Essays

Moseying: Living La Vida Llanero

Mad Science and Citizen Science at the Sibley Nature Center
July 11, 2007

The Sibley Nature Center is partnering with Mad Science Inc. for a summer camp the week of July 16-20. Mad Science gives science enrichment programs in local schools and hosts fun birthday parties with a science-based theme. If your child likes slime, chemistry, glow-in-the-dark fun, and wishes to drink “dinosaur tea” this camp is for him/her. Call 570-4477 to register. The cost is $250 for a program that lasts all week and almost all day (9 a.m. to 3 p.m.).

Mad Science owner Dianne Anderson, has been involved in education for many years, as a past member of the MISD School Board, PTA everything, and still involved with the City Council PTA as program chair. She hasn’t always been interested in science, however.

“My husband used to put me to sleep reading me articles from Science News magazine, but it eventually rubbed off. Two years ago I didn’t know what a pipette was, and now I buy them by the gross.”

Recognizing that a science enrichment program might serve the students of Midland she visited Montreal, Canada and the Mad Science corporate office to investigate the program. Sold on the idea, she established the Midland franchise in August of 2006. “Everything has science behind it,” she says, “and it’s not just for nerds anymore. Everyone benefits from science, our country, our people, the schools, businesses, everyone. We encourage any child between the age of 5 and 12, who is interested in science to register for the program because Mad Science makes science FUN!”

The Sibley Nature Center has the need of “citizen scientists.” Anyone and everyone can participate in our long-term “Pollinators Project.” As the national media has been reporting, the honeybees that pollinate our crops are suffering from a mysterious “dispersal syndrome.” Honeybees leave their hives and never return. This has the potential to severely affect the production of food and fiber crops nationwide. So far the desert Southwest has not been affected by the problem, but it has reached Central Texas.

It is unknown if the syndrome has spread to any species of native pollinators. Native pollinators have not been thoroughly studied – most scientific research has been to identify the various species. Only a handful of the native pollinators have been studied to learn about their life cycle. A number of the native bees and other pollinators may only pollinate one or two species of plants. Others are generalists, pollinating many species. At only a few places, such as Tucson, Arizona, the location of one major bee research facility, has there been any work to record all of the native pollinators in that locality. Other insects besides bees (honeybees and native bees) pollinate plants. A number of species of flies do as well, as do hummingbirds, butterflies, wasps, and moths.

All it takes to be a “citizen scientist” for our Pollinator Project is to own a digital camera and be willing to bring us your photographs on a “jumpdrive” or “flashdrive,” those wonderful little $20 gizmos that hold up to a gigabyte of data. We would like the photographs to be at a fairly high resolution. Most digital cameras have close up or macro abilities, and we have found that taking the picture with the aperture wide open and the camera near the bloom provides the best depth of field. All a person has to do is sit quietly next to a blooming plant with all sorts of insects buzzing around, then slowly move the camera almost next to the bloom with the insect on it.

That may sound a little scary – “won’t they sting?” Bumblebees, honeybees, and wasps are only interested in their job when they are at a plant. Stinging occurs when their young are threatened, back at the nest or hive. Check out the photoessay on the Sibley Nature Center website “Pollinators of the Lotebush.” On the home page on the left side is a column of buttons. Scroll down to Animal Behaviors, click on it, and then scroll down until you find the photoessay. The photographs were taken during two one-hour sessions in June. The photographer did not get stung – not even one insect got mad and buzzed aggressively.

Briley Mitchell has also contributed a series of insect photographs featured in a photo essay on this site, entitled “Insects of the Urban Forest.” Sibley volunteer Chris Cherry supplied the photos for our June 2007 Virtual Trail. After both photoessays were organized and created, we realized that a “Pollinators Project” would be quite feasible.

We should all be concerned about the honeybee “dispersal syndrome.” If we lose our honeybees up to half of our crops will not set fruit. In vast agricultural areas, such as the Imperial Valley of California, or the cotton country of the Llano Estacado, there is not enough of the proper habitat to provide homes for the native pollinators. Some of the beekeepers that travel the country with hundreds of hives of honeybees have been experimenting with ways to transport native pollinators. Most native bees nest solitarily, but can be encouraged to return to specially built boxes with the correct sized holes provided for them.

By recording our native pollinators, we are providing a service for scientists, traveling beekeepers, and for all Americans. Can you imagine not having the Llano Estacado cotton crop – our home bioregion produces a substantial percentage of the world’s cotton. Lubbock would suffer dramatically. It may be that the arid southwest’s environmental conditions are not conducive to what is causing the dispersal syndrome, and our work will have “gone for naught.” Just in case, however, it is a “prudent” thing for us to do, and it something that everyone can do. The Sibley staff will catalog, collate, and maintain the records (the photographs) but everyone can point a camera a pollinator and push a button. Will you help us out?

In September, 2007 the Sibley Nature Center will kick off “The Sibley Academy.” There will be a charge for the students to take the classes. Our staff and volunteers will teach classes on the region’s ecology and history. There will be art and craft classes, as well as classes on rappelling, rock-climbing, caving and other adventure sports. All classes will focus on some aspect of life in West Texas. We welcome other volunteers to teach the classes as well – and the teachers will receive a stipend. Do you create metal art? Do you make flower arrangements with native plants? The possibilities are endless! We would love to hear your suggestions for classes you would like to teach. Call Richard at 684-6827 by July 31st.