Participants in the 2013 KBS K-12 Summer Institute

It was the last week of June and KBS was a hive of activity. The annual K-12 Summer Institute lasted just 3 days this year but was action packed. Sessions were conducted by the GK-12 fellows, both new and returning, and by the MSP research associates. Since the institute ran for just three days, we had a plenary session everyday!

Our first plenary speaker was Dr. Carolyn Malmstrom from the Dept. of Plant Biology at MSU. She spoke on the topic ‘It’s a small small world: Plant viruses and ecology’. She was a perfect fit for us since one of the questions she focuses on is ‘How do we preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services in working landscapes’? Sounds a bit familiar, right? Dr. Malmstrom started her talk by describing viruses as a ‘space capsule with a protein coat containing genomic nucleic acid’. She went on to describe the remarkable diversity in viruses – in their structure and genomic acids.

Viruses affect their hosts in many different ways. Some of them alter the host genome expression. By marking which part of the DNA should be transcribed they can change the expression without changing the DNA sequence. Virus infection also helps to augment the host genome. Plant viruses have been found to endogenize into insect genomes including that of mosquitoes and Monarch butterflies. Viruses also can alter an organism’s performance.

In our efforts to get viruses out of our food plants we have concentrated only on one part of the landscape, i.e. agriculture. In this bid we have taken our focus away from the big picture, we do not understand what is happening in the natural ecosystem. There are big ecological differences between agricultural systems and the natural ecosystem. It is important to understand how ecosystem diversity and stress in the natural ecosystems affect viruses. Before she concluded, Dr. Malmstrom left us with this different perspective: Viruses might actually be helping to bind the fabric of life and keep it supple.

Landscape protocol water levels are the best!

We had two sets of concurrent sessions on the first day. Following ‘tradition’ our returning fellows and their partner teachers conducted sessions based on the BEST plots. They did a commendable job of making the ever-so-familiar protocols new and exciting. Of course, the cool titles that they came up with had a fair bit to do with the excitement.

Dustin and his partner teachers, Becky and Liz, presented ‘Dirty deeds done dirt cheap’. As the topic suggests they explored the revised soil protocols. It should be noted too, that this session had an added attraction in the form of ‘dirt cup-cakes’.

Jake teamed up with Russ, Cheryl and Chris in ‘Uncovering the Legacy of our Landscapes’.  They put a new spin to the landscape protocols by introducing a historic perspective. The teachers did get to play with the now-famous water level, too.

In ‘Invertebrates, going above and beyond’ Cara, Sandy and Mary stepped beyond the standard invertebrate protocols. They encouraged the teachers to use the existing data to generate new questions and hypothesis.

Sara, Marty G. and Lisa dealt with the plant biodiversity and biomass protocols in their unambiguously titled session ‘BEST Plots: Plant Biodiversity and Biomass’. They attempted to explore the unexplored aspects of growing our fuel while keeping our flowers and butterflies too.

Three of our new fellows to got their feet wet the first day. Dani Fegan’s interests include community ecology, landscape ecology, and restoration ecology. She teamed up with Marty B. and presented ‘Bug Lyphe: A Next Generation linked observational study in biodiversity’.  They went out and trapped insects (using our BEST protocols of course), and used the data that they thus generated to compare biodiversity in natural and disturbed habitats.

Emily Dittmar is interested in adaption, specifically in the role that genes play in allowing populations to adapt. She, along with Jamie, conducted a session titled ‘Variety is the Spice of Life’. They used a variety of props including a deck of cards, dice and a game of musical chairs to introduce the basic logic behind Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium.

Considering natural variation

Amanda Charbonneau comes to us with an interest in evolution and adaption of species to new environments. Along with Terri and Meredith, she lead the session ‘Survivor: Extreme Environments: How invasives outwit, outplay and outlast their competitors’. With the help of a short ‘variation walk’ they explored the need for variation in order for adaption to take place.

