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The WFSU Ecology Blog

  • Home
    • About
    • EcoAdventures
      • Kayak and Canoe Adventures
      • Hiking
      • Wildlife Watching
    • Observations From the Field
      • White Pelicans Visit Dr. Charles L. Evans Pond in Tallahassee
      • An April Walk at Ochlockonee River WMA
      • Nesting Raptors at Honeymoon Island State Park
    • WFSU Public Media Home
  • Documentaries
    • In Their Words: Black Legacy Communities in North Florida
    • EcoCitizen Show | Seasons in South Tallahassee
    • Red Wolf Family Celebrates First Year at the Tallahassee Museum
    • Roaming the Red Hills
    • Oyster Doctors
    • Testing the Ecology of Fear
    • EcoShakespeare
    • Stories from the Apalachicola
    • Classic WFSU Ecology Documentaries
  • Habitats
    • Estuaries
      • Oyster Reef
        • The Effects of Predators and Fear on Oyster Reefs
        • Apalachicola Oyster Research
        • Animal Species in a North Florida Intertidal Oyster Reef
        • Oyster Reef Ecology | On the Reef
      • Salt Marsh
        • In the Grass- Salt Marsh Biodiversity Study
        • Plants and Animals of a North Florida Salt Marsh
        • Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass
      • Seagrass Bed
        • Predatory Snails, and Prey, of the Bay Mouth Bar Seagrass Beds
      • In the Grass, On the Reef Glossary
    • Waterways Big and Small
      • Aucilla/ Wacissa Watershed
      • Apalachicola Basin
        • Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines | Virtual Field Trip
        • The Age of Nature Screening & Discussion | The Future of the Apalachicola
        • Apalachicola River and Bay
        • Apalachicola RiverTrek | Kayaking, Camping, & Hiking the River Basin
    • Longleaf Pine & Fire Ecology
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    • Backyard Flora and Fauna
      • Bees of North Florida and South Georgia
      • The Seasonality of Bees (and Bee Plants) in North Florida
      • Woody Vines of North Florida
      • Flies of North Florida are More Diverse than You’d Think
      • The Case for Weeds, Our Unsung Florida Native Plants
      • Devil’s Walkingstick: Your New Favorite Thorny Pollinator Plant?
      • Florida Native Milkweed | Tips for Growing Your Monarch Friendly Garden
      • Mistletoe | A Parasite for the Holidays (But Maybe We Like it Anyway?)
    • Florida Friendly Seasonal Planting Guide
    • Pollinator and Gardening Posts
    • Gardening Web Resources
Salt Marsh Ecology | In the Grass

“Oh, knowledge exploring is oh so lyrical, when you think thoughts that are empirical.”

by Emily February 23, 2011
by Emily February 23, 2011 0 comment
Emily Field FSU Coastal & Marine Lab
a survey of molluscs

The lab bench set up with all of the molluscan specimens for the students to study this week.

IGOR chip- employment 150These lyrics are from Mr. Ray’s teaching song in Finding Nemo. It’s too bad that I can’t sing all of my lessons!

I’m teaching Animal Diversity lab to undergrads on campus this semester.  This is a “survey” course, meaning that we go over the major phyla in the animal kingdom, learning one to three phyla each week.  The students get to look at preserved specimens and do their own dissections.  It’s so rewarding to hear a “that is so cool” reaction to whatever a student is looking at.

A few weeks ago, the students designed their own small experiments using planarians (small flatworms, see photo below).  It was great to see them think creatively and analytically in formulating their question and experimental design.  As with any set of experiments, some worked and some didn’t.  The strangest results we got were with two separate regeneration experiments: two different groups each cut a planarian in half, and somehow ended up with three planarians a week later! Spontaneous generation, anyone?  (What probably happened was either that the dish wasn’t sealed well and another planarian moved over from another experiment, or that the students accidentally made two cuts instead of one.  But it was still pretty surprising!)

Dugesia (Planaria)

One of the planarians used in Animal Diversity lab. Isn't it cute?

One of the most direct benefits of teaching for me is that learning about biology in the classroom motivates students to learn more through field research.  The past two months I’ve been fortunate enough to have many eager undergraduates volunteer to help with my field surveys.  Thanks to the awesome waders Randall bought for the lab, we all managed to stay warm through the cold weather.  I’m very glad the weather is improving though.  This past weekend getting sunburned was more of a concern than staying warm!  I think the undergrads appreciate the change in weather even more than I do, since for some reason most of them are from south Florida.  In January, one of the students said he could tell I was from Maine when I zipped the fleece liner into the windproof shell of my field jacket.  I never knew you could identify where someone was from by their outerwear!  While admittedly surveying the first site with a group of new helpers takes a long time as they learn how to identify species, use the sweep nets, etc., it is great how quickly they pick it up.  On Sunday, two new helpers (Austin and Chris) and I surveyed four sites (compared to our usual maximum of 3 per day), and we were done before 5pm!  It wasn’t very long ago that I was an eager undergrad helping a grad student with her research, so I’ve been on both sides of the table.  I think it’s a great example of mutualism: grad students need help to realize their lofty research objectives, and undergrads need research experience.  At least I hope that they’re getting useful experience out of it!  I know I’m indebted to them for their help.

research in Rhode Island with Dr. Thornber's lab

Collecting algae in the rocky intertidal zone in Rhode Island. Photo by Carol Thornber.

My favorite part of teaching (in the field or in a classroom) is when students ask a bunch of questions.  That way I know they’re not bored!  This is particularly gratifying in the classroom.  I teach on Fridays, and at the beginning of the semester I was worried that I was going to end up with students who were unwillingly stuck with a Friday lab and would therefore be uninterested and lethargic.  But my students are great!  Sometimes they ask questions that really show they’re thinking critically and making connections.  I doubt they realize how clever their questions are, but they definitely make me think!

IMG_0222

At one of Randall's genetic diversity sites the first summer I worked for her.

Of course, there are frustrating parts of teaching.  In the classroom, you have to worry about how to prevent cheating, there are students whose main goal is to get out of lab as fast as possible and do the minimal amount of work required, and sometimes you’re not sure if you’re getting through to the students at all.  In the field, whether or not students understand your instructions has major implications on the reliability of the data they collect.  In both cases, it falls to you as the teacher to make sure your students are actively involved and fully comprehend both the instructions and the theory behind what you’re studying.  And the current climate for teachers isn’t particularly sunny in the states.  Rather depressingly grey, really.  But I still think getting one excited reaction or clever question makes dealing with the frustrations worth it.  I bet many teachers would agree with me.  So thanks to all of the teachers out there who work so hard and don’t get acknowledged often enough!

Emily is a graduate student in the Hughes Lab at the FSU Coastal & Marine Laboratory. She is studying the effects of seagrass wrack that washes into salt marshes
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iNaturalist became a part of the WFSU Ecology Blog during the EcoCitizen Project in 2019.  Since then, we’ve used it to help identify the many plants and animals we see on our shoots.  And on the Backyard Blog, we show how it can be used to identify weeds and garden insects, to help figure out what’s beneficial or a possible pest.  Below is the iNaturalist profile belonging to WFSU Ecology producer Rob Diaz de Villegas.

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