Year 3 Therevid NSF PEET Report: Outreach

6. A statement describing any contribution of the project to the area of education and human-resource development, if changed from any previous submission.

Members of the therevid PEET team have contributed heavily to outreach efforts in entomology. The Entomology Graduate Student Association at UIUC helps sponsor events such as Insect Expo each fall and several grad students and collaborators were involved in creating and running various activities. Mr. Metz displayed "Taxonomy for Tots", which takes kids through a visual dichotomous key, and Mr. Gaimari helped run this booth; Ms. Kampmeier ran the "I am an Insect/I am not an Insect" booth; Ms. Mullett worked with rubber stamps of insects in ecological settings; Dr. Webb set up and ran a forensic entomology booth. Many of these displays were also used at the Insect Expo in Louisville, KY at the national Entomological Society of America meetings in December 1996, in which we all participated. Mr. Holston, Mr. Metz, and Ms. Mullett also participated in a mini-Insect Expo in Danville, IL in April 1998.

Webb has lectured on forensic entomology to Dr. May Berenbaum's honors biology and Insects and People classes.

Kampmeier has also been active in programs to get and maintain young women in the sciences and mathematics, using entomology as a model. She and Ms. Mullett participated in a program in Springfield, IL on Feb. 28, 1998 "Expanding your horizons in Science & Mathematics" and in a career day for all students at the Urbana Middle School on April 9, 1998. Ms. Kampmeier also participated in the GEMS program (Girls in Engineering, Math, and Sciences) on April 15th, which also targeted middle school aged girls.

Many of the UIUC team will be involved in the CYCLE program on May 2, 1998 with an inner city youth group from Chicago. The presentation will include explanations of "What is taxonomy" and "What do taxonomists do and why is it important?" and allow the youth to use the computerized key LucID to key out various insects to order.

Steve Gaimari will be teaching "Classification and Evolutionary History of Insects" (ENT 302) in Fall 1998 at UIUC as a Visiting Lecturer.