Mon Sept 1 - I found a great web site over the weekend. Hamline University, Minnesota. Center for Global Environmental Education - Six principles of Ecology.  The site has some wonderful essays. Look at this one on metamorphosis and the idea of the value of transformations in Nature.
  On Saturday I looked at the coon and it's about eaten up. I saw some dermestid beetle larva. Think I'll take it in on Tuesday and pick the bones out. Even better will be to start a colony and watch it work on some small roadkill - or even meat from the store. I'm going to do the maggot exercise again anyway.. This will be GREAT for our Decomposition unit the 2nd half; while we are simulataneously composting and growing fungi.
  Found a good web site with simple information that the kids might like on rearing monarchs
The Anderson County section of the paper had an article about Kris Light's wildflower web site. It's pretty good and worth perusing so you what's there.
   Saturday I filled up the mosuito rearing container with water from the bird bath at the house. The next day I had one adult and the water had settled enough I counted 'lots' of larva and pupae. I think I'll get a jar full of the water tonight and take it in to the class. Rearing mosquitoes could be a good way to learn more about insect life cycles, and especially the intereaction between humans and animals.
    I'm setting the skunk trap tonight, and if I get one it'll be history - we'll get its skeleton for education purposes.

Mon cont. -      I believe it was Joanne Lauck, in her book The VOICE of the INFINITE in the small, who quoted the Dali Lama when he was asked what was the most important thing to teach children. He responded, "Teach them to love insects". I think of that often as I teach ecology. This morning I was reminded of it again as Ellen read to me from a book. She read about a Buddhist teacher who drew a  "curved V" on a piece of paper and asked a group what they saw. One person responded, "A bird". "No", she replied. "It's the sky with a bird flying through it." Her point was awareness, and that once we are aware we can never be unaware. That idea speaks to what I try to do in my class - especially with insects. If I can make my students aware of the unseen world around them now, they will always be aware. Maybe then, when the times comes to explore their unseen world of the unconscious, they will be able to feel a connection. Maybe they will even enjoy the discovery of what looks ferocious being gentle in reality.
   I wrote the previous paragraph so you, my students, can see how I try to relate local acts to global ideas.

Tues 9/2 - Four more monarch caterpillars are ready. Two have formed chrysalis and two are hanging ready to to form one. All are attached to the "roof" of the cage. I moved the roof to another spot so we could set up a video camera and try to catch the actual chrysalis formation. By 3:30
it had not happened so I set the cam for as long as possible and left. We'll see in the morning.
   I brought the mosquito trap in and several of the kids observed it for awhile. Most people mistake craneflies and other similar species as mosquitoes. It's good for them to see the difference - especially under a microscope. Stephen took pictures of the male and the female so you can sex them by their antennae.
  Garrett brought in some webworms in a bucket and they had already spun a "sealer" web around the inside circumference. Since we already had some fall webworms in an old aquarium, he started an experiement to see if his were possibly different species because they were on different plants. This is a good example of the type of inquiry that can be done with targets of opportunity. The answer is not as important as the question. He's actually asking a basic biology question regarding "host specificity".
   Although some students chose not to complete the assigment, we had some very interesting species scapes this term. Ellie had a unique one by painting her toenails color-coded proportional to the distribution of the major taxa. Cody made a candle in a pilsner glass that was neat the insect part was clear and had a cicada imbedded in it for effect. Unfortunately the glass broke as he got ready to turn it in, but it was a creative idea.
   My new National Geopgraphic magazine came yesterday. There are some interesting articles in it - especially the one about Gabon forming national parks as a result of Michael Fay's trek - which was a remarkable story. The article that drew me first, however, was the one on the existence of modern day slavery and its extent. 27 million people inslavery - mostly women and children. Reading it will make you double think about purchases of handmade jewelry, leather and similar goods from India, Pakistan and SE Asia. It's not just Nike low pay sweatshops, but pure slavery. What are we doing as a country? Importing more?

