula. (Texas A&M AgriLife Communications photo by Paul Schattenberg)

NEW BRAUNFELS — Nearly 1,000 fourth-grade students from New Braunfels and Comal independent school districts recently attended the second annual two-day Insect Expo at the McKenna Children’s Museum in New Braunfels.

“This event was presented by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in collaboration with these school districts and volunteer organizations,” said Wizzie Brown, AgriLife Extension entomologist, Travis County. “We had more than 20 stations with fun and educational activities for the kids to participate in and learn about bugs and entomology.”

Booths and displays for the Insect Expo were set up inside and outside the McKenna Children’s Museum building. Students participated in interactive displays related to insect life cycles, pollinators, beneficial and non-beneficial insects, forensic entomology, “natural” recycling through bug decomposers, aquatic insects, entomophagy and more.

More than 90 volunteers, primarily Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists from Comal and nearby counties, helped at the Insect Expo. (Texas A&M AgriLife Communications photo by Paul Schattenberg)
More than 90 volunteers, primarily Master Gardeners and Master Naturalists from Comal and nearby counties, helped at the Insect Expo. (Texas A&M AgriLife Communications photo by Paul Schattenberg)

Activities included an insect petting zoo, cricket races, beekeeping and honey-tasting display area, and a forensic entomology activity where students played bug detectives. During the program, entomology-related topics were shown continually on two large projector screens. Other activities included arts and crafts such as building a bug, maggot art and monarch butterfly coloring.

Pattie Jenkins, fourth-grade teacher from Voss Farms Elementary in the New Braunfels ISD, who teaches math, science and social studies, said her students enjoyed the variety of displays and activities.

“The students were very excited to learn about insects and all they do for our environment,” Jenkins said. “This experience has given them an even greater respect for nature. And the fact there are so many hands-on activities makes it much more interesting for them.”

Students wear beekeeper suits as they learn about bees and pollination at the Insect Expo. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo )
Students wear beekeeper suits as they learn about bees and pollination at the Insect Expo. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo )

More than 90 volunteers from Master Gardener, Master Naturalist and other volunteer programs in Comal, Bexar, Guadalupe and Gonzales counties assisted AgriLife Extension personnel with the program.

Molly Keck, AgriLife Extension entomologist, Bexar County, said event coordinators made displays fun and engaging for the students so “we could keep their attention and they could enjoy the experience of learning.”

AgriLife Extension also collaborated with New Braunfels and Comal school districts to ensure presentations at the expo addressed Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS, and State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, test objectives.

“We made sure the displays touched on aspects of the STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and math,” Keck said. “And we wanted to give the students a fun and memorable educational experience they would want to go tell their parents about.”

Keck said another aspect of planning the event was being mindful of the financial constraints on public education, so the event was presented at no cost to the students.

“The hands-on aspect of this event is the best part,” said Tina Kalebick, a fourth-grade teacher at County Line Elementary in New Braunfels. “Children learn so much more and retain it better when they are allowed to engage in hands-on and interactive activities.”

Don Tuff, an 18-year Comal County Master Gardener Association member and former entomology instructor at Texas State University, was among the volunteers.

“The kids really enjoy these displays and activities,” Tuff said. “Some of the ones they seem most drawn to are the maggot art display, the display showing the soldier flies, the cockroach races and NASCAR termite race, as well as the display about insect noses and pheromones and the forensic entomology display.”

Another event volunteer was Mark de Kiewiet, who has been with the Guadalupe County Master Naturalist association for three years.

“We’re teaching kids about bees and showing the kids that bees are not the enemy,” he said. “We want them to know bees are very important to agriculture and our food supply because they are pollinators. We’d also like to have them get a better overall understanding of bees and learn to respect them for all the beneficial things they do for us.”

Keck said she hoped the Bug Expo experience would help students with their learning.

“Our goal with this event is to get kids interested in insects and entomology, but also to teach them important lessons from seeing the insects up close, touching them, and knowing as much as they can about their biology, behavior and role in the ecosystem,” she said.

Children learn about insects, science at Summer Bug Camp

by

by Paul Schattenberg, Texas A&M AgriLife Communications

Molly Keck talking to a group of children and adults out in the field.
Each day of camp, participants go outdoors to observe and capture insects. (Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service photo)

SAN ANTONIO – For the past 10 summers, a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service entomologist has been sharing her love of insects, nature and science with Bexar County youth.

“Each summer we conduct three regular Summer Bug Camps for kids ages 7-12 along with a junior entomology camp for kids 4-6 years old,” said Molly Keck, AgriLife Extension integrated pest management specialist, Bexar County. “The regular camps are from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. over a three-day period and the junior camps are usually for a few hours over a few days.”

