Semester in the Parks: Engaging Students with Common Intellectual Experiences

High-impact educational practices (HIP) such as Common Intellectual Experiences (CIE) enhance student engagement and positively affect student learning. At Southern Utah University we created a new HIP-focused program to enrich our students and faculty: Semester in the Parks (SIP). Students lived outside of Bryce Canyon National Park in the gateway community of Bryce Canyon City while they worked for Ruby’s Inn Resort and learned about the national parks. Faculty commuted to this off campus venue and redesigned their courses to incorporate national parks thinking and experiential learning opportunities. The CIE of a national parks-focused semester enhanced student engagement and developed the pedagogical ability of faculty. Program assessment revealed positive gains in student and faculty self-report measures but also identified the need for other assessment tools and comparison groups. We conclude that CIE, even those set in nontraditional classroom locations, have great potential to enhance student growth and faculty professional development

iSAW: Integrating Structure, Actors, and Water to Study Socio-Hydro-Ecological Systems

Urbanization, climate, and ecosystem change represent major challenges for managing water resources. Although water systems are complex, a need exists for a generalized representation of these systems to identify important components and linkages to guide scientific inquiry and aid water management. We developed an integrated Structure-Actor-Water framework (iSAW) to facilitate the understanding of and transitions to sustainable water systems. Our goal was to produce an interdisciplinary framework for water resources research that could address management challenges across scales (e.g., plot to region) and domains (e.g., water supply and quality, transitioning, and urban landscapes). The framework was designed to be generalizable across all human–environment systems, yet with sufficient detail and flexibility to be customized to specific cases. iSAW includes three major components: structure (natural, built, and social), actors (individual and organizational), and water (quality and quantity). Key linkages among these components include: (1) ecological/hydrologic processes, (2) ecosystem/geomorphic feedbacks, (3) planning, design, and policy, (4) perceptions, information, and experience, (5) resource access and risk, and (6) operational water use and management. We illustrate the flexibility and utility of the iSAW framework by applying it to two research and management problems: understanding urban water supply and demand in a changing climate and expanding use of green storm water infrastructure in a semi-arid environment. The applications demonstrate that a generalized conceptual model can identify important components and linkages in complex and diverse water systems and facilitate communication about those systems among researchers from diverse disciplines

Diversification of gut morphology in caterpillars is associated with defensive behavior

The relationship between insect gut structure and foraging strategy has been studied for several hundred years; however, we know little about how, or even if, other common insect behaviors are linked to gut morphology. For example, many insects defend themselves by regurgitation, a behavior which is expected to be closely connected to gut structure. Caterpillars belong to an insect taxon, the Lepidoptera, with a particularly well-studied digestive tract and a known predilection for defensive regurgitation. I have explored whether defensive regurgitation is associated with specific gut structure by examining the relationship between defensive behavior and gut morphology in the larvae of 36 butterfly and moth species. My analysis shows that predilection to defensively regurgitate is closely associated with fore- and midgut morphology. Species that primarily regurgitate in defense have enlarged foreguts and shortened midguts, whereas the opposite relationship is seen among those that do not readily regurgitate. These results reveal that: (i) defensive regurgitation is not the primary defense of all caterpillars, and (ii) gut morphology can be associated with other factors than the chemical and mechanical properties of ingested foods. These findings challenge long held beliefs concerning the ubiquity of defensive regurgitation in caterpillars and the causes of diversification of gut morphology, and further reinforce the gut\u27s standing as a complex and sophisticated organ

Defensive chemistry of lycid beetles and of mimetic cerambycid beetles that feed on them

Beetles of the family Lycidae have long been known to be chemically protected. We present evidence that North American species of the lycid genera Calopteron and Lycus are rejected by thrushes, wolf spiders, and orb-weaving spiders, and that they contain a systemic compound that could account, at least in part, for this unacceptability. This compound, a novel acetylenic acid that we named lycidic acid, proved actively deterrent in feeding tests with wolf spiders and coccinellid beetles. Species of Lycuscommonly figure as models of mimetic associations. Among their mimics are species of the cerambycid beetle genus Elytroleptus, remarkable because they prey upon the model lycids. We postulated that by doing so Elytroleptus might incorporate the lycidic acid from their prey for their own defense. However, judging from analytical data, the beetles practice no such sequestration, explaining why they remain relatively palatable (in tests with wolf spiders) even after having fed on lycids. Chemical analyses also showed the lycids to contain pyrazines, such as were already known from other Lycidae, potent odorants that could serve in an aposematic capacity to forestall predatory attacks. © 2008 Birkhaeuser