biology

Mom Inspires Son’s Medical Ambitions

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Emergency Medical Technician Brandon Wright
Brandon Wright ’21 is working as an emergency medical technician for Life EMS in Kalamazoo. At age 14, Wright saw his mom endure breast cancer, inspiring him to one day attend medical school and seek a career in medicine.

Imagine, as a 14-year-old child, seeing your mother endure breast cancer. How might that affect you? For Brandon Wright ’21, it prompted him to attend his mom’s chemo and radiation treatments.

“She went through chemo and radiation for a year,” said Wright, a biology major and physics minor from Dexter, Michigan. “I went to her treatments to understand them better. I still remember them like they were yesterday. It was an early moment when I realized that something bigger than me was going on.”

Thankfully, Wright’s mom today is a survivor. And by the time she was cancer-free, her son was inspired to seek a career in medicine. A physical therapist by trade, Mom helped arrange some job shadowing with doctors for Wright during his high school years, and he plans to attend medical school after graduating from Kalamazoo College. In the meantime, Wright is embracing a role as an emergency medical technician (EMT).

Wright trained as an EMT after his first year at K, realizing he would need to spend hands-on time with patients to optimize his chances of getting into medical school. After more than 256 hours of accelerated coursework that summer—and several certification tests and clinical trials afterward—he was offered a part-time job working for Life EMS in Kalamazoo.

“I thought I would do something I knew I would like rather than something I thought I had to do,” Wright said. “The exciting thing is we can get a not-so-serious call, and then, in the next second, all of a sudden we’re called to treat a cardiac arrest. The unpredictable nature of the job keeps me on my toes because at any second, it could be something new.”

Cardiac arrest is among the most serious calls Wright responds to and he remembers the first time he responded to one in March 2019.

“I was still in training and the call was for an 8-year-old boy,” Wright said. “My trainer had me participate in CPR because I was brand new, and that shook me for a while. I’ve probably responded to 10 or more cardiac arrests since then and, thanks to my trainers and partners, I feel I’ve developed the skills and mental capacity to handle them. It’s relatively straight forward for me now.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected Wright on the job. Ambulance dispatchers began using a code over the radio to let EMTs know when they were responding to a scenario where coronavirus could be present. That typically means Wright and his colleagues wear face shields, gowns and N-95 masks in addition to normal protective standards during the call, and take special steps to wipe down the ambulance and change clothes afterward.

Wright and his colleagues have found coronavirus to especially be a problem in the homeless population in Kalamazoo. With that knowledge, and with additional experiences in responding to emergencies such as gunshot wounds and overdoses, Wright recognizes his privilege as a student, which has fueled his desire to be involved in the community and help others one day as a doctor.

“The biggest thing I’ve realized is how many emergencies there can be anywhere,” he said. “At any time, we might have 10 trucks out just to cover all the emergencies. That’s really opened my eyes to how many people need help. It has confirmed my desire to go into medicine.”

To further his community involvement, Wright in the 2020-21 academic year will serve as a President’s Student Ambassador. The student leaders serve as an extension of President Jorge G. Gonzalez’s hospitality at events and gatherings, welcoming alumni and guests of the College with a spirit of inclusion.

“Many students get caught up in going to school, but there are a lot of ways we can integrate more into the community,” Wright said. “I wanted to be an ambassador because I wanted to bring my experiences to the table to start that conversation about involvement. I also want to hear from alumni about their own K experiences and take those lessons back to other students.”

With the Day of Gracious Living expected soon, along with its traditions including community service, Wright reflected on what he’s been most grateful for in his time at K.

“I think I’m most grateful for the fact that K gave me the opportunity to study abroad in Quito, Ecuador,” he said. “Even further than my community experiences in Kalamazoo, I was able to compare and contrast them on a global level with what I experienced in the lower-income country of Ecuador. Learning about some of their disparities in public health allowed me to recognize some ways that the U.S. system is also failing many. It is no doubt an experience that I will remember and value as I pursue a career in health care.”

The K-Plan teaches students to adapt to the unexpected situations of our ever-changing world. When the Day of Gracious Giving is announced, please make a gift to support K’s robust academic and experiential learning opportunities that help prepare the leaders and problem solvers of tomorrow.

