Back from Nicaragua...

It's been a while since my last post because my parents came into town from Texas right after we returned from Nicaragua. I love showing them around this amazing city, but I must say it was difficult to make the transition from a 2-week stay in an impoverished country to the extravagance of American life. We were without electricity or potable water, surrounded by a foreign culture and ecosystem, and quickly became immersed. To return to superfluous gadgets and luxuries was difficult to accept and made all of us feel paradoxically guilty and thankful for what we have.

This picture is of some of the Field Trip students looking out over Lake Nicaragua and Granada from the cloud forest atop Mombacho, an inactive volcano. Like every aspect of this country, it was incredible.

Nicaragua

Bright and early Memorial Day morning, Dr. Scholes, Linda Lehrbaum (of KCWildlands), 10 students and I will be boarding a plane to Nicaragua for our Biology Field Trip Class! Well, we'll actually be boarding 3 consecutive planes and spending a lot of quality time with one another in multiple airports, but by the end of it all we'll be landing in Managua. We will stay at a functional farm outside of Jinotepe, surrounded by tropical forests abounding with biology. Needless to say, we're all very excited. The picture here is from our 2007 trip to this same locality - there will be many more to add upon our return in June!

Evolution presentations

My Evolution students just finished presenting their blogs and did a phenomenal job! I am so proud of them - they took this grid-computing project and absolutely ran with it. Please take a look at their team statistics, indicated at the top of each group's blog. And then consider joining a grid-computing endeavor yourself!

Snake season!

Next week, the rattlesnakes that my students and I monitor during their active season will be emerging from their den. I will have several students working with me this summer, a few from KU and two of our recent graduates as well as two current Rockhurst students. One of these students, Eric Kadlec, just received the Dean's Undergraduate Fellowship for Research, which will fund his summer contribution to the field work. Congratulations, Eric!

I'm so excited to get started tracking snakes again, especially with these fantastic students!

Update on Evolution Blogs

I just wanted to once again refer everyone to the Evolution Service-Learning blogs linked at the bottom of this page. Recently each group added answers to questions concerning scholarly articles about their respective project topic. These articles and associated questions allowed students to connect the concepts they have read about in their textbook (pictured) & discussed in class with the topic of their specific grid-computing project. Their answers show that these connections have in fact been made, as they effectively apply these concepts to topics like disease and global climate change. I am quite proud of these blog entries and hope you get a chance to check them out!

Service Trip

Over spring break last week, Darnell Jones and I led a group of outstanding students on an Alternative Spring Break trip, during which time we dedicated ourselves to the service of others in Baltimore. We could not have asked for a better, more cohesive and passionate group of students (left to right: Annie Hart, Rachel Scheve, Emily Schnelting, Abby Gibbs, Kelsey Evans, Nate Olson and Ken Bevers in front). They were committed to service and leadership and to one another, and their personalities and compassion brightened the days of each person with whom they interacted. From children in urban Head Start programs to adults with developmental disabilities and women & men in need of a hot meal, our group touched the lives of many. This was certainly reciprocated, as the stories of these wonderful people helped us to grow and to find ourselves in them. It was truly a transformative experience for all and I thank Darnell, Fr. Gregg Grovenburg and the University, our amazing students and the people of Baltimore Catholic Charities for this incredible opportunity to live our mission.

a few news items

Some exciting things have happened since my last post, so I will just list them:

1) Last weekend, the letter to the editor of the Kansas City Star that my Evolution students composed was published!

2) The Biology Department decided on a name for our Bichir (pet fish) - The Incredible Mr. Limpet, after the Don Knotts movie from 1964 (see picture). This entry was submitted by Pat Laughlin and won unanimously.

3) The Evolution service learning interviews are now posted on their blogs (below). Please check them out if you get a chance!