I have created a pdf file of selected photographs from the KABT Fall Meeting last weekend.  It should automatically open within your browser assuming that you have Adobe Acrobat Reader.  I used Abobe Photoshop Album Starter Edition 3.2 to create the file.  It is easy to use and a FREE download from Adobe link provided.  Also, you can right-click and save any of the images that you would like to segregate and keep.

KABT Meeting 2008 pdf Slideshow

I had an enjoyable time, and I hope you did too!

Plan on attending KABT’s fall meeting scheduled for Sept. 13th at KU. We’ll meet on the first floor of the school of education’s JRP building just west of the football stadium at 8:30 a.m. for preregistration. We are charging a modest $10 registration fee. There is no registration form but leave me a comment to this post if you think you are coming so we can get an idea of the numbers. KU’s school of education tech department has graciously made their computer labs available for this meeting. Most of the meeting will feature hands-on computer explorations of WEB 2.0 applications and their impact on biology education. The day is scheduled in 45 minute blocks. Two blocks have concurrent sessions.

8:30-9:00 a.m. . . . .Registration

9:00-9:45 a.m. . . . . Into to Web 2.0 application–The world is different now…

9:50-10:35 a.m. . . . KABT BioBlog and classroom blogging

10:35-11:00 a.m. . .Break and short business meeting

11:05-11:50 a.m. . . Social Networks: Facebook, MySpace
or. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott and Kylee Sharp’s Natural History Curriculum

11:55-12:40 p.m. . . Collaborative spreadsheets:

Working on the same document with all of your class
or . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Scott and Kylee Sharp’s AP and General Biology Curricula

12:40-12:50 p.m. . Wrap Up and break for lunch on the way to west campus

2:00-3:00 p.m. . . . .Tour of the Monarch Watch facilities:
BioHouse, Rearing, and Butterfly Garden. Chip Taylor

3:00-3:30 p.m. Travel to the KU Field Station (optional)

3:30-4:30 p.m. Optional Tour of the KU Biological Field Station
(Scott Campbell or Bob Hagen)

Leave me a comment, here if you plan to attend. For now these two videos can set the stage, give you an idea of what we will cover and whet your appetite. These two videos were produced by a dynamic assistant professor at KSU, Michael Wesch.

You can find the videos on this page. I moved them because school sites were blocking their viewing and hence the post itself.

BW

Several years ago as I was trying to impress on my students the predictive power of evolution I asked them to predict where in the state of KS would be the most likely area to find fossil dinosaur tracks. With a little bit of background info on the different rocks and their origins in the state the best prediction was the Dakota formation from the Cretaceous. Sure enough, I discovered at the museum that just over the KS line near Fairbury, NE dinosaur tracks have been documented from the Dakota—oooh, how I wish I still had that class.

After lunch in Lincoln we all motored up to Niobrara State Park at the confluence of the Niobrara river and the Missouri River. The park has spectacular views and has a very nice facilities–including a number of cabins for rent. Camping a great. We were able to find several adjacent tent sites. Harry and Charlotte parked their tent trailer nearby. Normally, at this time of year the park has a Friday night cookout that features bison burgers but not this year due to construction. Not to mess with tradition, I picked up some bison patties and KABT had our own bison cookout at Randy’s tent site. Good times.

The hills at Niobrara are covered in prairie grasses and dissected by ravines choked with junipers. The cedar waxwings were present in the hundreds or thousands, offering all of us lots of great looks at a really neat bird. Deer and turkey were not shy either–especially in the early hours of the next morning when several turkeys and deer were observed in close proximity to camp.

The park offers a new service, this year–a 2 hour boat ride on the Missouri. Eight Kansas campers took the tour led by one of the park’s superintendents. We learned about a unique collaboration between the local biology classes and Nebraska Game and Parks. Students help to grow and monitor biological controls for purple loosetrife (an invasive plant) and assist in monitoring least tern and piping plover nesting. We observed cliff swallows mudding their nests, nesting bald eagles, great scenery, debris evidence from the Mason, IA impact event in the Niobrara chalk bed and of course the river itself–well worth the fee.
After the boat ride we all packed up our gear and headed off to Ashfall State Park. Again, we were fortunate to have tour led by Michael Voorhies–the discoverer and dig director for the site. He is a great presenter as excited and enthusiastic as you imagine he must have been the day he found the baby rhino jaw sticking out of the ravine bank. He honors all questions with very clear explanations that are based on evidence. Never pedantic, every understanding that he shared from the Ashfall site he backed up with the evidence that led to the insight. For instance, he talked at length about the Crown cranes that were a surprise at the site and how they puzzled through the fossils, their structure and their link to modern African crown cranes. He shared their surprise and enlightenment when another specialist noticed the bone disease on the surface of the fossils that pointed to death by slow asphyxiation probably caused by the ash interfering with the respiratory system. He was eloquent as he described how they had pieced together the topography and climatology of the site–referring to the presence of large land tortoises as a sure sign that the temperature never dropped below freezing. Ashfall is expanding and they are building a new rhino barn and they will be excavating more of the site over the next few years–I’m going to have to go back and check out the new finds. Here’s some shots from Ashfall.

