51吃瓜

Dr. Peter Park

parker

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Department of Biology 

MAIN EXPERIMENT: During Summer 2025, an experiment utilizing clay caterpillar decoys will be designed together with interns and then implemented on the FSC campus. Co-designing this experiment with interns is a central focus of this internship experience. This work may also culminate in the development of student lab activities to be implemented directly in undergraduate biology courses.

VALIDATION STUDY: Because the actual predators of caterpillars are rarely, if ever actually seen, in-lab validation studies, focused primarily on invertebrates, may be conducted with interns to confirm the identification of the types of animals that may have left bite marks.

Also, there is the possibility of conducting similar project(s) off-campus at the Peconic Charter School, including in partnership with the Citizen Science Learning Center, Inc. (CSLC).

Student鈥檚 role 

  1. Co-design of experimental study
  2. Read, summarize, and organize peer-reviewed publications relevant to project
  3. Prepare clay caterpillar decoys (e.g., making molds)
  4. Apply clay caterpillars to structures at study sites
  5. Regularly monitor clay caterpillars, which includes photographs and uploading images to a database
  6. Study clay decoys further in the lab, if necessary (e.g., via microscope)

       7. Learn how to use web-based statistics apps to graph and analyze results

       8. Participate in the in-lab validation experiments to confirm the type of invertebrate predator that may have bitten clay caterpillar decoys

  1. Develop an oral presentation that summarizes this work (poster or oral presentation)
  2. Discuss and dialogue with Dr. Park topics related to the importance of this work to potential 

outreach efforts across informal (e.g., community science) and formal (e.g., classroom teaching) settings.

Student鈥檚 Criteria 

C or higher in Bio130 required. C or higher in Bio131 optional but strongly recommended.

Outcomes

Conferences, published lesson plans.

Schedule

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday between 10:00am-4:00pm (but schedule could vary)

Type of job

In-Person

Applications