We went on a wild hunt this morning. Team Echinacea (or euthanasia/youth in Asia) members were prepped with pruners, pollinators exclusion bags, and flags.
Everyone worked together to find Echinacea! The summer team learned how to record data using our handy visors ( a memory of the 90s).
We then went to place pollinator exclusion bags on Echinacea pallida. Readers, please note that E. pallida is not the same as our beloved Echinacea angustifolia. Height is one key difference we use to distinguish the two plants. Angustifolia is a short king.
Afterward, we went on a decapitation spree. See below to view a picture of our winnings. Members of the team were enjoying seeing E. Pallida fall off its petal-stal.
Today the team took Echinacea Demos. We got trained in on the different scenarios we could see in the field and got to work. We set pollinator bags on the twenty closest Echinacea Pallida plants to a random point, taking demos as we went, afterwards we decapitated any other Echinacea Pallia nearby. All was right in the world during lunch, but halfway through updating our team norms the sky looked very gray and the thunder got quite loud. We moved to the porch and it started raining. I’m sure the plants were thrilled. Many members spent the afternoon working on their projects.
Today members of Team Echinacea shared some preliminary ABTs for their summer research! Today we heard from Victoria!
Victoria is going to design lesson plans for her co-taught 9th grade biology classes. They are designed to support her students in lab based learning. She hopes to lower the barrier for underrepresented students engagment in science practices!
The pollinator team set out to recover some emergence traps (picture 1) this afternoon. While we didn’t find ground-nesting bees, which this project is centered around, we did see another pollinator while sifting through grass that extended beyond our own heads (Jan for scale; picture 2). The viceroy (Limenitis archippus; picture 3) looks incredibly similar to the monarch (Danaus plexippus), except for the black, horizontal line that cuts across their dorsal wings. We hope to see even more pollinator friends as the field season goes on!
Finally done with orientation week! This past week I have had the chance to tour the different labs located in the Plant Science Center, visit UIC’s heritage gardens, and see the amazing resources the Lenhardt Library has to offer! I was able to learn not only more about the different projects other interns will be working on this summer but also more about fieldwork safety and intern wellness. I am so excited to dive into what this summer has in store for me while also being more mindful of my well-being. Here is a photo of some Echinacea found in the diverse garden beds on the UIC campus.
This morning a group of us went out to flag P2 (thank you Wyatt for taking that picture). We created a new path to the plot, we divided, we flagged and we conquered. We also saw a few flowering Echinacea along the way. We had lunch and Lindsey gave a presentation on her smoke project and taught us about the ABT method before we all discussed our own possible projects for the summer. Then in the afternoon I went out with the pollinator team to place emergence traps! We know that poison ivy is a common hazard out in the plots, but we weren’t watching out for it and ended up stepping in a patch of poison ivy. Therefore, we should work as a team to be more aware of our surroundings. (See what I did there?). Watch your step out there and great work today team!
Yesterday, we spent the early afternoon at the picnic tables outside of the Hjelm house. It was a lovely day save for the smoke in the air (see Jen’s poem). After we all ate lunch, Jared gave a talk, bringing the team up to speed on the work we do in the remnants. We learned all about the work that started in Staffanson and is now in 35 different prairie remnants in our area. And, though Echinacea will always be our darling study species, we’re starting to look more into other fun species, like different grasses and more forbs (shoutout to Liatris).
Jared giving an impassioned talk
Afterward, we did our annual team norms activity, where we discuss 4 questions pertaining to how we learn and conduct science and come together to agree on how we can best support each other this summer. With everyone contributing, we were able to come up with norms that we all liked. Hurray for discussion and repetition and communication and repetition!
Me with our responses to question 2 (I forgot to change the number on the board)
