Over Washburn University's Spring Break three research students and I drove to Cedar Point Biological Station in Western Nebraska for a quick data collection adventure. I have a second long-term study population of ornate box turtles there and I wanted to get the turtle's brumation (hibernation) locations prior to them emerging in the spring. I am looking at brumation philopatry (basically how close to the same spot do indivduals brumate each winter) and thus needed to get these locations prior to the spring. The crew and I rented a vehicle and drove the seven (!) hours to Cedar Point. It was a tight fit, but we managed to pack all of our research equipment and supplies, plus our personal belongings in the back third of Nissan Pathfinder we rented. Two of my students, Aubrey and Brice, were taught radio telemetry basics by me and my first research student, Sam. While Aubrey and Brice learned telemetry and located turtles, Sam and I walked around and helped assist when possible. Eventually, when Sam could no longer stand not tracking a turtle by himself, I sent him off to find a rather difficult turtle. Of course, Sam found the turtle with no problem at all! Each of the three students that came with me on this trip will be returning to CPBS this summer. Sam and Brice will be teaching assistants for a three-week field class and Aubrey will be conducting a six-week behavioral syndrome (animal personality) study with two undergraduate collaborators (Megan and Natalie) from UNL. These three researchers will be extending my work that I did as part of my dissertation several years ago. I am particularly excited to see if the turtles display consistency in their behavioral traits across a five-year stretch! The project will be a lot of hard-work and will require great teamwork but I am confident these three will do an amazing job. The drive back from CPBS was also useful. Aside from listening to a ridiculous amount of country music we also managed to outline a research proposal for Aubrey to submit to Washburn University's WTE (Washburn Transformational Experience) granting committee. The funds we are requesting will help pay for radio transmitters, behavior assay supplies, and field equipment. We will also be submitting a similar proposal to Cedar Point to help pay for her room & board while there. Natalie and Megan will be submitting similar proposals to Cedar Point to cover the cost of room and board as well. Overall, it was a hugely successful trip where the students learned a great deal and I was able to collect all of the data I was hoping to. I must extend a huge shout out to the Washburn University Biology Department for helping covering the cost of the rented vehicle.
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Sam's research that focused on how animals move in response to varying macrohabitat temperatures was selected to be one of 4 projects presented by Washburn Students at the Undergraduate Research Day at the State Capital. Undergraduates were also selected to present from K-State, KU, Pittsburgh State, Emporia State, and Witchita State. The venue was held in the second floor rotunda of the State Capital Building. Each student was announced by name and presented with a certificate to signify their accomplishments. The student's research from around the state was not limited to just biology but music, art, psychology, chemistry, physics, sports medicine, etc. I only saw one other ecology project, a great piece of work regarding a bat survey in Missouri. Sam presented his work for about two hours. He spoke to many fellow researchers and their PI's (student research mentors) as well as politicians and interest groups. It seemed that many people were quite interested in Sam's work and we are hopeful that some additional good will come from presenting at this research day. I offered extra credit to my vertebrate zoology students (mostly junior/senior biology majors) to attend the undergraduate research day. I believe 13 out of 19 students came to support Sam and see the work of other undergraduates around the state! I am also hopeful that those students that attended this event will be motivated to do their own great research projects and potentially present here next year. Perhaps even a couple students will work with me and continue on with ornate box turtle research!
