Pumpkin Party!

This past Saturday the Biology Department hosted our traditional Pumpkin Carving party for our students and faculty and their families. We had pizza and candy after the carving was finished, and then we gave awards for the best pumpkins ("Scariest," "Most Boo-tiful," "Dead Last," "1st Place," etc.). The pumpkins were all fantastic, and our overall winner was Kristina Carpenter, who skillfully carved a wolf howling at the moon. If you're interested, the pumpkins will be on display this week in the window of the Science Division conference room (SC202A).

Fall Break/ACUBE 2009

Rockhurst is officially on Fall Break, yet most members of the Biology Department have dedicated much of their break this week to preparing for the annual ACUBE (Association of College and University Biology Educators) meeting. We hosted the meeting here on campus this year and were excited for our colleagues from around the country to spend time with us at Rockhurst. Many people commented about how nice the campus, and particularly our science facilities, are. Attendees were also thrilled to be in Kansas City and took advantage of some of the great things it has to offer. Most members of the Department presented talks or posters, including Dr. Chad Scholes and I, who presented information concerning our Biology Field Trip to Nicaragua. As a bonus, a friend of mine from grad school at Texas A&M (Dr. Andrew Greene) came into town for the meeting from Ashland University in Ashland, OH. It's always fun to catch up with Andrew, as well as all of the other members of this close-knit organization. The preparation was a lot of work (especially for Dr. Salem, who coordinated the meeting), but it certainly paid off.

Rough week

Last week my brother, Jeremy, and his Border Collie, Buffy, were attacked by two pit bulls in a public park near where we grew up. An irresponsible and heartless dog owner had dumped them there the day before, and they had obviously been abused (and/or they were fighting dogs) and were incredibly aggressive.
The pit bulls lunged at Buffy's throat and Jeremy grabbed her and climbed a 5-ft stone wall. The dogs were biting his legs as he was climbing up, so his legs are in bad shape (~25 stitches), but getting better everyday. However, it would've been substantially, perhaps unthinkably, worse if he hadn't had the wherewithal to climb the wall and drag Buffy up with him. They were grabbing her leg and tail as she was trying to get up the wall but thankfully she's okay, too (Border Collies have lots of fur to grab onto). A park employee flagged down a policeman who shot and killed one of the dogs as it was still going after Jeremy, which was also traumatic for all involved. They were able to catch the other one and are still monitoring it. A park employee was able to get the owner's his license plate number and they took him into custody this week. Jeremy is doing okay but still in quite a bit of pain and not able to return to work.
Since I didn't want to include a gross picture of his leg (you can see that at the link below), pictured here is Jeremy, with two good legs, in Dublin, Ireland this summer.

Here's the news story if you're interested in reading more or watching the video:

http://www.kbmt12.com/news/local/60792352.html

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/local/update__police_shoot_pit_bu
ll_at_tyrrell_park.html

RORS

Last Friday we had the pleasure of hosting the first installment of our Rockhurst Outstanding Research Seminar (RORS). We invited a recent RU graduate and research student of mine, Rebecca Benjamin (pictured at our research site with George Pisani), to speak about "Undergraduate Research for the Conservation of Timber Rattlesnakes." She did a PHENOMENAL job (like we expected) and we had a good turnout. The purpose of the seminar is two-fold: to share outstanding research and creative activities with the Rockhurst community as a whole, and to expose students to the benefits and excitement of participating in undergraduate research or creative projects. Rebecca certainly met both of these objectives with her talk.

COA

This afternoon some colleagues and I will be visiting a threatened site along the Blue River in Kansas. The site is contiguous with our local Upper Blue River Conservation Opportunity Area (COA). COAs are areas recognized by the Missouri Department of Conservation as "conservation hotspots," or high priority areas for wildlife and habitat conservation. It just so happens that in KC we have the only urban COA right in our backyards! We hope to protect the site we will visit today from development and further urbanization, as it is important from a natural resource and biodiversity perspective.

New car!

Okay, for those of you who don't know, until yesterday evening I drove an inherited '99 Ford Crown Victoria to class everyday. I'm sure you saw it in the Science Center parking lot - it looked a whole lot like a police cruiser. However, thanks to the Cash for Clunkers program, I will now be sporting a 2009 Honda Fit, which gets more than double the gas mileage of the Crown Vic. As an environmentally-conscious person in every other facet of my life, this finally allows me to resolve that one less-than-environmentally-sound aspect. Now if only I can keep it clean after my students and I have been out in the field...

Hogan Institute

Over the course of the last 2 weeks I have been fortunate to be part of the Hogan Prep/Rockhurst Interdisciplinary Summer Institute. Drs. Annie Lee, Zdenka Guadarrama, Laura Salem, Rob Vigliotti and I, along with a group of wonderful Rockhurst students, hosted 18 students from Hogan Prep High School in Kansas City. We set out to give them the complete college experience by issuing them IDs, having them stay in the dorms and eat on campus the first week, and taking classes during the day, all the while working on a recycling project that they will implement at Hogan. The classes included biology, chemistry, math and philosophy; and more specifically to biology, students conducted molecular biology experiments during the first week with Dr. Salem (including isolating their own DNA!) and then conducted some organismal and field biology with me during the second week. The top picture shows the group who helped me track snakes yesterday while the bottom picture shows our small-mammal trapping team. We all had a blast and I think they learned a lot about science and philosophy, college life, and themselves along the way.