The regular camps are usually in the Urban Ecology Center at Phil Hardberger Park in northwest San Antonio, while the junior camps are typically at the AgriLife Extension office or at Keck’s home.

The camps are always full and attendance is limited to about 25 to ensure personal attention and adequate help with hands-on activities. Participants are supplied with insect collection kits, including a net, insect sample containers and a box for display.

“There are usually as many girls as boys in the camps, and we have plenty of youth and adult camp helpers to ensure the participants get individual attention,” Keck said. “The camps are also a good venue where ‘girls who like bugs’ can share that interest and everyone can learn about entomology and related subjects.”

Nicolas Phillips, 20, has been a camp helper since 2010.

“I became a camp helper to learn more about entomology and to learn how to teach kids about entomology and science,” Phillips said. “Learning how to teach kids has been a fun experience for me, and I’ve learned a lot from Molly. I plan to become a forensic entomologist, and this experience has taught me a lot.”

In addition to class instruction, the camps provide many outdoor, hands-on activities to keep participants engaged and interested.

“We do insect-related experiments and activities, and each day we go out and capture insects,” Keck said. “This gives the kids a chance to be outdoors and get some exercise while learning. And one of the best takeaways from the class is they get to net and gather bugs to make their own amateur bug collection.”

Keck said camp activities often use the theme of a particular insect, but its overall focus is on insects in general and their importance to the ecosystem.

“We’ve previously had classes featuring termites and beetles, and this year’s theme was crickets,” Keck said.

Ellie Gold, 9, has attended Summer Bug Camp for the past two years. She enjoyed learning about crickets at the camp.

“We learned a lot about crickets and how high they can jump and how to tell a male cricket from a female,” Gold said. “And we also got to learn about other bugs, like millipedes. I like the way insects feel on your hands. Insects are very interesting.”

In keeping with the cricket theme, campers also raced robot models shaped like crickets.

Another hands-on activity at the camp is called Life in a Rotting Log. For this activity, participants are separated into small groups and each group is provided a transparent plastic container holding rotting wood, soil and other organic material. The participants dig through the containers to locate and identify the insects serving as decomposers in the small ecosystem.

“The kids usually find beetles, centipedes and millipedes in the containers, and let them crawl over their hands,” Keck said. “We ask them to be careful with the insects and not harm them. This helps us reinforce that they should have respect for the insects and the role they play in the environment. We want them to understand that almost all insects are beneficial and serve a purpose in our ecosystem.”

Jack Matthews, 13, has been attending Summer Bug Camp for the past eight years — first as a participant and then as a helper. Matthews said he enjoys learning how entomology intersects with math and science.

“Insects can be used to help us advance medicine and defeat diseases,” Matthews said. “I like math and science and you get to apply some of both in bug camp.”

Kaelyn Holland, 7, who attended camp for the second time this year, enjoyed participating in the Bess Beetle Pull, an exercise in which participants find out how many pennies a beetle can pull over a flat surface.

“It was fun to see how strong the beetles were,” Holland said. “We put pennies into a plastic dish and the beetles pulled as many as they could. Then we figured out how many pounds that would be for a human to pull.”

Another popular hands-on activity at bug camp is dissection. This year, students were paired up, given surgical masks and scalpels, and provided instruction on how to properly dissect both giant grasshoppers and crawfish.

“We let the students know the grasshoppers and crawfish have been preserved in formaldehyde so they could learn about their anatomy and about the difference between an insect and an arthropod,” Keck said. “This exercise also helps them with their concentration and hand-eye coordination as they study insect anatomy.”

Keck noted bug camp instruction and activities are designed to help meet state-mandated Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills requirements, but their primary goal is broader.

“The main goal of these bug camps is to help youth learn why insects are important, to develop a respect for nature and the environment and to show that science doesn’t have to be daunting – in fact, it can be pretty fun,” she said.

Members of Aggie Women in Entomology Helped Sixth Grade Girls Get Interested in STEM and Entomology

by

Joanie King talking to students in a classroom.
Joanie King teaching participants of the Expanding Your Horizons outreach program about termites. Photo by Rob Williams

Sixth grade girls statewide had the chance to expand their horizons in science and entomology as members of the Aggie Women in Entomology helped to increase interest in STEM fields during Expanding Your Horizons on Saturday, December 2.

This event allows girls in the sixth grade the chance to experience the various areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through interactive lectures and hands-on activities taught by both faculty and student volunteers.