Registration and refreshments will begin at 8:00 a.m. and presentations begin at 8:45 a.m. Pre-register via email or RSVP (lunch count) to rdixon@olatheschools.com or register on site Saturday morning. Cost is $30.00 and includes a hot lunch by Greg Krenke BBQ and Olathe FFA.

For further information contact Randy Dix at rdixon@olatheschools.com or http://www.kabt.org/membership-application/

Morning Presentations —- 30 or 60 minute presentations by outstanding biology teachers on the following topics:

Advance Placement topics on enzymes by Wendy Haas,

Using RNA interference in HS (info from Dolan DNA Learning Center) by Randy Dix

Kansas Natural history presentations by Scott and Kylee Sharp.

Enzyme Catalyst (BSCS style) by Bill Welch

Global Warming Data by Sandy Collins

Modeling and Case Studies: Activities that Engage Students in the Nature of Science by Todd Carter

Afternoon Activities

After lunch participants may attend a session in Bird watching, Fly fishing ,or a special event by George Pisani of the KS Biological Survey. George and Mindy Walker of Rockhurst University have been actively collecting Timber Rattlesnakes from a near by site, surgically implanting either PIT tags or radio transponders and relocating to a Top Secret Location.

Key terms: toxicity, pulse rate, blood circulation, Phylum Annelida, Class Oligochaeta, freshwater invertebrate

Purpose: a model for students to conduct real experiments that they design based on a simple “model organism”known as black worms. With very little effort it is possible to provide students

The student will be able to observe and record the pulse rate of Lumbriculus variegatus ( an aquatic segmented worm).

The student will design and carry out an experiment showing the effect of various substances on the pulse rate of Lumbriculus variegatus.

Follow the link to an Adobe PDF copy of this lab developed by Randy Dix and the American Physiology Society. Additional teaching resources at my site.

http://teachers.olathe.k12.ks.us/~rdixon/workshop.htm

These worms were made famous by the late Charlie Drewes and many of the techniques are of his design. His website is an invaluable resource and many thanks go to those that maintain and support his teachings. http://www.eeob.iastate.edu/faculty/DrewesC/htdocs/

This is a partial reposting from the Teaching Biology Blog…

We had a great time at the KABT Fall meeting at Cowley County College.
Thanks to Michelle, the presenters and others.

Todd, Bill and others should have a report from the meeting. I’m adding some picts that I took:

Getting fueled and ready to go:

One of the “hands-on” lab experiences. In this case a lab that investigates CO2 data sets and the effects of heating different amounts of CO2 in closed containers.

Maybe Sandy was catching a wiff of something more than CO2….

We’ll try and get a program up and more reports on the meeting here in KABT news….

In the afternoon some of us went out to the Chaplin Nature center. One of the beasts observed was this antlion:

Antlion pits from another site:

During the field trip out at Chaplin Nature center a group of us came across large numbers of caterpillars defoliating catalpa saplings. The trees themselves were difficult to identify (since they were defoliated and small saplings) and we weren’t sure about the caterpillars. I guessed that they were some sort of horn worm—well guesses sometimes workout. We apparently had found the dark form of the Catalpa sphinx (hormworms). Here’s a link that includes images.

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl/bulletins/catalpasphinx/catalpasphinx.htm

or
http://insects.tamu.edu/fieldguide/cimg305.html
or

http://entomology.unl.edu/ornamentals/pestprofiles/catsphinx.htm

Ours matches the dark form in the bottom of this image:

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl/bulletins/catalpasphinx/photo6.htm

or in this image:

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/enpl/bulletins/catalpasphinx/photo2.htm

BW