Plan Bee: Cut Insecticides, Preserve Habitat

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Niko Nickson World Bee Day
The Kalamazoo Valley Museum was abuzz with bee exhibits last June during Art Hop. Niko Nickson ’21 was a Kalamazoo College representative presenting displays on native bees. Nickson now is a student behind the Southwest Michigan Bee Watch, still actively recruiting citizen scientists on World Bee Day.

There’s been a buzz in the national news as Asian hornets, also called murder hornets, have appeared for the first time in the northwestern U.S. The two-inch-long invasive insects have frightening stinging power and are significant predators of honeybees.

As the world marks World Bee Day on May 20, Kalamazoo College Biology Professor Ann Fraser said she doesn’t expect Asian hornets to arrive in Michigan any time soon but they could be a threat to local honeybees if they arrive.

“I got to see some of these Asian hornets when we were in India in December,” Fraser said. “Some people were fighting them off with sticks or even cricket bats. But can they survive in this climate with Michigan’s winter? I’m not sure of their range in terms of temperature tolerance. And are they going to decimate the honeybee population? Probably not, but they’ll certainly take out some hives.”

Nonetheless, climate change, habitat loss and pesticides are already threatening bees worldwide and have been for years. That makes World Bee Day—which marks the 1734 birthday of Slovenia-born Anton Janša, a pioneer in modern-day beekeeping—essential for preservation. The international affair, established in 2018 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, recognizes the world’s 20,000 species of bees, including about 465 in Michigan. A number of these are in decline, including some of our bumblebees. Fraser said habitat loss and pesticides are of particular concern as food sources are disappearing for bees, and neonicotinoids, which are pesticides chemically similar to nicotine, are deadly for them.

World Bee Day Purple Flowers
World Bee Day recognizes the world’s 20,000 species of bees, including about 465 in Michigan. Bumblebees like this one can be found at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum.

To work against the declines caused by these threats, swarms of World Bee Day events will be conducted virtually this year, and Fraser recommends acting locally. For example:

  • Fraser is recruiting citizen scientists from nine counties in Southwest Michigan for the Southwest Michigan Bee Watch. She and her students, including Niko Nickson ’21, are tracking bumblebee diversity and measuring local restoration efforts. Residents from Allegan, Barry, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph and Van Buren counties are invited to participate. Learn more about volunteering at the organization’s website.
  • Fraser and Nickson recently participated in a virtual Lunch and Learn through Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, discussing general bee facts and the Southwest Michigan Bee Watch. You can watch the recorded event on YouTube.
  • You can take the sting out of habitat loss for bees by planting a diverse array of native wildflowers that provide food for pollinators. Minimize your use of insecticides and shelter bees by providing bare ground, limiting mulch in flower beds or providing a stem nest. A stem nest typically is a wood block with drilled holes in various sizes and hollow plant stems or paper tubes. Varieties are available at many hardware stories, gardening stores and retail centers.

To bee or not to bee is not the question: bees are vital to humans. And when it comes to World Bee Day, Fraser says, “Anything that puts the spotlight on them can help them thrive.”

Student Braves Coronavirus Front Lines

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Maddie Odom fighting coronavirus in PPE
Maddie Odom ’20 sent this selfie to Visiting Professor of Biology Sara Tanis this week. It was a response to Tanis’ text asking whether Odom was doing OK while volunteering at a coronavirus testing site at the former Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit.

At least one Kalamazoo College student is serving on the front lines in the world’s fight against COVID-19, comforting those who fear they might have coronavirus.

Armed with three years of experience as an emergency medical technician, Maddie Odom ’20 is volunteering at a drive-through coronavirus testing site at the former Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit. There, Odom volunteers for more than nine hours per shift, six days a week, to serve as many as 800 people a day through the Coronavirus Community Care Network, a coalition of local governments and health services.

Volunteers like Odom are serving people experiencing multiple symptoms of coronavirus such as a persistent cough, a fever of at least 100 degrees, a sore throat and shortness of breath. They also have a prescription from a doctor to receive a coronavirus test.

Odom said as many as 42 percent of the people receiving services on a given day have tested positive, and the care network expects to perform about 14,400 tests through May 8. Detroit has drawn international media attention for recording nearly 5,500 cases of COVID-19 as of April 7.

“Everyone I work with is pretty exhausted, but it’s pretty rewarding,” Odom said. “Working together, we know what we’re doing is helping in some way.”

Lacrosse Maddie Odom
Maddie Odom has been a two-sport student-athlete at K in soccer and lacrosse.
Soccer Maddie Odom
Maddie Odom ’20 has played women’s soccer and lacrosse at K.