During each 45-minute session, grad students and Aggie Women in Entomology members Jocelyn Holt, Alex Payne, Chloe Hawkings, Karen Poh, Joanie King, and Samantha Sawyer began the sessions by introducing themselves to the participants and showing them their research interests and told them about their favorite insects.

Alex Payne showing participants how beekeepers use their tools to manage hives.
Alex Payne showing participants how beekeepers use their tools to manage hives. Photo by Rob Williams.

Each session also included on general insect biology and anatomy and demonstrated biodiversity in insects by allowing them to view different pinned insects from the Department’s teaching collection.

Some of the hands-on demonstrations included learning about honey bees and honey production, cockroaches, termites, and flies. After the hands-on demonstrations, the participants asked questions from the “Ask an Entomologist” members via Facebook video chat and a chance to sample some food with insects included.

Hawkings enjoyed teaching the girls during the event and said it was a great opportunity for them to learn about entomology and spark their interest in science.

“I think it’s great to educate the girls about the opportunities for them in STEM fields and to let them know that girls are awesome at science,” she said. “The girls were really excited to see and interact with live insects and see the variation of studies conducted by PhD women here.”

Members of the "Ask An Entomologist" answered participants' questions during the question and answer section. Photo by Rob Williams
Members of the “Ask An Entomologist” answered participants’ questions during the question and answer section. Photo by Rob Williams

Payne said the girls learned a lot from her and the other volunteers.

“I really had a great time working with other Aggie Women in Entomology members at the Expanding Your Horizons conference this past weekend!” Payne said. “The sixth grade girls that attended our workshop are at a very impressionable age where we can show them that insects are cool and not ‘just a boy thing’; to like and study. It was really rewarding to see the girls learn and try new things and say things like how they weren’t as afraid of insects anymore.”

Poh said the volunteering was a very rewarding experience for her and she was pleased with the turnout and with the amount of engagement the girls gave the group.

“I felt like we really got the girls to be engaged in science and specifically in entomology,” she said. “Some girls probably didn’t know what entomology was, so we provided a nice introduction to get them interested in entomology. By the end of the section, all of the girls had a greater appreciation for insects and I really think we got them excited about the sciences in general.”

 

Grad Students Hosted Entomology Outreach Program for Local Youth Center

by

Chloë Hawkings, right, showing a butterfly to Malik Wilson. Photo by Rob Williams
Chloë Hawkings, right, showing a butterfly to Malik Wilson. Photo by Rob Williams

COLLEGE STATION, Texas–The Department of Entomology’s graduate students hosted an interactive journey in insects and their world during a special outreach event for the youth during North Bryan Community Center’s Summer Camp on July 24, 2017 in the Heep Center.

The program called “Insects and Beyond! An Interactive Introduction to the Wonder-full World of Entomology” provided youths in the program a fun and interactive way to help them learn more about insects and the science of entomology and nature.

During the first section, several of the grad students introduced themselves and told the group their research interests, what labs they worked in, and the types of insects they worked with every day. After the short introductions,

volunteers led several smaller groups to different areas of the second and fourth floors for concurrent sessions focusing on different insect types.

Shavonn Whiten talking to the group
Shavonn Whiten introducing herself to the group. Photo by Rob Williams.

During each rotating session, the youths used stereo and compound microscopes to view insects and had a chance to listen to interactive presentations given by the graduate student volunteers. Some of the insects they viewed included local insects, general arthropods, beneficial and pests. They also saw numerous live insects, viewed the TAMU Insect Collection, and learned fun facts about insect biology.

Ph.D. student and event coordinator Shavonn Whiten said the idea came to her when she was asked to lead the Center’s Summer Camp for this year. While unable to accept the job, Whiten developed and coordinated a summer schedule of weekly interactive events for the kids.

Her desire was to continue the interest she had ignited in the youth through outreach events hosted while serving as a tutor at the center.  Whiten kick-started the summer of events with an interactive entomology presentation and outdoor insect collecting event in late May.

kids looking at insects in collection at the Texas A&M Insect Collection
Masters student Ryan Selking, left, and Assistant Curator Karen Wright, center, visiting with North Bryan Community Center members about the various insects housed in the Texas A&M University Insect Collection

Whiten added that the July 24th program was part of an ongoing set of activities throughout the summer to expose the youth to arts and science fields not traditionally explored by minority youth. She also wanted to help the kids learn more about the field of entomology, as well as give them additional opportunities to continue their educational enrichment during the summer.