Last week four of my students (and myself) drove 5.5 hours in a rented van to Western Illinois University to attend the Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference (MEEC). This conference is entirely organized by graduate students each year and had over 300 attendees. The conference is dominated by undergraduate and graduate students, making it a friendly atmosphere for students to present their work. Steve, Olivia, Jake, and Colin all presented their individual research projects via posters. The weeks leading up to the conference were crazy trying to get our data compiled, organized, and analyzed so that we could make the posters. The students did a great job meeting at all hours of the day to get these posters made and printed. Overall, I could not be happier with the experiences the students gained. During the conference we listened to about 15 student talks (15 minutes apiece) and attended two keynote speaker presentations. The second keynote speaker was simply amazing, it was presented by Scott Mills. I am a true fanboy of his research and have been citing him since my inception as a graduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Scott Mills studies the movement and spatial ecology of snowshoe hares and with his collaborators have begun to do some fascinating genetic work and phylogenetic reconstruction of snowshoe hare lineages throughout North America. The work he presented during this conference focussed on the increasing mismatch of hare fur color (they turn white in the winter) and snow cover. The length of time that snow is on the ground is decreasing, which is bad for hares that turn white for the winter/early spring! Enough of me geeking out. Back to the students! The students each got an opportunity to present their work, recieve feedback, answer questions, and build both new research ideas and also foster future collaborations. Several of my students are thinking about graduate school after they graduate from Washburn so this type of networking can be critical to their chances of being successfully admitted into a graduate school. It is also great for my students to see the work of other students. Particularly, it is nice for my students to see what other opportunities are out there should they pursue graduate school. As for interacting with other undergraduate students and their research, I think it is nice for my students to see their work is just as good as other undergraduates at other institutions, which likely validates their work in their own minds. Further, I think presenting one's own research is a great way of maintaining (or increasing) motivation to continue on with a research project and continue to collect high quality data. I am excited that my students had a great time and all four said they would love to go back to a conference again in the future! I could not ask for more from my research students. Because this trip could not be all work, we stopped at a State Park (Mark Twain State Park) which was situated about halfway between Western Illinois and Washburn. We roamed around for about an hour, looking for animals and enjoying the unique habitat. We all agreed we'd definitely like to go back during the spring/summer. I highly recommend! Members of my lab (myself included) are getting more and more excited to attend this year's Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference (MEEC) at Western Illinois University. As of today, all four of my student's posters are made and they will be sent off to the printer tomorrow. I'll find a place somewhere on this website to link to these posters after the conference.
The purpose of this post is to provide links to articles written about the lab's ornate box turtle research over the past year. Former Kansan Poet Laureate Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg wrote this outstanding piece: https://www.carynmirriamgoldberg.com/tag/ornate-box-turtles/ Jason Morrison, a copy editor and writer for the Washburn Review wrote this piece focused on both the research and me being a new faculty member at WU: http://www.washburnreview.org/features/turtles-brave-the-maze/article_6b978ca0-ff62-11e9-b710-0bcb142d13da.html#disqus_thread And lastly, I will just link to one but there have been numerous articles and few videos highlighting the new ornate box turtle statewide demographic study that I have partnered with the Topeka Zoo to undertake: https://www.ksnt.com/news/saving-the-box-turtle-kansas-zoos-working-together-to-help-the-states-reptile/ I am hopeful that articles such as those above can continue to be written to help bridge the gap between researchers (such as myself) and the public! Of course, that is the point of this website as well, but every little (or big) bit helps! Great news! Washburn University's Annual Day of Giving was a huge success for both the university and all of the amazing projects/activities faculty and students were hoping to get supported. The Adopt-A-Turtle program had a fundraising goal of $5,000 and actually surpassed this goal, raising $5,435! Many thanks to the 40+ donors who contributed to this project. As part of the Day of Giving we had a project showcase for about 4 hours that was open to the public in the evening. The event drew in a fair amount of potential donors and I had some truly great conversations with many people. I am excited to see how many people are at least somewhat interested and appreciative of the work that my students and I are doing at Washburn. Although the showcase was 4 hours long and included many great conversations and created new networks, the vast majority of the donations seemed to come via social media postings. My department Chair Dr. John Mullican has an immense social network and attracted many donors to my project via his posts. My students and I had significantly smaller social networks but we still managed to draw in a few people each. The Washburn University Alumni Association also advertised the specific program for us and that certainly boosted our online presence as well. Overall, the people involved with getting this project set-up and running were all fantastic and I had a great experience working with them all. Unfortunately, the need for radio transmitters (finite battery life) and funds for covering student housing costs (at field stations) and attending conferences (poster, registration, and hotel fees) never ends. Fortunately, the program has been selected to be bumped to a Crowd-Funding page of sorts hosted again through the Alumni Association. The goal here is to raise an additional $5,000 with the ultimate goal of having this project exist every-year I am studying box turtles at Washburn. I am excited by the prospect of this and cannot wait to continue working with students on research, outreach, and conservation regarding some of the Midwest's most unique and iconic creatures. Stay tuned to hear more about students attending conferences! In two weeks four of my students (and myself) will be presenting their research findings (or plans) at the Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference at Western Illinois University. I am excited for them to gain this experience and have a permanent line to add to their CV's moving forward. Several of these students are thinking about graduate school so you never know what types of connections these students may make with PI's or current graduate students in attendance. I wanted to write a quick blog entry tonight highlighting some of broader lab milestones regarding my undergraduate research team at Washburn University.
