EC 00-1564-S Bumble Boosters: A Guide To Identifying Nebraska Bumble Bee Species

Why Bumble Bees Are Important Capturing Bumble Bees Making a Reference Collection The Bee Family Tree The Bumble Bee Family Tree Bumble Bee Mimics How to Use the Identification Guide Bee Identification Guide Checklist of Nebraska Species External Morphology of Bumble Bees Glossary Additional Resources About Bumble Boosters Data Sheet for Collection Specimens For most people, pollen means allergies and bees mean stings. However, you should thank a bee, butterfly, bat, bird, or other pollinator for one out of every three bites of food you eat. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from one flower to another. It is a critical step in fruit and seed production. Some plants produce generous quantities of pollen and rely on the wind to transfer pollen. Many plant species, however, produce smaller amounts of pollen and have elaborate mechanisms to attract pollinators. There are 95 crops grown in the United States that require insect pollinators. In addition, many bee-pollinated plants provide food for wildlife, increase soil fertility, and beautify our landscapes. In an era when human activities have reduced nesting habitat and forage plants, we need to consider the impact we have on plant/pollinator relationships. Pollinators are a critical link in the ecosystems of both wild and agricultural lands and play an important role in the interconnectedness of life in general. Bumble bees are a great place to begin. They are beautiful native insects whose distribution and abundance can be nurtured by providing suitable nesting habitat and forage plants

Preparing to Cocreate: Using Learning Circles to Ready Extension Professionals for Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement

Extension professionals are being asked to address complex public issues. Doing so requires cocreative approaches that engage, in a significant way, the people affected by these issues. Successful engagement, however, requires specific skills and a cocreative mind-set. Extension professionals in two states participated in learning circles to improve their engagement skills. Using a survey and interviews, we studied the impact of the learning circle experience on participants. We found that learning circles helped participants practice colearning, build relationships, and change their mind-sets in ways that could move their work toward more cocreative efforts

Developing and evaluating a pollination systems knowledge assessment in a multidisciplinary course

Background: Although pollinators play an integral role in human well-being, their continued global decline reflects the need to provide and evaluate general pollinator knowledge to promote their conservation. Enhancing learners’ understanding of the complexity inherent in pollination systems within the science classroom may help them make more informed decisions regarding pollinator conservation actions. By measuring conceptual understanding of pollination systems, science educators can identify learners’ knowledge needs and inform their teaching in science classrooms. Based on previously developed theoretical frameworks describing pollination systems knowledge, we created and evaluated a new instrument to assess pollination systems and conservation actions knowledge. The Pollination Systems Knowledge Assessment (PSKA) is a multiple-true–false instrument containing 18 question stems and 70 accompanying T–F items encompassing three organizational components of pollination knowledge regarding (1) plant structures, (2) pollinator structures and behaviors, and (3) pollination systems function and pollinator conservation. Results: We refined the PSKA based on expert discussions, think-aloud interviews, and pilot testing before and after presenting a wild pollinator conservation unit within a postsecondary science literacy course. The PSKA elucidated learners’ misconceptions and revealed discriminating items from the three organizational components of pollination systems knowledge. Conclusions: The PSKA may aid educators in exploring learners’ conceptual understanding, identifying areas of misconceptions, and refining educational programming aimed at improving learners’ pollination systems knowledge

Transference of Citizen Science Program Impacts: A Theory Grounded in Public Participation in Scientific Research

Citizen science is known for increasing the geographic, spatial, and temporal scale from which scientists can gather data. It is championed for its potential to provide experiential learning opportunities to the public. Documentation of educational outcomes and benefits for citizen scientists continues to grow. This study proposes an added benefit of these collaborations: the transference of program impacts to individuals outside of the program. The experiences of fifteen citizen scientists in entomology citizen science programs were analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory methodology. We propose the substantive-level theory of transference to describe the social process by which the educational and attitudinal impacts intended by program leaders for the program participants are filtered by citizen scientists and transferred to others. This process involves individual and external phases, each with associated actions. Transference occurred in participants who had maintained a long-term interest in nature, joined a citizen science program, shared science knowledge and experiences, acquired an expert role to others, and influenced change in others. Transference has implications for how citizen scientists are perceived by professional communities, understanding of the broader impacts and contributions of citizen science to wicked problems, program evaluation, and the design of these programs as informal science education opportunities

