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LinkedInPosts Tagged: summer
Maggot Art: Blending Art with Science
If you or your favorite child, grandchild or neighbor created Maggot Art at the 108th annual UC Davis Picnic Day on Saturday, April 23, chances are it's now framed. Or at least, it's a conversation piece! Maggot Art is a big draw! Scores of youngsters and adults--most with great glee but some...
UC Davis alumnus Angie Velazquez of Los Angeles assists her son, Hudson Carr, 4, in his first Maggot Art project. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Hudson Carr, 4, gets some helpful tips from his mother, UC Davis alumnus Angie Velazquez of Los Angeles. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Wells of non-toxic, water-based paint await the Maggot Art artists. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis undergraduate student Summer Calvache (left) and graduate student Elizabeth Slagboon assist the young artists. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Maggot Art drying on a bulletin board. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Management of summer weed grasses
Have you listened to the latest podcast on Growing the Valley website? Drew Wolter, UC Davis graduate student (Weed Science Program) from Dr. Brad Hanson's lab, talks about Management of summer weed grasses. Other weed science interviews on Growing the Valley: Herbicide...
Summer Annual Weeds
As the summer heat is finally nearing its end, and its officially fall on the calendar, there unfortunately is a new crop of weeds flowering right now. Some of our summer annuls have started to go to seed, others are just about ready, and others are already starting to senesce. In order to manage...
Youths Experience the Joy of Insects
Do you remember when insects first fascinated you or when you developed a love of insects? Odds are that the children who attend the SaveNature.Org insect-themed sessions in Berkeley will. The husband-wife team of Norman Gershenz and Leslie-Saul Gershenz and their staff have taught a class for...
Future entomologists? A group of students in a Bay Area three-week insect class, taught by SaveNature.Org, poses for a photo.
Getting up close and personal with a stick insect, also known as a walking stick.
Introducing our Summer Camp Intern, Taylor Woodruff
Hi! I'm Taylor Woodruff, the new summer camp intern for the Sustainable You! - Adventure Science Camp! I am 21 years old, graduated from Clear Lake High School in 2015, and am currently a student at Mendocino College. At the college, I am a tutor for Statistics and Trigonometry. I am also Secretary of Gaming Club and an active member of Anime Club! I will be transferring soon with a degree in both Allied Health and Biology. I intend to pursue Marine Biology so I can study and help conserve sharks! I love all animals and plants. If there's any outdoor activity, count me in! I grew up playing soccer, volleyball, basketball, track, snowboarding, waterskiing and barefoot skiing. Fun fact: I have been classically trained to play the flute since 5th grade. I am kind, very easy to get along with, and determined to get any task done.
The UC Hopland Research and Extension Center is such a wonderful place. Everyone has been so warm and welcoming. I had little knowledge of the area before being recommended for this internship position, but I am so glad that I was selected. There is so much beautiful property out here -- 5,300 acres! Such a wonderful place for researchers to come out. Speaking of researcher, I've gotten to meet quite a few!
I stopped in and got to ask Dr. Vardo-Zalik and her team all about what they are doing with their lizard malaria research. Being a science major myself, I was super interested and wanted to bug them as much as I could. She explained a lot to me, let me hold and identify the genders of the Western Fence Lizards, observe a vector of the malaria parasite (the Sand Fly), watch them take blood samples, and I even got to look at those samples under the microscope through oil immersion. All of it was so fascinating. She also shared with me her passion for sharks and rays, and I think that was my favorite part. :)
I also got to meet some of the Brashares lab researchers. Talking to them was interesting as well, hearing about how they plan to catch a mountain lion and put a tracking collar on it. They are going to help out during our summer camp to have the kids set trail cameras, set small mammal traps, and check the traps in the morning. Hannah Bird even showed me a lot of the pictures that have been captured on different wildlife cameras scattered around the property. There are beautiful pictures of mountain lions, black bears, coyotes, raccoons and deer.
Thanks to Alison Smith letting me know when, I was able to see the two cutest baby lambs! While preparing for an insect activity down in the creek, I got distracted by all the tadpoles! There were so many and some had already developed teeny-tiny legs. Super cute. It's also pretty fun to take a moment and watch the woodpeckers. Brook Gamble was nice enough to give me California Naturalist journal as a present on my first day. Brook, Hannah and I got to use them and try out some of the journal activities we plan to do with the campers. I also got to share with Brook an awesome video I took of a spider making a web. It might get posted on the California Naturalist instagram, so be on the lookout! :)
In order to view more of the property and get away from the computer for a bit, I was able to help out our volunteer phenologists. We went around to multiple species of trees and other plants to record a lot of data including how many leaves, how many flowers, recording post-fire data, and more. They were very kind and funny. I'm glad I got to help them out.
Planning camp has been a lot of work! Staying organized and keeping on top of my tasks has prevented me from unwanted stress. This has been a lot of fun, but I am much more excited to meet the campers and run activities with them! Thank you Hannah, for everything!
--Taylor Woodruff