Jenny Dauer, representing the Carbon Strand of MSP, conducted the session ‘Keeling Curve-arama: understanding what is local versus generalizable about atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations’. Her session discussed the reason why Keeling went to Mauna Loa to collect his data instead of just collecting it in his backyard. The teachers also got a chance to see the local differences in CO₂ concentrations by measuring CO₂ levels at different locations in the KBS property.

Dr. Catherine Lindell from the Dept of Zoology at MSU was our plenary speaker for Tuesday. She spoke on ‘Birds & their roles in ecosystems : Tropical Forests to Michigan’s food crops’.

Dr. Lindell stressed that the value of birds in a particular ecosystem depends on the use humans have assigned to that particular ecosystem. One of her study sites is in Costa Rica where there is massive habitat loss due to deforestation.  Efforts are now going on to try and restore these habitats. Birds are great helpers in this process. They not only serve as agents of seed dispersal but they also prey on herbivorous insects, and pollinate the flowers. Studies are going on to try and determine the optimum design for planting taking into consideration these seed dispersers and their needs.

On the other side of the coin birds in Michigan can prove to be pests, especially to fruit farmers. Birds cost farmers millions of dollars through fruit loss and management efforts. Dr. Lindell and researchers from several other institutions have teamed up to try and quantify this damage and test strategies to minimize the losses.

Botanizing under the supervision of Larry the Lamprey

Following the plenary, instead of breaking into concurrent sessions as usual we had one more common session. Sara S., Cheryl and Nancy conducted a session on the Next Generation Science Standards. Their aim was, to quote Cheryl, ‘To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable’!

They reminded us of the fact that the NGSS are written as performance expectations and they will require contextual application of the three dimensions by students. By conducting a simple polling exercise they tried to get teachers used to the idea of including more practises in their classrooms.

One set of concurrent sessions followed the lunch break. Two new fellows (assisted by their partner teachers) made their debut. Sarah Jones studies the biological causes of sex differences in aggression in spotted hyenas. Along with Sandy she explored this very topic in their session ‘Roid Rage: Just for Boys?’. They tried to analyze if there are differences in aggression among sexes, what causes them and how do we study and interpret them.

Teachers excited for new sessions!

Susan Magnoli is motivated by a fascination with invasive plants. Marcia and Jodie joined her to talk about ‘Michigan’s Most Unwanted’. They guided the teachers in making and using a variety of keys to help students to identify invasive species. They also used several graphing activities that allow students to make their own inferences based on the data provided.

Jennifer Doherty, from the Biodiversity strand of MSP, attempted to present diversity in an evolutionary context in her session : ‘Unifying Life: Placing tree diversity in an evolutionary context’.  She presented three lesson plans. The first illustrated the importance of careful observations and precise language; the second used observed similarities and differences to organize species into larger groups; and the third lesson plan aimed at helping students understand that traits are a reflection of ancestry.

Before we concluded for the day, everybody met in the auditorium to get the latest update on the State of the BEST Plots and enjoy some snacks.

Our last plenary speaker was Dr. Maren Friesen from MSU’s Plant Biology Dept. Her topic was ‘Ecological genomics of salinity adaptations in model legume Medicago truncatula’. Her chosen study species Medicago truncatula serves as a genetic model for crop legumes. It is a diploid, annual selfing plant. In order to study the salinity adaptations in the legume, Dr. Friesen has conducted experiments with plants derived from saline and non-saline sites in Tunisia. She later carried whole genome sequencing for each of the 40 lines to locate candidate genes for local adaptations. As a result of her extensive research she has shown that rhizobia influence plant salt tolerance. Adaptation to salinity is not only due to the differences in the plants but due to the differences in the rhizobia present in the different plants.

Before we could draw the curtain on another wonderful summer institute, we participated in a ‘KBS Trivia’ game conducted by Kara Haas. It was a fun and candy filled finale of the KBS K-12 Partnership Summer Institute 2013. Thank you all for making it another great one!