Insects as Teaching Tools

In this talk I will present on projects in which insects were used as instructional tools. This presentation will give an overview of how insects can be used for teaching with a variety of student age groups and how inquiry instruction can be promoted with insects. I will present overviews of 3 projects including Bumble Boosters, Bugs in the Classroom, and Web‐based insects identification tools. Bumble Boosters created a community of researchers that studied bumble distribution and abundance and artificial nesting domicile preferences. Forty Nebraska high schools were involved in this project. Bumble Boosters’ teaching objectives were to raise public awareness of the environmental importance of pollinators, enhance students’ understanding of scientific investigations, increase student’s knowledge of insect biology and pollination ecology, and to engage students in networking with other students to solve a shared problem. Bugs in the Classroom ‐ Bugs in the classroom was a professional development initiative with the goal of empowering teachers to use insects in science inquiry instruction in elementary classrooms. This initiative included workshops for elementary educators on science inquiry and teaching with insects. This talk includes a description of the workshop as well as an evaluation of the impact of the workshop on participating teachers\u27 knowledge of scientific inquiry, entomology knowledge, and inquiry practice. Web‐based Insect Identification Tools ‐ The purpose of this study was to determine whether undergraduate students receiving web‐based instruction based on traditional, key character, or classification instruction differed in their performance of insect identification tasks. Results of this study support that short web‐based insect identification exercises can improve insect identification performance

EC00-1564 A Guide To Identifying Nebraska Bumble Bee Species

For more people, pollen means allergies and bees mean stings. However, you should thank a bee, butterfly, bat, bird, or other pollinator for one out of every three bites of food you eat. There are 95 crops grown in the United States that require insect pollinators. In addition, many bee-pollinated plants provide food for wildlife, increase soil fertility, and beautify our landscapes. This extension circular discusses the importance of bees, capturing bees, making a reference collection, identification guide, and glossary

2014 Greatplants Gardener

One of the goals of the GreatPlants program is to promote tough plants for the landscape, plants that are more resilient in the extreme weather of the Great Plains. With so many plants to choose from, it can be overwhelming for gardeners to decide what to plant. We hope GreatPlants can be your guide to some staggeringly beautiful—and long-lived—plants

Preparing to Cocreate: Using Learning Circles to ReadyExtension Professionals for Meaningful StakeholderEngagement

Extension professionals are being asked to address complex public issues. Doing so requires cocreativeapproaches that engage, in a significant way, the people affected by these issues. Successful engagement,however, requires specific skills and a cocreative mind-set. Extension professionals in two states participatedin learning circles to improve their engagement skills. Using a survey and interviews, we studied the impact ofthe learning circle experience on participants. We found that learning circles helped participants practicecolearning, build relationships, and change their mind-sets in ways that could move their work toward morecocreative efforts

In Their Own Words: The Significance of Participant Perceptions in Assessing Entomology Citizen Science Learning Outcomes Using a Mixed Methods Approach

A mixed methods study was used to transcend the traditional pre-, post-test approach of citizen science evaluative research by integrating adults’ test scores with their perceptions. We assessed how contributory entomology citizen science affects participants’ science self-efficacy, self-efficacy for environmental action, nature relatedness and attitude towards insects. Pre- and post-test score analyses from citizen scientists (n = 28) and a control group (n = 72) were coupled with interviews (n = 11) about science experiences and entomological interactions during participation. Considering quantitative data alone, no statistically significant changes were evident in adults following participation in citizen science when compared to the control group. Citizen scientists’ pre-test scores were significantly higher than the control group for self-efficacy for environmental action, nature relatedness and attitude towards insects. Interview data reveal a notable discrepancy between measured and perceived changes. In general, citizen scientists had an existing, long-term affinity for the natural world and perceived increases in their science self-efficacy, self-efficacy for environmental action, nature relatedness and attitude towards insects. Perceived influences may act independently of test scores. Scale instruments may not show impacts with variances in individual’s prior knowledge and experiences. The value of mixed methods on citizen science program evaluation is discussed