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!
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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 |