Team Ant 2016! These are the people I’m working with at the lab.
My Kenan Fellows project involves working in the Ant Lab at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. In the lab, Dr. DeAnna Beasley and Dr. Magdalena Sorger (check out her website! She takes macrophotography of ants that will change how you look at them.) are working on research related to how ant behavior is altered by many factors including climate change and urbanization as well as fungal pathogens that are affecting ants. They are both amazing scientists and teachers!
both Dr. DeAnna Beasley instructing us on how to grow fungi by letting our ants walk around on auger plates. Ants are super good at keeping themselves clean, and whatever they clean off falls onto the plate!
Dr. Magdalena Sorger teaches us how to mount ants for viewing and identification. She knows a mind-blowing amount about ants big and small.
While I work in the lab, I am collaborating with two other Kenan Fellows to create lessons that bring the amazing science being conducted in our lab to our students and to students all across North Carolina. Ideally, our work will allow kids everywhere to participate in and even contribute to the very real science and discovery that Drs. Beasley and Sorger are working on.
The other Kenan fellows on my project and I after collecting ants around the museum using aspirators. They caught a bunch and I caught three.
After my three week externship, I’ll return to my 7th and 8th grade science classroom at Wake Young Men’s Leadership Academy just down the road from the museum, where I’ll be able to implement the lessons and skills I’ve developed this summer as I begin my fourth year teaching.
My lab is housed in the Nature Research Center downtown on the third floor. Come visit this summer!
You also can follow the work that my scientists are doing on twitter:
Dr. Sorger: @MagSorger
Dr. Beasley: @FlyingScientist