CREC Students Explore Connecticut Ecosystems, Study Insect Species During Summer Biodiversity Camp
When Ariana Patterson, a 17-year-old at CREC Academy of Aerospace and
Engineering, looks at plants, she sees more than just greenery and
foliage – she sees small ecosystems with the plants and insects
As a teaching assistant at Biodiversity Camp
at CREC Two Rivers Middle School this year, Ariana shared this
perspective with the middle and high school students at the weeklong
“You have to think of it as a more important piece of
the puzzle. You start to look at it as even if it’s small or a little
creepy it has some significance that can’t just be brushed off. It makes
you want to learn more about it and want to protect it,” said Ariana,
who first attended the camp a few years ago as a middle school student
at CREC Two Rivers Middle School.
Biodiversity Camp, organized by
CREC Two Rivers Middle School Science Teacher Edmund Smith and Dr. David
Wagner, professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of
Connecticut, is a free camp where participants get the opportunity to
investigate the biodiversity of local ecosystems and learn how to
identify common insects and plants.
The camp is geared towards
extreme enrichment with students that have already proven themselves
energetic, focused and comfortable with extended field studies, said
“This camp is not meant to give students their first
experiences in field studies. Several students have chosen college and
career paths in the biological sciences following their experiences with
the Biodiversity Camp,” he said.
Biodiversity Camp took place
from June 26th - 30th this year. The camp had 20 high school and middle
school students. About half were CREC students, 40 percent came from
Hartford Public Schools and the rest were from other districts.
Kuczek, 13, a student at CREC Two Rivers Middle, said he and other camp
participants explored the Fenton River near UConn, the Connecticut
River and Matianuck Natural Area Preserve.
“We explored a bit,
everyone in the camp got nets to catch insects. We brushed the nets
through the grass and looked to see if we caught anything,” he said.
that were caught – milkweed beetles, black fireflies, spiders, moths,
among others – were either frozen to be examined under a microscope or
“The purpose of keeping them alive is to study their behavior, what they eat,” said Jacob.
attended the camp during the day. On the last night, campers competed
in a BioBlitz – a contest to see who could catch and identify the most
insects - until midnight and slept at CREC Two Rivers Magnet Middle
School. This is the camp’s third summer, with the first and second camps
running in 2014 and 2015. In 2016, camp organizers focused on a
statewide CT BioBlitz where CREC Two Rivers Middle School set a world
record of most organisms identified in a 24-hour period.