~ By KBS volunteer extraordinaire, Joelyn de Lima.

2013 – 2014 GK-12 Fellows, Partner-Teachers, and Leadership pose at the Summer Institute Planning Days

This upcoming June 24-26 (Mon.-Weds.), KBS will again host the K-12 Partnership Summer Institute! We have a superb group of Partner-Teachers hailing from 11 of our SW Michigan partner districts,  5 brand new Fellows, and 4 returning Fellows. All have been hard at work, both developing new, exciting lessons to introduce at the institute and learning about each others’ roles as scientists and educators.

This year, the institue features three invited plenary speakers from Michigan State University: Drs. Carolyn Malmstrom, Catherine Lindell, and Maren Friesen, as well as a special seminar session on the Next Generation Science Standards with Nancy Karre (BCAMSC), Cheryl Hach (KAMSC), and Sara Syswerda (MSU, KBS). The full schedule, including abstracts of all concurrent sessions, can be found here.

If you plan to attend (and we hope you will!) please RSVP to Sara S. at parrsar1@msu.edu .

After days of work in the field and lab collecting data on their BeSt biofuel plots, four classes at Lawton Community Schools – Ms. Angle’s 8^th-graders and Ms. Visich’s Environmental Science class – finally got to enjoy the fruits of their labor.  As any scientist knows, no fruit is more satisfying than juicy, crunchable data.

We started this adventure by looking at what kinds of data we had.  This included the planting, fertilization, and harvesting treatments as well as the data we collected, from plant and insect biodiversity to soil characteristics.  Each student made his or her own hypothesis about why a pair of variables might be related.  Does fertilization increase insect abundance?  Does moisture increase plant biomass production?   Only one way to find out…

The students plotted their data by hand, then ventured into the computer lab to produce graphs and analyze the data with Excel.  Then they searched for published papers that supported or refuted their findings.  Finally, they presented their conclusions in class.  Among other findings, it turns out fertilization doesn’t affect insects, but moister plots did produce more plant matter.  Using the data across years and schools will make this even more exciting!

By GK-12 Fellow Anne Royer, 2013

State News Article (in case the above link doesn’t work)

Weeds, Seeds, and Dispersal! That was our theme for the December 5th KBS K-12 Partnership workshop. Our plenary speaker for the day was Dr. Joe Dauer, MSU research associate in Plant Biology. We learned that when he is not wearing his ‘weed ecologist’ hat, Dr. Dauer makes ‘the best pancakes’! We did not get any pancakes but we did get to hear his talk: ‘Going the Distance: Investigating dispersal across scales’.

Dr. Dauer began with a discussion on investigative ecology. How and what do you investigate about weeds? One question would be – why do we see a patchy distribution of weeds and not an even distribution? Another could be – what is the role of humans in facilitating the movement of weeds or controlling it? During the talk we considered two methods of dispersal: wind and soil. When considering wind dispersal, the important questions according to Dr. Dauer are: How do the seeds move and how far do they move? For a plant relying on wind to disperse its seeds, it would be a smart move to get those seeds as high as it can. This is because the wind speeds are higher and the flow much more laminar at greater heights. Using some cool model airplanes for seed collection in one experiment, Dr. Dauer found that Horseweed seed dispersersed long-distances, travelling at least 6 meters above ground surface.

In the case of plants which disperse via the soil we learned that different plants have different ‘growing points’ i.e. the lowest point at which a plant must be cut in order to kill it. Dr. Dauer spoke of the ‘curious case of the Japanese Knotweed’. This is a plant that was introduced to the USA as a horticultural plant. The curious aspect is that since it does not produce viable seeds here what we see is basically the same plant all over eastern USA. Piece of friendly advice: do not try to grow, mow or use it for your garden deco. It is against the law in Michigan. The growing point of this weed is below the ground so mowing it does not kill it, all it does is spread it some more.