Odom’s regular duties have varied from testing patients to directing traffic and checking IDs — on top of carrying her spring term course load as she prepares for graduation.

Many might consider Odom to be a hero for her volunteerism and bravery while facing a pandemic, although she sees it as community service enabled by her health, her training and the fact she currently lives alone so she doesn’t have to worry about taking the virus home to her family.

“I know it’s a time when people feel kind of helpless because you can’t leave your house,” she said. “I’m just glad I can do something to help.”

Sara Tanis thanks Maddie Odom
Visiting Professor of Biology Sara Tanis has a special message for Maddie Odom ’20 in response to her public service at a coronavirus drive-in testing site in Detroit.

Odom expanded her passion for public health when she took a public health course at K led by Director of Careers in Health and Medicine Karika Parker. Separately, Odom has pursued emergency medicine as a wilderness first responder, a summer camp nurse and an EMT for an ambulance company. Since, she has decided to seek a career as a physician’s assistant.

Now, Odom relies on faculty members such as Visiting Professor of Biology Sara Tanis and students such as her K women’s lacrosse teammates for support. Together, they collect goody bags that contain items such as hand sanitizer and treats for health care, sanitation and shelter workers in the Detroit area to supplement Odom’s efforts.

“For me, one of the very best part of teaching is watching my students evolve into strong and vibrant members of their communities,” Tanis said. “Maddie has taught me so much over the last year about perseverance. Even when she’s in a situation where most people would give up, she just keeps pushing forward. Here’s to you, Maddie. I’ve never been more proud.”

Professor’s Creative Trailer Motivates Biology Students

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Santiago Salinas trailer
Assistant Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas prepares dissection materials that will be sent to students participating in distance learning this term.

When Assistant Professor of Biology Santiago Salinas learned that Kalamazoo College would be transitioning to distance learning for the spring semester, he knew how he felt. “I was bummed,” said Salinas. Without meeting face-to-face in a classroom or lab, how would his students connect? How would they grasp the hands-on skills they would traditionally experience in a face-to-face classroom, like animal dissection and model work?

“I needed to pump myself up for the quarter,” Salinas said. Internet research yielded inspiration, and soon Salinas had created a movie trailer for his vertebrate biology class — complete with atmospheric soundtrack and compelling narrative voiceover.

Salinas sent the trailer to his class. “I was honest with them, as I usually am in class anyway, and I told them I was having a hard time concentrating,” Salinas said. “I explained that I was bummed out that we wouldn’t be meeting face to face.” His students responded positively, sharing that the trailer had motivated them and made them laugh. When Salinas posted the trailer to Twitter, the outside world responded similarly. That feedback and connection re-energized Salinas as he moved forward with further classroom innovations.

“Twitter has been great for ideas,” Salinas said, describing how his search for inspiration and distance learning materials caused him to reframe his approach. He now sees himself as a curator. “There’s a lot of stuff out there — videos that are so much better than anything that I could put together, supplementing my slides and narration,” Salinas said.

Now, Salinas has high hopes for his vertebrate biology class. “This is forcing me to think about how I do things, and how I decide to prioritize content. Sometimes it’s good to be shocked because you start to reassess things,” Salinas said. “For the students, my hope is that they realize that they are not at K for the grades. I hope they recognize that they are driven intrinsically by what they are interested in, because they are, and that they do biology because they enjoy it.”

Salinas said that he has intentionally encouraged his students to provide feedback regarding biology-specific skills they would like to learn. When most of his students expressed interest in improving their grasp of scientific writing, Salinas quickly adjusted his assignments accordingly. “Maybe this wasn’t something we would cover in a normal quarter,” Salinas said, “But I think it’s going to make for a better course, and a better course for next year.”

As for Salinas’ earlier worries about dissection? “Well, I just finished packaging frogs, sharks, pigeons, and other critters. I will be mailing them out to our young biologists and we’ll do the dissections remotely!” Salinas said.

Meet the Hornets Helping Bumblebees Through Citizen Science

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What’s black, yellow and fuzzy all over? Bumblebees. And Biology Professor Ann Fraser wants to know what it takes to preserve them in Michigan.

Four students researching bumblebees
Trevor Rigney (from left), Niko Nickson, Amy Cazier and Nicki Bailey comprised Biology Professor Ann Fraser’s summer research group last year.