Wed 9/3 - Went over journal entries with the class and then we calculated Simpson's Index for two extremes of species distributions they might encounter in building their insect collections. In 2nd block we had a discussion about the math in calculations. One of the problems in discussing it, is that it entails probabilities to be precise. Also there are at least two ways of calculating "D". I found one web site that does a good job of explaining and making the point to 'be consistent'. I'll show it to Ellie in the morning.
  I briefly touched on the experiment of Redi. I plan to set up a similar experiment for them tomorrow if the rain holds off. When I got home I put together a brief web page with information about it.
   All four monarchs had made chrysalis's when I camerin this a.m. Unfortunately we didn't capture any on film. We did get another caterpillar from the garden, so there are two more waiting to pupate. One was crawling around the cage ceiling like it's ready. Maybe in the morning it will be hanging and we can run the camera again. Just keep trying.

Thur 9/4 - Went over the Inex calculation and I think Ellie is more comfortable now. I used the lumper/splitter to explain the choice of "D" or "1-D" as an index of diversity. It's difficult to explain and stay ou of details of probability theory.
    I chose to formally visit the idea of symbiosis today. As usually happens in class, students questioned the idea of commensalism. I particularly like that because, underneath, commensalism and co-evolution seem to be contrary  ideas. It made me think about why we present, certainly at a high school level, symbiosis the way we do, with mutualism and parasitism on extremes and commensalism in the middle. I suggest that what we really do is show the extremes and then we are forced to use commensalism as a term for anything that isn't 'obviously' one or the other extreme. As we progress in knowledge and depth of study we will find ourselves reclassifying as our knowledge grows. Once again the lumper vs. splitter idea.
  For the kids I came up with the idea of analog vs. digital signals, which they understand, as a way to explain these non-feeding relationships as a continuum which we then break down into discrete categories in an attempt to understand and intereact with the ideas. It's like grades. We give A's and B's based on thousandths of a point sometime, and how does that infinitesimal amount make the difference between whether or not one is a valedictorian. Boundaries like these again are simply delineations of constructs. How we treat relationships in nature and how we treat relationships in our lives follow similar patterns. For example, is your marriage one of mutualism, parasitism or actually something in between with characteristics of each? Worth thinking about! Possibly it's a moving target, so to speak.
   Braconid wasps have emerged fom the tomato hornworm that Joseph brought in. It's pretty neat to look at them under a miscroscope and see what they really are. With unaided vision one would just think they were small flies. I like it when the kids get engaged like this.
  I walked out into the driveway last night, and the smell of putrid flesh wafted through the trees from my backyard - the racoon and skunk.
  I hope it's a nice morning tomorrow so we can do Redi's experiment, catch insects and have a relaxed day in the joy of nature.

Fri 9/5 - Both classes et up the Redi experiment today. Since part of his results was seeing flies lay eggs on the meat, we set up a video camera and taped for an hour. We have a tape of flies on the meat. We'll continue the experiment, but also raise the larva to adults and compare the emergent flies with those on the tape. I examined the meat under a miscroscope and didn't observe what I could tell were eggs. MY only experience, however, is fruit fly eggs and possibly these are different - maybe laid under the surface. Ragardless of results, it's a good learning experience.
    One of my students took a nice picture of the chrysalis's (what is the plural? chrysales?).One is hanging from a milkweed stem, and there are others in the background from the cage top. Worth a look.

