Merry Christmas!!!

I thought it appropriate today to post the link to a great piece on the Rockhurst website about our KC Wildlands Cedar Christmas Tree event (also described below).  Merry Christmas!

KC Wildlands Cedar Tree Event

On Saturday afternoon, several Kansas City Wildlands volunteers (myself included) braved the frigid temperatures and helped lots of local families chop down their own invasive native cedar Christmas trees.  Despite temp's in the single digits, we had a great turnout and were able to raise a respectable amount in donations for Kansas City Wildlands, a non-profit program under Bridging the Gap that works to protect, maintain and restore the wild areas in the KC metro area.  These trees are native to the area but they tend to out-compete the rest of the natural vegetation, especially in prairies and grasslands, so they need to be culled out occasionally.  And what better time than the Christmas season to chop down cedar trees!

Chiefs

After a fun Thanksgiving in Texas, where I got to see my two little nieces and the rest of my family, yesterday was kind of a letdown.  On a positive note, I gave a talk at the All Souls Universalist Unitarian Church about the evolution of altruism yesterday morning (to be broadcast on KKFI 90.1 at noon next Wednesday).  But after that, I went to Arrowhead stadium with some friends and witnessed a heartbreaking Chiefs loss to their Division rivals, the Denver Broncos.  At every other game I've been to this season, we've been celebrating and giving high-fives to strangers on our way out to the car.  This time, however, we were all hanging our heads.  We've got four more games to go, though; so we should end this season at 13-3!

NCHC New Orleans

Last Thursday, my Biotechnology class and I toured Cerner's world headquarters (pictured below), and then I headed to the airport to catch a flight to New Orleans for the National Collegiate Honors Council's annual conference.  I was accompanied by two outstanding honors students and officers on our Honors Student Association Executive Board.  One of these students (Josh Goralski, pictured) presented a talk about the Executive Board's efforts to "put the 'fun' in honors fundraising" by working shifts at exciting events like the Warrior Dash and Color Run. We also had some obligatory French-Quarter time and Nick and Josh experienced real Cajun food, including multiple trips to Cafe du Monde for beignets.  And, of course, we returned feeling inspired and motivated to improve our honors program with ideas we gleaned from the conference sessions.  Good times.

Honors Room

Thanks to the Honors Student Association Executive Board, the Honors Room (Sedgwick 206) has been recently remodeled!  It looks great, and will be much more accommodating and comfy for our Honors Advisory Committee meeting later today.  Thanks, Eboard!

ACUBE

Last weekend, the majority of the Biology Department, myself included, attended the Association of College and University Biology Educators (ACUBE) annual conference in Indianapolis.  I served on a panel about program assessment with Drs. Laura Salem and Chris Wills, and presented a talk about our Biology Field Trip Abroad to Peru (see earlier posts).  We were exhausted when we returned, but now we get to relax a bit since we are currently on Fall Break!  Pictured below are Dr. Janet Cooper presenting a talk about course assessment and an activity we did using pipe cleaners to reconstruct phylogenetic (evolutionary) trees.

Project Amazonas newsletter

Project Amazonas, Inc., is the non-profit organization with whom we worked during our Biology Field Trip Abroad course to the Peruvian Amazon in May of this year.  Their September newsletter just came out, and our group is featured (see below)!  We worked closely with Dr. Devon Graham (President of Project Amazonas and pictured below) and his amazing staff while at Madre Selva Field Station and in Iquitos.  Reading the newsletter really makes me want to go back to the jungle!

Rube Goldberg competition

Saturday morning I went to watch our Engineering students demonstrate the Rube Goldberg machines they had built under the direction of Dr. Mairead Greene (Math and Physics Department).  If you don't know what one is, think back to the Mousetrap game from when you were a kid; or, better yet, check out the OK Go video for "This Too Shall Pass." These students did a phenomenal job with their machines (pictures of two of them below) and it was a lot of fun to see them in action. 

Field Trip in Biotechnology

Yesterday, my Biotech class took a field trip to Ceva Biomune in Lenexa, KS, where we were given a talk and a tour by an outstanding Rockhurst alum who works in their R&D department.  We were able to actually see and learn about real-world applications of many of the techniques and protocols we are using in class.  Thanks to Kevin for taking time out of his busy lab schedule to show us around!

Another busy weekend

Yesterday marked the first Kansas City Wildlands workday of the fall season, so Linda Lehrbaum, Dr. Scholes, Bill Fessler and I led a group of nearly 70 volunteers in an effort to clean up the Cliff Drive scenic area of Kansas City.  I worked with a group of employees from the new REI store in Overland Park (slated to open early next month) and members of the KC Climbing Club to eradicate invasive plants (shrub honeysuckle and TONS of raccoon grapevine) in an area at the base of a roadside rocky outcrop (pictured).  We were able to expose two new climbing zones for the KCCC and rid the area of these invasive species that were choking out the native vegetation.  In conjunction with the other groups' work, it was a very

strong start. The continued efforts of volunteers like these will markedly improve this beautiful gem in the midst of downtown KC.
Today was not nearly as productive, but I did get to go with some friends to the Chiefs' first home game and watch them come away with a 17-16 victory over the Cowboys! 2-0!!!