To that end, Fraser and her Kalamazoo College lab students are launching the Southwest Michigan Bee Watch. The program will track bumblebee diversity, measure local restoration efforts and discover whether any species might be declining or recuperating in the area.

“Bumblebees are important pollinators, particularly of our spring plants,” Fraser said, noting they’re vital to common Michigan crops, and more important to pollination than honeybees. “They’ll go out in cold weather, even when it’s rainy. They’re particularly good pollinators of fruit crops such as blueberries, apples and cherries.”

In the bee watch, citizen scientists in nine counties will volunteer as photographers nearly anywhere outdoors—including natural areas, walking trails, backyards and roadsides—and submit their photos to an online portal. Fraser, students and other scientists then will look at the photos, noting the black-and-yellow patterns on the bumblebees’ backs. Those patterns will identify each species and help determine which might be maintaining their numbers, which might be declining and which might be making a comeback.

“This year, my hope is to build a strong volunteer base so that we can start building a thorough database of bumblebee species in the area,” said Niko Nickson ’21, the student most dedicated to the effort as it will develop into his senior individualized project (SIP). “I’m also planning to analyze our data for relationships between species abundance and landscape differences. In the future, I would love to see the program continue to build, maybe inspiring more community science efforts across the state.”

Fraser said she had been hoping to start a project like the Southwest Michigan Bee Watch for a few years, but never found the right student to lead it. Then, she met Nickson.

“Community science is fascinating because I see it as an opportunity to connect academia and its surrounding community,” Nickson said. “In this way, it makes science approachable to all, regardless of educational level.”

His love of the outdoors also benefits the project.

“I think being outside is a great way to relieve stress and spend time in general,” Nickson said. “I see this program as an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of our regional environment while also encouraging more community members to spend time outdoors. In this sense, community science gives volunteers an excuse to be outside, and who doesn’t love a reason to get some sunlight?”

March 3 is World Wildlife Day. Its theme this year is “Sustaining all life on Earth,” as it recognizes all wild animal and plant species as being key components of the world’s biodiversity. Yet within the biosphere, bumblebees are struggling. In fact, according to NationalGeographic.com, we are nearly 50 percent less likely to see a bumblebee in any given area of North America than we were before 1974.

“Insects in general are in decline,” Fraser said. “That’s alarmingly well documented. Bumblebees are following this trend. At least half a dozen species of the 20 in Michigan are in decline. One of which, the rusty-patched bumblebee, was on the federal endangered species list as of 2017.”

A project like the Southwest Michigan Bee Watch could play a role in reversing those trends. Those interested in volunteering can sign up for the project’s mailing list and request more information at swmbees.kzoo.edu/.

K Students Inspire Girls to Explore STEM Through Sisters in Science

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Sisters in Science
Through Sisters in Science, Kalamazoo College students use hands-on lessons, experiments and field trips, such as this field trip to the Lillian Anderson Arboretum, to encourage Northglade Montessori fourth- and fifth-graders to learn about science.

When the world celebrates the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on Feb. 11, a Kalamazoo College student organization will be doing what it can to inspire local fourth- and fifth-graders.

Each Tuesday and Thursday, K’s Sisters in Science (SIS) visits Northglade Montessori Magnet School to encourage girls to seek an education and career in the sciences. The visits, coordinated through Kalamazoo Communities in Schools, involve hands-on lessons, experiments and field trips that nurture interest in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math). This allows SIS members to serve as role models, and local youths to grow their dreams of future achievements.

“We want to provide these girls with an influential woman in their lives,” said Marjorie Wolfe ’20, a SIS member and chemistry major from Kalamazoo. “A lot of them don’t come from backgrounds where a career in science seems accessible. We’re showing these girls they can go to college, do research and become doctors, engineers and more. We serve as sisters, mentors and examples of what they can become.”

According to the United Nations, less than 30 percent of scientific researchers in the world are women and only about 30 percent of all female students select STEM-related fields in higher education. Female representation is especially low professionally in information and communication technology at 3 percent; natural science, mathematics and statistics at 5 percent; and engineering at 8 percent.

To reverse these trends, the U.N. General Assembly established the International Day of Women and Girls in Science to celebrate women scientists and build equal access to and participation in science for women and girls. About 40 SIS members, including Karina Aguilar ’22, a biology and Spanish double major from Albuquerque, New Mexico, are doing their part to bolster that effort.