After the talk, session leaders got their 15 seconds of fame in which they had to do the best to sell their talk! Some of them did such a great job that I think they may have an alternative career in advertising!

Teachers had multiple concurrent sessions to choose from throughout the day. Robby Cramer, of the Van Andel Education Institute, conducted a couple of sessions for elementary school teachers. Her session was marketed under the title ‘Pill Bugs, Millipedes, and Hissing Cockroaches OH MY!! Science is indeed a Verb!’ In this session, which was conducted in a room full of creepy crawlies, the teachers gained insights into making science fun by making their students think and act like scientists. They were given ‘QPOE2’ (Question, Prediction, Observation, Explanation, Evaluation), Investigative Organizer Step Books, and Sticker Books to help them conduct investigations in their classrooms.

Jenny Dauer (the one who gets to eat Dr. Joe Dauer’s best pancakes) and Andy Anderson conducted an MSP Carbon Session for MS/HS teachers. Their strategy to attract teachers to ‘Ecosystems: Carbon Cycles and Energy Flows!’ was having ‘cool PowerPoint tricks’. They delivered on their promise and the teachers had a great time exploring carbon-transforming processes at an ecosystem scale. In good GK-12 tradition, they also had an online interactive activity called Sunny Meadows in which students have to adopt the best strategy that leads to the maximum number of foxes (representing the top trophic level) at the end of 10 (virtual) years.

To explore the Weeds, Seeds, and Dispersal topic, the GK-12 fellows come up with innovative, interactive and interesting concurrent session ideas. When it comes to designing games, we have a reigning king at KBS. Michael can sell any of his sessions by just hinting at an exciting game. And that is exactly what happened. Michael Kuczynski, Anne Royer and Sara Garnett teamed together to conduct ‘Seeds on the Run: A Model of Seed Dispersal’. They designed a game to explore the Janzen–Connell hypothesis. This widely accepted hypothesis explains the distribution of tree species in tropical rainforests. The game used tiddlywinks (they claimed it was deceptively simple) to walk students through predicting, collecting data and graphing it to understand the hypothesis.

Despite having planted a known mixture of seed in the BEST plots, teachers and students have found that there are tons of other ‘volunteers’ growing there. Fellows Cara Krieg, Tyler Bassett and Dustin Kincaid pitched their session towards offering an answer to this question. In the session titled ‘Weeds: Tricks of the trade’ they explored how plant traits and land-use history influence the assembly of plant communities. As said in their sales pitch, they focussed on the volunteer species commonly found in the BEST plots. They also conducted an activity to predict which traits make certain weeds more successful than others.

Fellows Tomomi Suwa, Liz Schultheis and Jakob Nalley promoted their session called ‘The double life of a squirrel – seed disperser and predator’ by referring to an intriguing ‘Chocolate Chip Cookie Study’. Teachers learnt that the 1985 study researched the fine dining habits of squirrels. This study was replicated in the session using trays of sunflower seeds. While conducting the activity, there was an exciting discovery: an actual cache of seeds in a tree hollow! The teachers also explored the different strategies employed by plants to spread their seeds.

For the final session ‘Ecology and Evolution in the Human Microbiome’ Jennifer Doherty posed some interesting questions, one of which was ‘What is a faecal transplant and why would someone do that?’. Her strategy seemed to work and the session was standing room only! She applied the concepts of community ecology and evolution to investigate Human Microbiome scenarios. A couple of these scenarios for the curious: Bacterial cells in your body outnumber your body cells 10:1 and the back of your heel and the area between your toes have different bacterial communities!

After the concurrent sessions, teachers Lisa W. and Marty B. gave us an update on their Alaskan Trip. They had gone to the Alaskan LTER in July 2012. From what we heard they had tons of fun, learned a few things, got stranded in a no-horse town and yet managed to get a few cast-off antlers shipped back home!

Thanks to all of you for another wonderful workshop!

Written by K-12 Partnership member Joelyn de Lima.