Big Weekend for KC Sports!

This weekend was huge for sports in Kansas City! I went to the Royals game with Dr. Sturgill (pictured) Saturday night, where we saw an incredible pitching match-up (Duffy v. Verlander) and a Royals win! Then yesterday the Chiefs dominated the Jaguars in their first regular season game.  Let's hope this continues throughout the Royals' Wild Card race and the Chiefs' season

!

International Study Abroad night

Last night, the Honors students (93 of them!!! - pictured) and I welcomed a guest speaker from Austin, TX, Mr. Walt Lengel from International Studies Abroad (ISA).  He shared his expertise and several helpful resources with the

students, and then one of our outstanding honors students, Sean Kane, told the others about his study abroad experience in London this summer.  I would encourage all of our students to pursue a study abroad experience, whether through ISA or a similar agency, or through faculty-led trips like my Biology Field Trip Abroad course.  In the past few years, our field trips have taken us to places like Nicaragua, Australia, Fiji, and Peru; and we will be going abroad again in May of 2015.  It's a fantastic experience!

Link to Peru piece

Our Public Relations department did a great little piece on the Rockhurst website about our Biology Field Trip Abroad to Peru this summer.  You can find it at

http://www.rockhurst.edu/news/article/hawks-head-amazon/

For those of you who are interested, the bat I'm holding in the picture is an Artebius jamaicensis (Jamaican Fruit Bat).  She was squirming around a  lot, which is why we are

blurry but she's (mostly) in focus.  Just for fun, the picture herein is of a spider monkey almost completely obscuring my head, while the students behind me are busy with a Red Uakari monkey. We were at a sanctuary called Monkey Island on the Amazon. 

Busy weekend

This past weekend was incredibly busy but also REALLY exciting!  On Friday evening, I had the pleasure of giving a talk (pictured below) about evolution to the meetup group Provocateurs and Peacemakers.  The mission of this group is to provoke intellectual discussion about various (sometimes charged) topics while at the same time maintaining peace and civility.  We had some rich conversations that carried over to the Blue Moose afterward.  I met some really fascinating and fun people and got to catch up with the group members.  Then on Saturday Dr. Bill Sturgill (Rockhurst Psychology  Dept.) and I took a few items to PBS's Antiques Roadshow for appraisal.  It was interesting to see the behind-the-scenes of the show.  We didn't bring anything worth millions (or even thousands),

but it was still exciting.  Then on Sunday, my great friend and I and her fun family participated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to raise money for breast cancer research.  A montage of the experience is pictured above.  What a weekend!  Now, to get ready for the school year to start...

Biology Field Trip to Peru

At the end of last month, 16 phenomenal (and really tough!) students and I returned to the U.S. after spending just over two weeks in the Peruvian Amazon.  It's no coincidence that "Amazon" and "amazing" have the same etymological root ("amaz(e)" means "to overwhelm with surprise or sudden wonder; astonish greatly."(Dictionary.com)).  Every turn held a new wonder or surprise.  After a few days in the river city of Iquitos (only accessed by plane or boat, and including the floating "city" of Belen), we took a four-hour speedboat ride up the Amazon to our destination, Madre Selva field station.  This was a primitive base camp, immersed in the jungle, with electricity only provided for a few hours each day by a generator.  Our days involved assembling and checking traps (pitfalls, bat nets, bird nets, funnel traps), hiking through the jungle (both day and night), fishing for piranhas, catching alligators, collecting leaves, conducting scavenger hunts, and catching snakes and tarantulas.  We also visited the local villages and built desks and benches for one of the village schools.  It was like no other experience, and we have to thank Project Amazonas, Inc., for guiding us and allowing us to share this opportunity.  I could go on and on, but for now I will just say that it was truly

amazing.

Rattlesnake video

I was backing up some files today and came across the Fox 4 News clip about our rattlesnake relocation project from a few years back.  I thought some of the people involved might like to see it again (George, Jen, Rebecca and William are all highlighted). And if you're not familiar with the project, it's a nice summary. A quick update: the relocated population settled in nicely and the snakes have done quite well in their new home since their translocation.  This approach, which involved moving an entire social group of animals as opposed to single snakes, has since served as a conservation model for other studies.

Missouri Academy of Science

Ahmad did an exceptional job of representing our research group this weekend at the Missouri Academy of Science Annual Meeting.  This morning before class he brought me the award he earned for first place in the student poster competition!  I'm so proud of these guys.

