Ever wonder what an entomologist does, exactly? How does a scientist study caterpillars, for example? As an Earthwatch volunteer, you can work right alongside field scientists studying insects, and learn about entomology firsthand.
Through the Earthwatch Institute, you can join an expedition team and head into the field to collect, raise, and study insects. If you're a teacher, you can even join other educators on a Teach Live expedition, and share your field experience with your students in real-time!
I interviewed two teachers who just returned from the Climate Change and Caterpillars expedition in New Orleans. Tony Novelli teaches second grade at Fernbrook Elementary School in New Jersey. Rebecca Lewis teaches seventh grade at Girard College in Pennsylvania. Both teachers taught their students live from the field, using blogs, Skype, and other technology to connect to the classroom.
Guide to Insects Debbie Hadley: What made you join the Climate Change and Caterpillars Expedition?
Volunteer Tony: There were many reasons why I felt compelled to join the Earthwatch expedition on climate change. As an elementary school teacher, it is important to have application for the skills and concepts we teach in the classroom. Knowledge taught in isolation is quickly forgotten. By having students apply knowledge in a technology rich setting, you are promoting higher order thinking. As an educator, I feel it is important to understand what real scientists do so we can prepare our students for the real world.
Volunteer Rebecca: I was particularly interested in global climate change because I feel as a teacher it is one of the issues that is and will be affecting my students. I also wanted my students to have a working knowledge of what global warming is and going on this expedition seemed like a good spot to start.
Guide Debbie Hadley: What question is the principal investigator trying to answer? What is he trying to find out about insects?
Tony: The main question the principal investigator is trying to answer is if there is a relationship between the interdependence of specific plants, caterpillar, and parasitoids that can be correlated into climate change? By collecting and rearing caterpillars, assessing the vegetation, and documenting parasitoids, the data has shown trends that relate to major climatic events.
Rebecca: It is thought that due to climate change...the number of parasitoids is declining and thus the number of caterpillars is increasing. So we were strictly measuring the number of caterpillars and rearing them to figure out whether they were afflicted with parasitoids.
Guide Debbie Hadley: Tell us about a typical day in the field. Were you outdoors, working in a lab, or both? How many volunteers were on your team?
Tony: A typical day for our team of 10 individuals, (7 teachers) would be waking up, eating a quick breakfast, and getting ready to divide into groups. 2 teachers would go kayaking upriver for caterpillars with a PI, while 2 other teachers would stay in the bunk house and process the newly found caterpillars and tend the caterpillars from previous days. The final group would go into the Pearl River Wildlife management area to hunt for more caterpillars. The three research assistants were dedicated, patient, and wonderful. About 7pm, we all returned back to the bunk house where 2 teachers prepared the meal. Other teachers blogged, cleaned up, and excitedly told of their adventures. Some nights we had a camp fire and shared stories. We all went to bed late and became good friends.
Rebecca: Our typical day in the field started about 6 am. We were on a special fellowship that required us to teach from the field so this component was especially tough. In the morning up until 1 p.m we usually did lab work ( rearing, feeding, identifying caterpillars), in addition conferencing with our students and making our blogs available for them to read with the latest about our adventure. In the afternoon we went out to the field and were usually there until after 7:30 at night. While we were in the field we were mostly sampling different pockets of the forest area for caterpillars. This was a long process and took hours. The basic rules were to find a plot 10 meters from the road and from water. Then we would set up a quadrant and sample and collect all the caterpillars in that particular 10m plot. Then in addition to finding caterpillars we had to count or estimate every single leaf and its herbivory in the plot.
Guide Debbie Hadley: What was your favorite part of the expedition?
Tony: My favorite part of the expedition was the stay in New Orleans. The accommodations were in a great location and warm and inviting. The Halloween atmosphere in New Orleans was something I will always remember.
Rebecca: We sometimes kayaked to the plots and I liked the kayaking aspect of it.
Guide Debbie Hadley: I understand you were part of a "Teach Live" expedition, where teachers use technology to interact with their students while on the expedition. What was that like?
Tony: We set up a rotation between the teachers in the bunkhouse to webcam back to their respective classrooms. By using Skype, it was easy to connect to one classroom at a time. Students could see and hear me as I told of my adventures. It was difficult for me to remember that I was teaching a lesson for I wanted to tell stories of our adventures. The students really looked forwards to the times we would conference. This motivated them to independently respond to the blog questions. The conferencing with the students was a wonderful way to motivate students and bring the swamps of Louisiana into the classroom.
