On Friday, 7 November 2003, the RTP
hosted the Ecological Society of America
"SEEDS" 2003 Urban Ecology Student
Field Trip - "Strategies for Ecology
Education, Development and Sustainability."
A total of 25 students joined 8 professionals
from a variety of agencies for a panel
discussion followed by a behind-the-scenes
tour of Smithsonian's Natural History
Collections. We were delighted to see
Yana
Reid (RTP Class
of '01) as part of the group!
With
support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
and in collaboration with the United Negro
College Fund, in 1996 the Ecological Society
of America established the "Strategies
for Ecology Education, Development and
Sustainability" (SEEDS) Program to
increase the number of minority students
pursuing education and careers in the
ecological sciences. Annual student field
trips are one of the opportunities offered
by SEEDS. This year the theme is urban
ecology and the Student Field Trip brings
students to our area with visits to the
Baltimore Ecosystem Study, the National
Aqarium in Baltimore, and various other
stops in DC including the NMNH. To join
the field trips, students were competitively
selected from applicants at Historically
Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's)
and Tribal Colleges and Universities.
A
total of 25 college undergraduate students
were selected to join the SEEDS field
trip this year. At NMNH we provided behind-the-scenes
tours and hosted a panel discussion about
careers and being a scientist. For the
tours, students divided in half (about
13 students per group) and joined a selection
of collection visits. Each group saw 3
different sections, spending about 30
minutes at each location just a small
sample of the research and collections
at NMNH we hope students return to learn
more!
Group I first joined Dave Hunt
for a quick Anthropology lesson featuring"what
the bones can tell." Suzie Peurach
then provided a peek at some of the mammal
collections including a selection of bats
and fur pelts. The group then joined Linda
Welzenbach who escorted them to Mineral
Sciences to see the meteorites.
Jann Thompson gave the second group
a tour of Paleobiology. Group II then
join Dave Hunt for a "what
the bones can tell" demonstration
followed by Carla Dove who show
the group specimens from the Birds collection.
Here
are a few more photos from the day:
Students
from Puerto Rico talk to Sonia Ortega.
Panel Discussion
Visiting
the birds collection.
Students
examine the large fruit eating bats in
the mammals collection.
Suzie Peurach
shows the group specimens from the mammal
collection.
Panelists
included (left to right) Lynne Parenti
(NMNH, DIvision of Fishes), Luke Jones
(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency),
Kim Waddell (The National Academies),
M.A. Sanjayan (The Nature Conservancy),
Joe Boyd (Environmental Protection Agency),
Waqi Alam (Tetrahedron, Inc.), Sonia Ortega
(LTER Network, University of New Mexico)
and George Middendorf (Howard University).
Carla Dove
shows the group some specimens from the
birds collection, including a passenger
pigeon.
Jann Thompson
leads the group through Paleobiology,
here showing one of the cleared and stained
reference specimens.