“Last year, in between two labs, I would go to Sisters in Science and do a nice, fun thing before I had to do something serious for four hours,” Aguilar said. “When you’re a student, it’s easy to be wrapped up in what’s happening on campus — we call it the K bubble. This helps us break that bubble, serve the community and be a mentor. It gives us a portal to the community.”

Aguilar hopes SIS experiments this year will include a lesson in making ice cream, although her favorite experiment to date involved a bridge-building contest that her little sister won. Such experiments, Wolfe said, help the fourth- and fifth-graders understand the scientific process and get them excited to be in school. Aguilar and Wolfe agreed the age group is critical in recruiting girls in science because they’re starting to learn what interests them most in school and they have yet to decide what classes to pursue for themselves.

“Initially, the first few times we’re at the school, we’re just trying to show we’re friendly and gain their respect,” Wolfe said. “That can go a long way for these girls. Eventually, we help them fill out worksheets that teach them what a hypothesis is. Before you know it, we’re working on an experiment and they say, ‘Oh! I know what the hypothesis will be!’”

When asked what she would do if she one day saw that one of her little sisters achieved a scientific breakthrough, Wolfe said, “The cool part would be knowing they stuck with science and believed in themselves; that they didn’t listen to someone who told them they couldn’t do it.”

Aguilar said, “I’d probably cry. Maybe it wasn’t from me specifically, but I’d love knowing that they developed that drive to be scientists. It would be amazing to see these girls who aren’t necessarily pushed to go to college make a career for themselves in science.”

“SIS was created for exactly what Aguilar and Wolfe have stated – to give young girls the knowledge that they can do science” stated Stevens-Truss, who envisioned the group in 2001.

Biology Students: It Takes a Village to Stop Invasive Species

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If you’ve ever wondered whether invasive species of plants are a problem in Michigan, four Kalamazoo College biology students have your answer: Yes.

Fiorina Talaba and Fiona Summers mapping invasive species
Fiorina Talaba (left) and Fiona Summers are two of the four students mapping invasive species of plants this summer at the Lillian Anderson Arboretum and Kleinstuck Preserve.

Fiorina Talaba ’22 from California, Mathew Holmes-Hackerd ’20 from Massachusetts, Fiona Summers ’20 from Illinois and Kelson Perez ’21 from Michigan are mapping invasive species with Biology Professor Binney Girdler this summer at K’s Lillian Anderson Arboretum and Western Michigan University’s Kleinstuck Preserve.

The results show several types of the problematic plants are common and growing quickly locally with few natural predators or pests as they choke out native species. That could be causing interruptions to important ecological processes, and potentially, endangering some native plants to the point of extinction.

“In today’s climate, we need to focus on biodiversity and how we’re affecting the environment,” Talaba said. “It’s not just the gases we’re emitting into the atmosphere that present environmental issues. It’s also how invasive species have gotten here and changed our environment to a point where it’s hard to recognize it from what it used to be. We have an obligation to protect native species.”

Kelson Perez and an arboretum official map invasive species
Kelson Perez (right) is one of four Kalamazoo College biology students working on mapping invasive species of plants under Biology Professor Binney Girdler this summer.

Some of the invasive plants the four are commonly finding in Kalamazoo include:

  • Creeping myrtle, sometimes called periwinkle, which is a flowering plant.
  • Buckthorn, a hardy shrub known for its bright, glossy leaves.
  • Winged euonymus, a bush-like shrub that is sometimes called burning bush.
  • Honeysuckle, identifiable as an arching shrub or twining vine that can have a strong fragrance.
  • Oriental bittersweet, a vine that tends to suffocate trees and sap their nutrients, potentially creating hazards related to dead trees for arboretum visitors.
  • Japanese knotweed, which is a plant with bamboo-like stems and small white flowers.
  • Garlic mustard, a biennial flowering plant known for its medicinal and culinary uses, despite its invasive aspects in nature.

How did the invasive species get here?

It’s not always clear how these invasive species, mostly from Asia and some from Europe, arrive in Kalamazoo.

“It shows how interconnected our society has become,” Perez said. “We can transport things like invasive species over massive distances in ways that would’ve been impossible in any other age. It’s like another Pangea where continents are pressing up against each other.”

However, it generally can be said that people have been responsible for allowing them to spread. Some people might even be planting the invasive species in their own gardens and yards because the plants look pretty, or transporting seeds on their shoes as they walk through the arboretum.

