After another life-changing week in the Biodiversity Lab, I packed my bags to head home for a relaxing weekend in Wilmington. As my wife and I made our way east on I-40, our conversation revolved around our respective work weeks. The more I talked about my week, the more I realized how much I was thinking like a scientist. Every step or experiment I explained, brought more questions to my mind about how all the different factors that could affect our study.

My wife is very patient and supportive but after an hour of ants as indicators of climate change and how urbanization affects them, I knew it was time for a break. We got off I-40 at Warsaw (roughly half way home) and decided on Wendy’s for dinner. My wife waited for the order and I went back to the car to start the air-conditioning.

I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye on the curb as I got to the car. Ants! I sprang into action. In the trunk, I rifled through our luggage and found an empty  sandwich bag. Actually, finding it consisted of dumping a carry-on bag into the trunk to find what I needed. Armed with my ant collection device, I went to work.

The ants were large and easy to catch but what was even more interesting was the trail that led to their colony. In a crack of the curb of a fast food restaurant, life found a way.

My wife comes out to a scene from a comedy. I’m on the ground collecting specimens and the good people of Warsaw are staring and scratching their heads. That’s when it happened. My wife arrives and says to the people staring, “It’s OK, he’s a scientist.” It stopped me in my tracks. She was right, I am a scientist.

At least I recognize that I now think like a scientist. This is the type of wonder and excitement and curiosity about the world I want to bring into my classroom. Through this experience, I am changed and I am on a mission to change the life of my kids.

I collected my samples and we made it home. Hopefully, I will have many more samples to bring into the lab as a trial run for how students can collect their own samples for observation. Thanks to this experience, I see ants everywhere. I see science everywhere, even in the drive-thru.