   Fri p.m. - After school I met four of the students (Stephen, Garrett, Joseph and Jansen) at the Norris grist mill and we erected a malaise trap on clear creek. We'll meet at noon tomorrow to see our catch. We also took a littler muchroom walk and found a few of the very last chanterelle mushrooms of the year. I've put our a jar of my pickled ones to take tomorrow so they can taste them.  We also caught some insects along the trail and up by the water treatment facility. A great time was had by all. You the kids are engaged when one asks how you can get a career doing stuff like this. Here are some pictures: Caterpillar 4; Caterpillar 5;  The chase; In the bag!
   Joseph sat down on a cable and his weight pushed the cable down and a lizard appeared. The lizard is his friend.
We'll identify all these and other organisms later

Sat 9/6 - Stephen, Destiny and Jamie made out to Norris today. We only had one good moth in the Malaise. I'm thinking we had the bottom of it off the ground and maybe we should have had it touching the ground. Many insects fly low. Oh well, try it again and learn. The kids got some great butterflies and dragonflies however. I was proud of them. Destiny worked 20 minutes to get a green darner.
  Stephen was busting logs looking for beetles and discovered that yellow jackets can nest in rotten wood. I followed him home and he was alright. It was scary though - I have an epi-pen for myself but I didn't have it on me. Need to do better.

Sun 9/7 - I started putting together a web page with the Orders, Families and some common species listed. The kids can print this and cut out the names to have neat labels. I'll add more species as we go. I hop eit helps those who have been out getting some not-so-common insects

Mon 9/8 - The last monarch caterpillar was not able to pupate. It attached and hung on Friday, but this morning it was hanging lifeless. The first chrysalis formed on the night of the 29th so it should be about ready to emerge. This is 11 days for it. We cleaned the cage yesterday so now we just watch and wait.
  Put the Redi experiment outside in a rearing cage. SMells pretty bad. Mold is appearing on the open and screend beakers, but the one covered in Saran wrap has no mold. We discussed a little about how microorganisms spread and that Spallazani's experiment was the next logical investigation. My student had asked the same type question as Spallazani. This will segue well into the pickle and mushroom labs where they learn the difference in pasteurization and sterilization and the processes of water bath and pressure canning.
   THe kids worked on their collections some more. Tomorrow is the last day and then they are due at the start of class on Wednesday. Hopefully we can sepnd the rest of that day collecting and examining dragonfly larva and discuss predator -prey relationships and biological control - mud bopttoms vs. concrete structures (e.g. dengue fever).
   Stephen and I looked at a minute yelowish insect that was biting some of us on SAturday. I believe it was a Mymridae or fairyfly. I guess it's called that because of the "feathery-like" wings. It's a hymenoptera less than 1 mm long. We didn't get a picture because the little thing got lost during the examination - a puff of breath possibly.... Anyway, the kids are going out tonight and maybe Stephen will get another one. He's looking.

Tues 9/9 - Worked on the collections all day. Several of the kids brought in a copperhead they had found. It's head had been removed and it looked like it had been shot with a shotgun.  I let them skin it and salt the skin to preserve it. Ashley started to look at the anatomy and investigated the stomach contents. She found part of what might have been a grasshopper and she also found a caterpillar. She did a good job investigating the anatomy.
   Another student brought in still another caterpillar that we'll have to identify.
   The Redi experiment still has no larva moving, but it's getting ripe.
   My T.A. is getting the raccoon bones in order.
Joseph found a milkweed bug emerging from its last nymph stage. We got a picture that I'll load on the web later.