“Dr. Girdler says a majority of people will just look at invasive species and see green,” Holmes-Hackerd said. “They will look at all the green plants and think how pretty they are. We want to take it a level deeper. If we look at invasive species within the ecosystem and how they affect the large preserve, it can open people’s eyes. It can be bizarre to see a tree completely covered in leaves when the tree is dead because an invasive plant killed it.”

Hope for the future

While invasive species are a formidable foe, the four K student researchers say the projects they’re completing have provided opportunities for community outreach and established baselines that one day will help other researchers measure whether their efforts have been effective.

Their own outreach has consisted of sharing their research with other students through social media, talking with neighbors of the arboretum about the problematic plants, and encouraging community involvement in planting more native species, pulling invasive plants and protecting natural spaces.

“A lot of times you think of a scientist as someone who is rigid and wears a white coat,” Summers said. “We want to be super approachable and make people enjoy learning about invasive species.”

A platform like social media, for example, “provides such an easy way for young people to feel the experience,” Summers added. “Another reason I like it is it makes it easy to communicate our science to the general public. A lot of scientists lack the ability of explaining what they do so that anyone can understand it.”

Get involved

Here’s what you can do:

  • Ask your local nursery or gardening store about what you’re planting to ensure it’s not invasive, and plant more native species.
  • Volunteer to pull invasive plants at community events that target them.
  • Clean your shoes, hiking boots and pet’s paws after walking on nature trails to prevent the seeds of invasive plants from spreading.

Targeting invasive species “really is reliant on community involvement,” Holmes-Hackerd said. “The arboretum alone is 150 acres. It’s not something a handful of researchers can handle on their own. We’re hoping we can get the community to care and help out in any way.”

National Moth Week Spotlights Winged Insects

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National Moth Week blacklighting at Quad
Moth enthusiasts from around the world are likely to try blacklighting during National Moth Week.

If you ever see Kalamazoo College students hanging sheets by clotheslines suspended between trees on the Quad, they’re not doing laundry. They’re rounding up moths for their entomology class collections in a practice called “blacklighting.”

The process emits a black light into the UV spectrum to attract moths, and it’s one of many ways that citizen scientists are likely to celebrate National Moth Week, which is ongoing through Friday.

According to its website, National Moth Week celebrates the beauty, lifecycles and habitats of moths as the public is encouraged to learn about, observe and document moths in backyards, parks and neighborhoods. And don’t let the word “national” fool you. Since its founding in 2012, National Moth Week has gone global by expanding to all 50 states and 80 countries worldwide.

National Moth Week Luna Moth
Luna moths, known for their green wings, long tails and transparent eyespots, are common in southwest Michigan.

Although the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon likely is the more celebrated science-related event this week, moths are interesting to study because they make a “giant leap” of their own through metamorphosis. The process completely changes their bodies from wormlike caterpillars into winged adults during the cocoon stage. This abrupt change in body plan during development is found in only one-third of all insect groups, Kalamazoo College Biology Professor Ann Fraser said, but these groups account for the vast majority of insect species, suggesting this life cycle innovation was a highly successful one.

Furthermore, “many caterpillars of moths are a very important food source in the food chain,” and “some scientists use moths as indicators of bigger things going on in the environment,” Fraser said. “It’s easy to see trends with declines in their numbers as indicators of climate change or habitat loss.”

Moths definitively are insects because they have six legs and, as adults, they have three body regions consisting of the head, the thorax and the abdomen, Fraser said. Plus, they’re among the most diverse living creatures on Earth with more than 150,000 species including their day-roaming brethren: butterflies.

National Moth Week Hawk Moth
Hawk moths hover around plants and flowers so they commonly are mistaken for hummingbirds.

Some of the more eye-catching varieties of moths in southwest Michigan include hawk moths, which can be mistaken for hummingbirds because they’re about the same size as hummingbirds and hover around plants and flowers, Fraser said. Others include the luna moth known for its green wings, long tails and transparent eyespots. Plainer and more problematic varieties include gypsy moths, which are known as exfoliator pests because they strip trees and plants of their leaves.

“You can actually spot their poop on the sidewalk,” Fraser said of gypsy moth caterpillars. “Frass is the technical term for it. You see it on the ground, so you know something in the tree is feeding on the tree.”

Regardless, many hobbyists find collecting moths such as these and others to be fascinating and as easy as leaving a porch light on after dark. Fraser, for example, still remembers collecting a big moth for the first time when she was about 10 years old.