Festival of Student Achievement

As referenced in the previous post, our research team presented their poster at the FoSA yesterday.  Congrats and well done to all of the presenters!  The picture was during Jake's "shift" in front of the poster.  That's me and our awesome Lab Manager, Aaron Bossert, talking to him about it.

Dean's Undergraduate Fellowship

Please join me in congratulating my outstanding research student, Mr. Ahmad Maaz (pictured below with his collaborators, Jake Grimes and Kurt Piening, at the Missouri Natural Resources Conference in January), for receiving the Dean's Undergraduate Fellowship for Summer Research!  Ahmad will receive funding through this award to compose and publish a manuscript describing the research we have been conducting on the phylogeny and taxonomy of the Smooth Earth Snake (Virginia valeriae).  He will also be presenting this research Monday at the Rockurst Outstanding Research Seminar and next weekend at the Missouri Academy of Science annual meeting; and all three students will be presenting their poster at the Festival of Student Achievement on campus next week.  This is truly an exciting time for our research team!  Great job, guys.

Honors Induction Ceremony

Yesterday morning, families, faculty and the Honors Student Executive Board formally welcomed the honors freshmen class into the Honors Program.  We gathered for a nice brunch and were honored to have two distinguished speakers, Mr. Shail Mehta (freshmen honors student) and Dr. Joanna Carraway-Vitiello (Honors Advisory Committee member and professor in the honors program, pictured talking with me below).  We were so proud to celebrate the

largest freshmen honors class in Rockhurst history!  Congrats to all of these outstanding students (and a special thanks to Dr. Bill Sturgill for taking pictures)!

Belize

Over spring break, I had the singular opportunity to travel to Belize with two phenomenal companions and 16 incredible students for a service immersion trip.  After the (treacherous!) drive from Belize City to Punta Gorda, we settled into the St. Peter Claver Parish guest house and prepared ourselves for the week's work.  Our charge would be to drive (two more treacherous hours each way - see picture above) to a small Mayan village on the Guatemalan border each day, where we would help the local people lay the foundation of a home for school teachers.  Teachers in this district are assigned to a village school and sometimes have to ride the bus or walk for hours to get to work if there is nowhere for them to stay in the village.  In fact, some of our students served as substitute teachers each day because teachers were unable to make it to work.  This home will eventually house 5 teachers, and we had the honor of literally breaking the ground at the site, which overlooked the village.  We had an amazing and reflective week, and we are now working to continue our service from the Rockhurst campus.

AJCU Honors Conference

This weekend, three honors students (pictured with their requisite cheesesteaks and a Rockhurst alum with whom we had dinner) and Dr. Mary Haskins and I went to Philadelphia for the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities Honors conference.  We came away with lots of great ideas to incorporate into our program, and we got to go to the Mutter Museum on our last day.  As four out of five of us were biologists/science majors, we were very interested in seeing the specimens at this museum of medical history and anatomical anomalies.  It was really fascinating and is a don't-miss destination in Philadelphia.

Evolution blogs!

Please scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the service-learning blogs put together by my creative Evolution students!  And remember to check back with them periodically throughout the semester to check their progress! (picture from www.evolution.berkeley.edu)

Expanding Your Horizons

Friday night, my ball python, Monty, and I packed up and went to Science City to introduce 50 middle-school girls to herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians).  We were one of several sessions in a great program called "Expanding Your Horizons" that introduces young girls to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields.  The girls all fell in love with Monty, including those who "hated" snakes initially, and enjoyed learning about him and the other herps at the Nature Center in Science City.  They also had a chance to pick up stuffed or rubber snakes with snake tongs to practice their skills.  Some of the girls are pictured here (with permission).

Service Trip Meeting

In March I will have the singular honor of serving as a Companion on our Rockhurst service immersion trip to Belize.  This will be my fourth service trip with the university, and my third to Belize.  I look very forward to seeing the people of Belize again, and to exposing 12 of our best students to this amazing country.  Yesterday, we had our all-group service trip meeting, at which the Counseling Center talked us through the results of our Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test (experientially, as you can see from the picture, where we are all lining up in accordance with our MBTI results).  If you have ever found Waldo, you should be able to pick me out in this picture...

Presentation on the Evolution of Flight

Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a talk by Dr. David Burnham entitled "A Three-Point Landing for the Origin of Flight: Four-Winged Wonders."  The presentation was based on recent fossil evidence from China indicating that the first "birds" (the definition is under some debate in the paleontological world) had pelvic wings in addition to the typical pectoral wings (see picture). They are thought to have been tree-dwellers who fed on other birds.  Pretty cool.  It was a fascinating talk and I plan to go to his next presentation on February 10th.  It will be at 1:00pm in Haag Hall on the UMKC campus if you're interested in attending!