Wed 9/10 - The kids turned in their collections today. All in all, they were pretty good. I took pictures of four that were representative of the type of work they did.  #1; #2; #3; #4
 We went out to the pond 1st block and got some bottom samples for Odonata nymphs. We found a number that al looked the same. I offered extra credit for anyone determing the species name. The only adults we had been collecting had been pondhawks, so I hoped some folks would put two and two together. I also gave them a key based on labium and antenna. Lexie gave it a shot so I gave her some extra credit. It was surprising to me that no one else even tried.
   Chrysalis's are still green. Redi's has no visible maggots. The mealworm pupae are emerging. Cody is keeping an eye on them because he feels the adults are dying almost immediately. He picked out dead meal worms to see if that improves survival of adults.
   We got a apictue of a milkweed bug exoskeleton. Unfortunately I misplaced the picture of an adult emerging. They were so pale that at first we thought "Oh, an albino!"
    Reflection: I used the pond trip to talk about predator-prey relationships. We had already seen one on milkweed with ladybug beetles and aphids. In an effort to have students make another connection in the local/global sense, I asked them to consider the use of chemical control (use of energy) in aphid management. When we apply chemicals we kill beetles and aphids alike. The aphid population rebounds much faster than the beetle population. This is due in part to the fact they can "clone" themselves through parthenogenesis. Therefore, the post chemical population of aphids is even higher after a short while. Maybe organic control - companion plants - is best in the long run, although you might lose some plants in the short run. With tomorrow 9/11, consider this - maybe terrorism is the aphid of the world. When we treat terrorism with bombs and the military - like in Iraq - the controlling forces, such as stable governments, are cutback, and terrorism may actually clone itself even faster; feeding on instability. So then we have to use even more force or energy. It's worth thinking about - in the sense of the relative types of control and/management available to us.
  Aphids are a signal that we don't have an optimum mix of companion plants in our garden. Maybe terrorism is a signal that we need to be more of a companion plant in the world's garden, not a sprayer of pesticides. It's worth thinking about, which after all is the purpose of education . . .

Thurs 9/11 - After a little discussion of yesterday's reflection, I introduced the notion of natural dyes. In the lab we made indigo paste and then indigo concentrate. We started a pot of black oak bark and a pot of Bidens. The Bidens mitis came out of our butterfly garden. You take the entire above ground portion and put it in the pot and simmer for 30 minutes or so. It yields a yellow dye that is very nice but not quite the brightness of black oak. I have a web page with recipes that I will link this weekend.
  After school I stopped near the house and got enough green walnuts from a tree to make up a nice dye pot. I want to dye a skein and then dye the gourd that Jesse prepared for me. I want the kids to see how plants are important to us, certainly historically, as a dye source. In addition to plant dyes, tomorrow I'll make up a cochineal pot. Fortunately, I've obtained about five pounds of skeined yarn last year that I can use with the class.
  Saturday I will be preparing dye pots for the Knoxville Hand Spinners Guild. Last year I had two kids go with me to help tend the pots and learn about natural dyes.
  One of the nice things about dyes is that you work with many of the chemistry concepts that are important in biology: oxidation, reduction, enzymes, denautring proteins, acids & bases, reaction rates influenced by temperature, acidity and concentration, structure of protein versus carbohydrate, solubility, hydrogen bonding, pigments and their separation, photosynthesis, volume/surface area ratio, and more.

Fri 9/12 - Today I continued with the dye activity amidst the many distruptions of mid-term grades, ID tag handouts and a pep rally. I demonstrated the colors from cochineal scale insects and discussed their natural history. First block functioned very well with everyone on task. Second block, however, is larger and some of the kids had a problem staying on task. Then they began to demonstrate some unsfae behavior like thowing things and lounging around off task - they can always be journal writing. Therefore, I have prepared the alternate ecosystem for them on Monday.

Saturday  9/13 - I created and tended the dye pots at Dale Lile's today. The indigo pot in particular began very week, and I was disappointed. As the day wore on, however, it became much better and some quite beautiful greens and blues were produced. The black oak didn't provide the bright yellow I expected either, but I imagine it was because I had not taken the time to soak the bark overnight. Fortunatel, I had a bag of "fustic" and it yielded some magnificent yellows. The cochineal made a good pot and by the end of the day it was amazing to see all the colors hanging to dry. I was exhausted too.
   Over the rest of the day I reflected some about dyes, colors and some of my ideas on education in my community. I decided to clarify them by writing an essay.

Mon 9/15 - Videos on Microecology and Insect detectives. Alternate ecosystems for some of the class. A monarch chrysalis has begun to darken.

Tues 9/16 - We watched Downstream From the Mountains about the ecology of Little River in the Smokies - from Clingman's Dome to the Gulf of Mexico.
  A monarch emerged from its chrysalis during 1st block as the class watched. This is truely an amazing event. It only took seconds to emerge and I could not get the camera focused in time, BUT we got a picture right afterwards and before the wings were inflated. Later we got another picture as it began to come to full expansion. 2nd block took it outside and released it. Pretty amazing thing to watch.

