The Kids in the Garden (KIG) program, coupled with the Campus Garden & Apiary, is opening new doors for college students and public school children. It engages them in research focused on the environment, with emphasis on wildflowers and their insect pollinators, thanks to the program’s principal investigators -- Drs. Kaitlin Campbell and Rita Hagevik of the Biology Department, and Dr. Martin Farley of the Geology and Geography Department. This past summer saw a record number of UNCP undergraduates involved in KIG research. After presenting their findings at the RISE Program’s End-of-Summer (Undergraduate) Research Symposium, three of Dr. Campbell’s students went on to share additional findings at a national conference. Read about their conference experiences below:
From November 17th-20th, UNCP undergraduate students Cody Eubanks, Joshua Villa, and Brandon Herron attended the Entomological Society of America (ESA) Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. During that time, they attended many talks, from those about parasitoids, pollination, bee physiology and health, and even to forensic entomology. They attended a talk by esteemed entomologist, with a passion for dipterans (flies), Erica McAlister. They also got a chance to walk around and look at posters. One interesting thing they saw was a poster about how a team at Brandon University found that waxworms have bacteria in their guts that can breakdown plastics, which with future research could help degrade plastics in the environment.
On Monday Nov. 18th, Cody Eubanks, Joshua Villa, and Brandon Herron presented their research posters at the ESA conference.
- Cody Eubanks presented his poster entitled Examination of Pollinator Gardens in Regard to Combating Decline of Local Bee Populations.
- Joshua Villa presented his poster entitled Organic Cucumber Variety Trial for Resistance to Common Pests
- Brandon Herron presented his poster entitled Comparison of Native Bee and Honeybee floral Preferences for Pollinator Conservation
Note: Undergraduate Abigail Canela was co-author on Cody Eubanks' poster.
Article Written by Brandon Herron