“It’s an experience that always stuck with me,” said Fraser, who curates the college’s insect collection that includes cases of pinned moths raised or collected by herself and her predecessor, Professor David Evans. “It’s always exciting to find the big colorful ones.”

For advice on how you can study moths, visit nationalmothweek.org or email info@nationalmothweek.org.

‘Ambassador of Science’ Earns NSF Graduate Fellowship

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Each year, up to $100 billion worth of harvested food is lost worldwide to pests and microbes. A Kalamazoo College student’s research could hold part of the solution.

NSF Graduate Fellow uses a microscope at Dow Science Center
Marco Ponce ’19 examines insects through a microscope at Dow Science Center. He will attend Kansas State University with an NSF Graduate Fellowship beginning this fall.

Marco Ponce ’19, a biology major from San Diego, conducted his Senior Individualized Project (SIP) last summer under Rob Morrison, Ph.D., ’06, a research entomologist working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Center for Grain and Animal Health Science in Manhattan, Kansas. Their work targeted alternative methods for managing red flour and lesser grain beetles, which primarily attack stored grains.

“Prior research has found that these beetles release some pheromones that make them come together in groups, and others that trigger them to spread out,” Ponce said. As a result, “we wondered how their density affects their behavior when they look for food. We’ve found the beetles responded less to otherwise attractive food cues when they’re grouped in higher densities, so we’re trying to synthesize the signal that turns off their food-finding behavior and use it as a repellent. Our goal is to figure out how to use their biology against them.”

NSF Graduate Fellow Marco Ponce in a group of six
Marco Ponce ’19 (third from right) stands with Rob Morrison, Ph.D., ’06, (third from left) outside the Insect Zoo at Kansas State University. Ponce will attend Kansas State through an NSF Graduate Fellowship this fall.

Ponce learned last week that he earned a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship to attend Kansas State University as a graduate student this fall, meaning he and Morrison will conduct more research beginning in July. The two will study how stored-product beetles and microbes interact to ruin harvested grains.

“Every year after harvest, we lose anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of our food commodities,” Morrison said. In addition to the U.S., “if you look at some developing countries, this means about $100 billion in commodities are lost every year. Marco’s project has global ramifications. If he can find some of the attractants useful for (pest) management, that will go a long way toward ensuring less pest damage and making agriculture more sustainable.”

Ponce is the second Kalamazoo College student in as many years to earn a prestigious NSF Graduate Fellowship.

“When he was selected, he was up against some students who already are in their graduate programs,” said Biology Professor Ann Fraser, Ponce’s academic adviser. “It’s always gratifying to see students take an interest in science, even if they just make a hobby out of it. But it’s especially rewarding for me to see students go into entomology. There are so many opportunities to get involved in entomology because insects affect our lives in so many ways.”

NSF Graduate Fellow Marco Ponce standing with thumbs up in a field
Marco Ponce ’19 will attend Kansas State University through an NSF Graduate Fellowship beginning this fall.

Ponce and Fraser got to know each other when Ponce was reconsidering his pre-med path. His classes helped him realize he could seek other opportunities in science, and he found the best opportunity in Fraser’s entomology lab.

“That was the transition for me,” Ponce said, admitting his first year at K was difficult, especially as English was his second language, having grown up primarily in Tijuana, Mexico. “I considered changing majors until I saw the email from Dr. Fraser inviting me into her lab. I was surprised because I wasn’t the best academically at the time. It’s one of the reasons why I’m still here: I found my passion.”

Ponce first performed research in Fraser’s lab with painted lady butterflies, a species common in all climates throughout the world. His work analyzed how their antennae responded to different odors produced by flowers compared to those produced by potential predators such as ants, and Fraser was thrilled with his work.

A college track, though, wasn’t always in Ponce’s view. At one point, Ponce expected to join the work force immediately after high school when Pablo Roncoroni, his high school teacher, took him under his wing and helped him navigate the college application process. As a result, not only did Ponce find K, but so did five other students from that high school who since have followed in his footsteps.

The support of teachers and mentors has led Ponce to a place where his research and passion can benefit others around the world including in his backyard. As co-founder of the College’s Entomology Club, he’ll soon start working with that group to inspire students at Kalamazoo’s El Sol Elementary, with a goal of introducing students to science in a different, more hands-on way.

“Marco is very creative,” Fraser said. “I invited him into my lab because he is such an original thinker and he has a great science mind. He is a real ambassador of science.”