Wed 9/17 -  Stream sampling. We sampled and them calculated the stream quality index for two sections of Bykota Creek. Both rate as "Excellent" on the Izaak Walton League scale.
  Two more monarchs were dark this morning and then emerged around 2:00 p.m.. and Stephen and his Dad released them from their fingers, It's still amazing. I found another neat page with videos of pupation and emergence.
  Stephen got the stream tank going and put in a male and female crayfish. He found out on his own how to tell the difference. I like the way a number of kids are beginning to ask questions and pursue answers on their own.
    Not much entry this week. My wife is in the hospital and I don't have so much time to put it all together.

Thurs 9/18 - Began a short unit on Ethnobotany today. I began with one volume of Ila Hatter's video onMedicinal and Edible Plants. We then took a nature walk and looked at various plants on campus that might serve as subject for a student project. Each student must select a plant and conduct an inquiry project focusing on cultural uses of the plant. The final product should contain a herbarium specimen, background information, and some tangible experinec eof the cultural use: e.g. prepared food, dyed cloth, paper, antibiotic test, etc.
  While in the garden we saw what must have been our two monarchs we released yesterday.
Set the skunk trap tonight, going after number 19. I missed it the other night.

Fri 9/19 - 1st block worked on dyes and yarns. 2nd block in computer lab for Ethnobotany research.
     I brought in Petey the Possum ( a baby possum I caught the night before) and showed it to the class. I guess it's adolescent behavior, but some of the kids poked at it to see its reaction. I guess that's why they poke at teachers too - to see their reaction. You try to get them to empathize with the animals, but it's difficult.
   We brought in the Redi Experiment materials. The maggots have pupated so now they are in a rearing chamber and we'll watch and observe what type of flies emerge from which pupae. The open jar had a large maggot, and the netted jar had small maggots. The question is whether the small maggots develop into flies small enough to get through netting, but the large maggot adults can't.
  Cody and I ran a test on the chrysalis's to determine composition - carbohydrate or protein. We followed directions for making an extract. We hypothesized carbohydrate because chitin, the compoent of exoskeletons - is a large carbohysrate (with an amaine). We got negative results on both tests. Probably we had such a small sample that our attempeted extract wasn't concentrated enough. Monday we'll try grinding the material and testing directly with it.
  Katie found a large female praying mantis and we put it in the cage with Stephen's mantis. Within 10 minutes they were mating. That drew some of the guys away from Petey. They're at the age where aggression and sex hold their interest more than metamorphosis. And that's ironic because it's their own metamorphosis that they are struggling to understand through expressions of aggression and interest in sex. Some people are field dependent and other are field independent.

Saturday 9/20 - I got a great roadkill today: a coyote! also a rabbit. Neither had visible marks to the head or torn skin. They seemed to be body impacted like the cadavers I'm reading about in Stiff. I put them in the freezer until we can skin and bone them. I think some of the kids might want to investigate the techniques for vegetable tanning for their Ethnobotany project. I'll order dermestid beetles Monday and we'll clean the skulls. I would really like to have the pelt and skull for one of my Native American friends to use in ceremonies.
  I found a good internet article on tanning that I think several of the class might like to try. I'll go this way first. Later I made a web page "Skulls and Skins" with links for preparing skulls and also preparing pelts.

