All right, so I have devoted the past four weeks of my life solely to Kenan Fellows. I have been to the mountains and back, white water rafting down a category three rapid, and used all of my brainpower to learn my postdocs research. Then, going into the third week of my externship, I quickly realized that my journey is just beginning. Not only will I spend the next few weeks creating an awesome citizen science-based lesson plan, but I will be spending the next year contributing to Dr. DeAnna Beasley’s insects pathogen research with my eighth-graders.

So how hard could this be? I mean, doesn’t attempting to explaining how human driven environmental changes effects the insect pathogen community sounds like an easy topic to explain to a 14-year-old? Or turning my classroom into a completely sterile research environment? Or what about finding away to get hemolymph reading from a plate reader, when the museum does not have a plate reader and I do not have access to one…. Ahhhhhhhh!

I’m not going to lie, I was really scared going into the beginning of week three. The first thing I had to do was remember what our main goal is, create a citizen science based lesson plan that will contribute to insect pathogen research. Also, this lesson plan needs to be something that teachers can do in their classroom relatively affordably. So that took my hemolymph extraction lesson plan out of the question. Thankfully Dr. DeAnna Beasley called a meeting with Dr. Julie Urban to brainstorm a new idea for a citizen science question. After about an hour and a half of no success, we finally did it! We came up with a citizen science question that teachers can do in their classroom that will benefit the insect pathogen research community.

Ready for it?

How does ant immune behaviors, like self grooming, change according to the fungal entomopathogens found in their community?

We call it…

How do you see you internship benefiting your mentor?

Dr. DeAnna Beasley is an entomologist at the Museum of Natural Science and North Carolina State University. Dr. Beasley has done research on many different topics, but is currently interested in how human driven environmental change effects the insect pathogen community. The way we determine that immune function of our insect, ants, was by testing four main categories. My team observed the and social behavior, photographed and analyzed they are cuticle melanin, extracted hemolymph and ran a plate analysis, and tested the soil around the colonies for entomopathogens.

I feel that our internship experience will benefit Deanna by getting her another set of immune pathogen data. As Deanna collect sets of data, she puts it into an analysis program to see if there are any strong trend lines. So far, Deanna has not found any data of a major significance, but her research on ants and their pathogen community has just begun. Cooper, Juilianna, and I plan to continue adding data to Deanna’s research and teaching citizens around the world how they can contribute as well.

The Arthropods!!

On Monday, Deanna took us on a behind the scenes tour of the Arthropods Exhibit. While were were walking to the tour, we were greeted by a young volunteer that had a container of hissing cockroaches! These cockroaches use air pockets on their back to make a hissing noise to serve as a line of defense. They enjoy eating rotting fruit and therefor can not live in a home. In fact, one a tiny number of cockroaches can live in your home, which has created a bad reputation for all the other types of cockroaches!

Licking A BUG!

Next, Henry from behind the scenes showed us a stick bug that give off a pepper tasting spray as its defense. Both DeAnna and Julianna were very excited to taste the bug. Henry told us hat in some countries, pizzas will come with one of these bugs cooked on top for flavor.

Thanks Again!

It was great to visit the Arthropods and learn about all the different species they keep in their tiny office space! I really enjoyed learning about the different types of spiders and where they are commonly found in North and South America. I also enjoyed seeing the species that Henry collected himself to bring into his lab.

What Is Citizens Science?

To me, Citizens Science is science that can be done by ANYONE and typically involves a collaboration between teachers, adults, and students with a scientist. At the beginning of the year, this concept was new to me; But now that I have had the opportunity to work with Kenan Fellows, I have become part of developing Citizens Science curriculum! I am excited to incorporate this new and innovative concept in my classroom. With Citizens Science, I plan to show my students that they are scientists and that they are capable of having an impact in the science community.

What Are Your Goals?

The reason Kenan Fellows Team Ants has bonded so closely is because we share a common goal. Not only do we want to for fill our duties to Kenan Fellows, but we also feel a strong obligation to improve science education as we know it today by providing curriculum that is realistic and inspiring for science teacher to implement. If students start to learn about science by doing science, we feel the content will leave a lasting impression and passion for science. We love science and we want our students to love science!

Our first day at our internship site was amazing! We started out our day at Prairie Ridge Ecostation in the outdoor classroom. There, we met our mentors and talked about our hopes, fears, and expectations. Then it was time to have fun. In our groups, we became experts on a species of Dragon Flies. We walked down to the Ecostation pond and observed Dragon Fly behavior and migration patterns. We were also able to catch a few to get a closer look at the insect. I was very surprised to find out that Dragon Flies can bite!

Next, DeAnna took team ants out into the woods to look for ant colonies. We found a lot of Needle Ants, which are an invasive species, but we were able to find a colony of Black ants and brought them back to the lab. While in the woods we observed a baby deed in its nest and a blue salamander. It was breath taking to be outside enjoying all of the beauty of this hidden gem in Raleigh. I highly suggest visiting the Ecostation.

Next, we ventured to the Museum of Natural Science to learn about our new home away from home. All of the labs were very interesting and filled with technology. Our first day was beyond my wildest expectations and I can not wait to see what else will happen during my internship.