The wind howls and it's only about 30 degrees outside yet I am already anxious to begin another successful field season with my undergraduate research students this spring. In about three to four months from today (early April to early May) members of my study population (ornate box turtles and three-toed box turtles!) will emerge from the once frozen ground and officially begin life anew aboveground. For many of my study turtles, this may well be their twentieth, thirtieth, or possibly even the fiftieth time they've emerged from the ground after a long winter's nap. For me and my students, this spring will mark our second full year of behavior studies on my new study population in eastern Kansas. Elsewhere, I continue (eight years now!) to monitor my original study population (from my dissertation days) in western Nebraska. If people think the Kansan box turtles have it tough, they have not yet experienced an early May in western NE.
Despite it being only February 3rd I am already making research plans, formulating new ways to study old questions and new questions alike, securing equipment, and finding funds to help offset my research costs. For Christmas, my parents got me ten field scales so that I can make sure each one of my research students has their own scale when working on their projects. What may sound like a pretty lame gift to you will go a long way to helping my students feel ownership over their research and feel like the independent young researchers that they are. I intend to treat them as such. Ideally I will eventually be able to provide each one of my students with a field pack that will consist of the basic equipment each student will need for their work, including scales, calipers, GPS's, radio receivers and Yagi antennas, collection tubes, digital camera, and maybe even some suntan lotion and insect repellent if they work hard. This website is the product of a long desired wish to be able to reach out to Washburn University and broader community to make them aware of the type of research happening in their own backyards (for some, quite literally in their own backyards). I have no website building training or skills so undertaking this project has seemed like a monumental task for some time now. However, as with all things, the task will not get any easier if you continue to avoid it. So, now here we are! Slow and steady. The major new impetus for building this website has stemmed from Washburn University themselves, and our Annual Day of Giving (on 2/6/20). This Day of Giving is meant to be a Black Friday of sorts, a one-day extravaganza where the Washburn and local community can donate money to projects and programs they'd like to support. For many projects, such as mine, there have been generous donors willing to match dollar-for-dollar amounts. In my case, through the incredible generosity of Bob and Helen Meinershagen, my Adopt-A-Turtle program has been matched for up $2,500! The Adopt-A-Turtle program is designed to help raise money for my research program with undergraduate students. The money will be used to purchase the aforementioned supplies above, as well as help pay for student housing at field sites, cover travel and conference expenses, and help pay veterinary bills for sick or injured turtles. My research with students always has a movement component and thus radio transmitters (which allow us to relocate the same exact turtles using radio telemetry) are our constant annual cost. Transmitters are relatively expensive (around $150 apiece) and must be replaced annually due to battery life limitations thus the research can get expensive quickly. I am constantly working on getting grants and other funds, especially student research scholarships (great CV builders!) but I am hopeful that this Adopt-A-Turtle program will offset some of the stress associated with securing enough funding each year to buy transmitters and cover other research costs. If, after reading this, you feel inclined to donate to this project please click on the Donate Now links scattered throughout this website or contact me directly through the "Contact" page. Please check in on this page for updates regarding our research, education, and outreach as the research season starts! I will be posting a second blog entry soon to highlight some of my student accomplishments in our first year of this study so stay tuned! |
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About the BlogThe function of this blog is to provide updates on the status of our research program, student successes, and outreach activities we've done in the recent past. ArchivesCategories |