Mon 9/22 - I ordered dermestid beetles from Carolina today and also checked on teh Fall Creek Falls  wild foods day on October 25th. They'll have a lot of workshops. demonstration and activities. Food will be wild game (maybe snake too)and plants. Bryan and I are are going to set up a field trip for that day. It should be a great way to celebrate the close of this unit. As we get closet they'll send me an exact schedule of events.
   Today we watched Ila's other video, and I wnet over the assignment with the class. I've fleshed it out a little more so they have a poster/herbarium specimen to do this grading period, and then they have a demonstration of cultural use to complete by Thanksgiving. In between they have opportunities to learn outside of class such as the Museum of Appalachia Homecoming weekend and the Wild Foods Day at Fall Creek Falls.
   Stephen researched mantis's this weekend and shared that today. His female ate the males over the weekend leaving only leathery wings and a leg. The question I have is did she eat "males" or only the "available praying mantis's" becaus ethey prefer cannibalism? Interesting ceatures. There's a short article about Argiope spiders in the latest Natural History magazine about death and cannabilism in that species also.
   Showed a couple of kids how to use an Inkle loom. I hope someone makes a belt using it and then gets their own yarn and dyes and goes from scratch.
     My TA, Jesse, got into poison ivy over the weekend, Gave me an opportunity to use the jewelweed. I sent him out to the pond to find the plant and he pulled up the whole thing!! Now we have a bunch of leave to work with.
   Dev brought back three insects rom Costa Rica which I pinned and put in the display case. The kids, and I, loved the new gold scarab. It is a marvelous thing! I always think of Poe's short story when I see one. This one is fresh and so much nicer than the one I had with the glued on head and 5 legs.

Tues 9/23 - First Block worked in the computer lab researching their plant. I guess the highlight of the day was removing the coyote head so the dermestid beettles could clean the skull. The kids just generally worked on their Ethnobotany projects.

Wed 9/24 - The kids worked on the projects. Several skinned the squirrel and the rabbit and tried thier hand at salt-alum tanning of the hides. I showed a couple of them how to make obsidian scapers to use. Surprisingly, many of the student got very interestsed in making candles - they can use the plant oils as fragrances. Two finished their weaving project. Some of the cadles were quite good. Everyone was engaged in some activity. I'm quite pleased with the way the class is progressing.

Thur 9/25 - Cory Chapman brought in some mushrooms ( Jack-O-Lanterns and Lobsters) which led to some interesting ideas. Jack-O-Lantens, a saprophytic or decomposer,  I conrasted with chanterelles which are mycorhizal. Distinguish them based on the context they are growing in as well as their physical features. Like many things in education, we must learn in context not in discrete units. This is a transition teenagers are trying to make.
   The Lobster is a fascinating study in symbiosis. I read in one place that the orange fungus was actually an earth tongue. That makes sense to me since an earth tongue can parasitize truffles in this area - at least I've seen it. Most interesting is that the host species is changed, but is it beneficial to the host. I don't know. If you interject the human dimension the host is certainly changed for the better. That is, it's edible now, but symbiosis entails only the host-parasite relationship. Now, it seems like a parsitic relationship implies that the host is hurt, but in this case the host is underground, the mushroom is the reproductive body. Can the host still reproduce? I don't know. I want to find out more about this one, because of human as a distributor through eating. I wonder if the change crates food for other anmals also - although I don't notice slug/beetle munching on them.
   We'll cook the Lobsters tomorrow.

Fri 9/26 -
    Got the dermestid beetles yesterday and started the culture. I put the hummingbird we had in 'frig in with them. There weren't many, so it will take a while to build a "hot" culture.
   During 1st Block we had a bat that the custodian brought around. The kids looked at it and held it, and the we took it outside and put in on a tree limb so it could drop and fly. I explained to the students that often people think bats are hurt, have rabaies or wehatever because they are draging themselves around the ground or floor. In actuality, bats can't fly from the ground - they have to drop and fly. People who don't know that often treat the bats in hurtful ways. They found that quite interesting. It's the same way with people I guess.
   We cooked up the Lobster mushrooms and they were delicious. The kids were engaged is this activitiy, and several are going to use mushrooms in their ethnobotany project. Meanwhile a number of kids were working on candles. They're trying to infuse essential oils from plants into candles.
  Cody did an excellent job getting all the teeth back in the skunk skull and attaching the manible. It looks grat!
 
 
 

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