“Due to the great results seen from having myself and 14 other African American TAMU graduate students serve as tutors and positive role models for the kids during the 2016-2017 academic year, I didn’t want the learning and growth of the kids to stop when the afterschool tutoring program ended May 24, 2017,” she said.  “I daily saw the pure eagerness and thirst for more knowledge in their eyes, and personally had developed a bond with each of the kids.”

Whiten was very glad to see the youths engaged in what they learned and hopes they will develop a much deeper curiosity into entomology after coming to the program.

“The kids had become my family away from home, and daily remind me why I initially sought to pursue a doctorate degree.  I can easily name the extraordinary individuals who planted and watered the seeds, which prepared and molded me into the individual I am today. It is my duty to do the same for the next generation of leaders.”

Tyler Raszick showing members various insects. Photo by Shavonn Whiten.
Tyler Raszick showing members various insects. Photo by Shavonn Whiten.

“I enjoyed working with Shavonn on this event,” Ph.D. student Chloë Hawkings said. “It was very rewarding to captivate the students with entomology and share my passion.”

“They seemed to really get engaged with the insects and ask a lot of questions about what they were looking at and that made the event special for us,” Ph.D. student and volunteer Karen Poh said. “We love seeing kids, young adults, and adults interact with the insects, learn about entomology, and ask questions. This is a great group of kids who were really interested in insects and I hope they had as much fun learning about insects as we did teaching them.”

Center Co-director, Sandra Robertson, expressed sincere appreciation for the hard work Whiten and fellow grad students did in hosting this event for the kids.

“I think this program has been wonderful,” Robertson said. “It is very nice what the Department did in opening their doors to let the kids come and learn about insects. I am really thankful to Shavonn for taking her time to show and teach them about insects.”

Entomology Department Helps Youths Practice for 4-H, FFA Judging Contests with Annual Clinic

by

Shelby Kilpatrick, left, and Marshall Sullivan, right, teaching participants about the basics of entomology, as well as pinning and insect collection techniques. Photo by Rob Williams

COLLEGE STATION, Texas—More than 170 members of the Future Farmers of America and 4-H youth programs statewide and their agricultural science teachers, adult leaders and county agents spent a rainy Saturday morning learning about entomology, entomology contests, and testing their insect identification skills in the Heep Center during the Entomology Judging Clinic on Saturday, March 4.

The annual half-day clinic is designed to help 4-H and FFA students with skills to collect, prepare, and identify insects, to learn about their biology and relationships to different environments, all in preparation for  for  upcoming contests.

The clinic opened with a welcome session by Professor and Associate Department Head for Academic Programs, Dr. Pete Teel. During the session, Teel introduced participants to the clinic and its design and encouraged students to take what they had learned and apply it to the upcoming contests.

Participants were then sent into three concurrent sessions on topics such as insect identification basics, different collection and mounting techniques, and a leaders-only session on building reliable and lasting resources for success as an entomology team.

The newest addition to this year’s clinic included having two practice rooms open with integrated FFA/4-H mock contests where students could test what they had learned throughout the morning and a larger, more interactive pinning and mounting workshop.

Dr. Pete Teel in front of a class
Dr. Pete Teel speaking to participants about the clinic.

Participants also got the chance to view numerous insects in the orders of Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, and Hymenoptera in the upstairs teaching labs, as well as a room dedicated to learning how to identify specimens from additional assorted insect orders.

At noon, the group reconvened in Room 101 to discuss the contest and its rules and for a question and answer session. During the session, student panelists answered questions from the audience such topics as the various careers in entomology, a day in the life of a college student at A&M, and entomology in general.

Volunteer Shelby Kilpatrick, a senior Entomology major and former 4-H member,  has been involved with volunteering for the clinic for four years as a student and said the clinic is a great way for youth to learn about entomology.

“I really enjoyed the 4-H entomology clinic. It really is a great way for us to share our knowledge and to promote the department and encourage the study of entomology,”” she said. “We try to make it a great learning experience for the kids.”

Student pinning an insect
Students also got the chance to try their hands pinning and mounting insects during a hands-on session.

Leader Madison Landreth from Midway ISD was very pleased with this year’s clinic and said it was a great learning experience for her and her students.

“I think this is a great workshop and like the hands on aspect of this clinic,” she said. “I loved that the kids get good practice and the volunteers were very helpful.”

“It was very exciting to see lots of the younger students being excited about entomology and the ag field in general,” volunteer Stephanie Rudolph said.

“Participants from the clinic are known to score very well in subsequent contests, and this avenue of interest in entomology is increasing the number of freshman Entomology majors,” Teel said.  “Our student volunteers for this program provide a personal level of engagement with the clinic participants that is most welcoming and helpful.  They are a very positive connection to building future entomologists.”