Week 12

Time to wrap it up.

• Your collection with insects identified to family level (except for butterflies) and properly labeled is due on Tuesday. Remember to include your insects preserved in alcohol. Wrap them in a rubber band with a piece of paper bearing your name. Submit them along with your pinned specimens (but do not put them inside the box with your pinned insects).
  

• Your research paper is due on Wednesday. Remember to have someone look at it first and at least correct simple mistakes such as spelling and punctuation before you rewrite it and submit your final copy. Place your project in my drop box and then leave me a comment at the bottom of this assignment page giving me the file name gave the project.
  

• Complete the blog lessons on Beneficial and Harmful Insects. Remember to take notes. There will be a quiz on the material on Wednesday. (you can use your notes).
  

• On Wednesday, leave your journal on my desk for grading.
  

Week 11

This final week of instruction we will study insect interactions with humans. Often we think of insects as pests, but there are many insects whose presence is beneficial to humans.

Assignment 1: Study the followng list of beneficial insects. Take notes and be prepared to discuss in class what you learned about these helpful "bugs." Click here to see list.

Assignment 2: Many insects can indeed have a detrimental effect on humans. To learn about some of these harmful insects, click here to view the following power point presentation.

Hey, click on this

Week 10 -- Social Insects

This week we will study social insects. Instruction will be a mixture of videos, direct lecture, guest lectures, and hands-on observations. When not working on the assignments listed below, continue working on your collection and research topic.

Specific assignments:

Assignment 1: Introduction to Social Insects - mini-lecture. Take notes and participate in class discussion.

Click here to view Power Point version of the lecture.

Assignment 2: Watch video on Fire Ants. Note how the ants reflect the behavior of a social insect. Take notes. Be prepared to write a simple summary of what you observed in the video. You can use your notes when you write your summary.

Assignment 3: Write a summary of the aspects insect social behavior portrayed by the fire ant colonies you watched in he video.

Use an essay format for the summary (introduction, body, conclusion) and follow these four steps:

• type a rough draft. Don't spend a lot of time on it. Get down the main ideas.
• print a hard copy of the rough draft and give it to someone to edit.
• type a final draft incorporating as many as the editorial suggestion as necessary.
• submit a hard copy of the final document with your edited rough draft attached.

Your summary will be graded using the following rubric:

Week 9 -- Insect Physiology

This week we finish our study of insect physiology with an examination of the nervous system, excretory system, and finally the respiratory system.

• Continue collecting and spreading insect specimens for your collection. We will continue to bait our traps and night collect throughout the week. Take advantage of the traps to help complete your collection of 40 insects.
  
• On days not suitable for collecting, concentrate on your research topic.
• Keep up with your journal. I will collect and grade your journals on Thursday

Next week: Social Insects -- bees, wasps, hornets, termites, and ants. Students from the Dept. of Entomology at the University of Georgia will come by for a visit and talk to us about beekeeping and honey production.