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Professor of entomology Susan Weller is passionate about communicating the excitement of science and nature to the public. Weller, who is internationally recognized for her research on butterflies and moths, was recently named director of the Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota, the first female to hold that position in the museum’s 136-year history. She spoke with Minnesota about why making science accessible to all is so important. Q: You’ve been a curator at the Bell since 1993, first of invertebrates and later lepidoptera, or butterflies and moths. What drew you to entomology? A: Serendipity. As an undergrad at Grinnell College, I did a field project in Costa Rica watching acorn woodpeckers and recording how much time they spent collecting and storing acorns. Birds don’t do a lot, so I did a lot of sitting and I saw all these insects and thought: Whoa! They’re doing a lot of stuff that’s a lot more interesting. So I decided to go into entomology instead. Being in the field collecting moths is a real rush. Q: You’re a big proponent of citizen science, which gives the public an opportunity to work with scientists on research projects. Tell us about your Bioblitz program, which has drawn more than 2,000 attendees since it began. A: A friend of mine in the Ramsey County parks had been talking for a couple of years about this concept. So in 2002 some colleagues and I started Bioblitz. It’s an intensive 24-hour survey where people come to a designated location—last year it was the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge—and they help researchers count all the plants and animals they can find there. It’s been a great success. We’ve got groupies now who call and want to know when and where it is every year. Q: Why do you believe it’s so important for the general public to be more engaged with nature? A: It’s becoming clear that people are passionate about saving the rain forest, but not about saving a piece of green space right near their house. They don’t understand the value of biodiversity in their own backyard, so how can they worry about something they aren’t aware of? Bioblitz is very eye-opening in that way. Q: Describe some of the Bell’s efforts to get children interested in science. A: We need to inspire kids to be more excited about science and we’ve been trying to do that at the Bell for the past four years with our school residency program. Graduate students visit K-12 schools around the metro presenting interactive lessons on invertebrates. And we’re currently developing other units, one on fish and another on mealworms. If you don’t have great science in elementary school you’ve got problems, because all these studies show that students, particularly girls, need to have a positive science experience before middle school if they’re going to stay interested in it. If we can communicate the excitement of science to children, there is someone out there who’s going to spread the word about the important role of bugs on this planet or work on the cure for cancer. —Meleah Maynard (B.A. ’91) Visit the Bell Museum Web site here.
“What’s going to happen to Ted Stevens?” one asks. “How long will the recount in the Coleman-Franken race take?” another wonders. “Is there any way for gay people in California to challenge the outcome on Proposition
Part of the students’ enthusiasm is timing, Johnson later explains. Getting students interested in American politics in the fall semester of a presidential election year is a bit like offering candy to children. Students are even excited about lectures on the electoral college. “It’s the ‘Tim Russertization’ of politics,” Johnson says, referring to the late NBC newsman whose whiteboard analyses of red states and blue states on election night 2000 captivated American audiences. “Students are just fascinated by the electoral college.” But Johnson is perhaps a bit too quick to give the credit to pundits and politicians. If there’s a Tim Russertization of politics at play here, there’s also clearly a “Tim Johnsonization” of teaching that regularly turns many reluctant first-year College of Liberal Arts students into political science majors. Earlier this year, the University honored Johnson with a Morse-Alumni Undergraduate Teaching Award, and in 2007 he received the Arthur “Red” Motley Exemplary Teaching Award from CLA. Johnson describes his classroom style as more give-and-take than talk-and-talk. “It’s a back-and-forth exchange that forces the students to not just sit there and soak in a PowerPoint slide, but to engage.” On the first day of his introductory classes, for instance, he gives a 20-minute lecture titled “Why You Should Care about Politics.” “I talk at length about how almost everything that happens in American politics affects them directly,” Johnson explains. He uses student loans as an example, showing students how everything from the Federal Reserve Bank to interest groups and party politics directly influence their lives. Over the years, Johnson says, he’s learned that engaging students often means embracing his own humanity. To get students comfortable enough to participate, he’s not afraid to poke fun at himself, share stories about his children, or show silly, but educational, video clips—like the 1970s Schoolhouse Rock “Preamble to the Constitution” music video. And he readily admits when he doesn’t know the answer to a question. “To be able to say ‘I don’t know; I’ll have to get back to you’ opens things up for students,” he explains. “They’re more likely to see the classroom as a jumping-off point rather than a terminus in the pursuit of knowledge.” And that, in the end, is one of the most important lessons he can teach students. “I do not believe that I’m there simply to impart my wisdom to the students,” he says of his work in CLA classrooms. “I’m there to make them learn to think on their own.” —Danny LaChance Now That's Distance Learning The course will consist of Porter’s observations from the road as he travels through Africa studying local food, agriculture, and ecosystems. He will, uh, feed his observations back to the St. Paul campus through a satellite phone, e-mails, and audio blog postings on his Web site. Graduate student and teaching assistant Maggie Mangan will facilitate interactions between Porter and the students. “I hope the students will learn more about Africa in general but also will have more of an appreciation for what we have in the United States,” Porter says. “Maybe by seeing and hearing about different cultures in Africa they’ll take a closer look at what they eat here, how it’s grown, and where it comes from.” | |||||||||||||||||
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