News & Updates

Final Thoughts

Well, final papers are graded and final grades are in. Overall, the class was a success. I’ve been reflecting back on the beginning of the semester the past week or so, and am impressed with how far everyone has come. Some things worked well, some were okay, and some things I’ll be revising the next time I teach the course. My goal, was to give more students authentic research experiences in organismal biology, focusing on form, function, and performance. At the end of the class, I think I succeeded with that. We had four unique projects, some on topics that have not been investigated before. Students learned to use high-speed cameras, digitized animals to get kinematics and performance, present research, and write up their research. They all had hypotheses that they tested.

There are several things I think worked really well. The first, is having dedicated time in a classroom setting for research. Students have lots of other priorities (e.g., work, other classes, family commitments, etc.) and I have found it hard for them to have time for research. Having everyone in the class at the same time allowed me to move everyone through at a similar pace. Some groups were more ahead then others, but all relatively on the same page. Another thing that worked well was having students come up with questions related to animal form, function, and performance. I was worried about this at the start, everything, including the organisms, was a complete unknown. But, everyone got the hang of filming animals and motivating them to perform well (special thanks to the wooden dowels for motivation!). Field collecting was also a highlight. Many of these students have never been outside for a Biology class, and they really woke up when we went collecting. Many of their hypotheses came from catching and observing animals in nature. Weather was not on our side this semester, but the two days we did go out were beautiful and everyone seemed to have a great time. Lastly, having assignments related to students finding related articles from the primary literature seemed effective at getting them to look at other studies and refine their hypotheses.

Several things did not work well this semester. The first, as I just mentioned, was weather. I did have a contingency day build in, and we needed it. But we got rained out a lot. Group work was also challenging. We had a professional development on group work and peer evaluation, which I had not even thought about prior to the class. I implemented a peer evaluation system and had groups of 2, 3 and 4, but I need to revise it for the next class. The other major hurdle was varying operating systems and student computer literacy. I didn’t anticipate having a full 4 hour class to trouble shoot R, but I did because of weather and I will keep that in for future iterations. I tried working in the computer lab, where everyone was on the same operating system, but that was also challenging. So, in the future, I will probably spend more time working through computer programs (we used ImageJ, some students used Tracker, and R). Lastly, the final papers seemed a bit rushed, so I will likely emphasize them earlier in the class (note: all rubrics were posted to blackboard at the start of the class, so they did know there was a paper), potentially including a draft as an assignment so I can provide feedback.

At the beginning of the semester I was 50% excited, 50% terrified. There were a lot of unknowns. Could we get animals, could we film them, could students come up with hypotheses? About half way through when we were in the thick of collecting videos, I realized the class was actually working. Grasshoppers jumped, water striders strided?, crayfish escaped, and stinkbugs flew.  I was also concerned about not having enough to do later in the class, but just having them time for them to work on research seemed effective. This class set a high bar for what I will expect next time. I also learned a lot about different animals I never really thought about before. So, win/win.

Next planned class is for Fall 2020, see you then….

And just because I really enjoyed their research abstracts as movie trailers, here they are again:

 

Week 13-14 Recap

Almost done with the semester. Student’s have finished collecting their videos, are finishing up their digitizing, and some groups have moved on to data analysis. We finished our student presentations on a paper from the primary literature. I learned a lot from these this semester on al the various organisms and performances we are studying. Some students spent some time with Aaron in Dr. LaPolla’s lab taking automontage images of their organisms, including water strider legs and grasshopper hind legs. Some groups are becoming more experienced in R, learning to use mixed models to analyze their data, and are getting good at plotting and visualizing their data in R. The only assignments that are left are a poster presentation Friday Dec. 7th, in the the Department of Biological Sciences and their final paper. So, almost done. I’ve been reflecting on the class, and can’t believe how far we’ve all come. To think I was worried we wouldn’t have any projects to do, and we are now getting some interesting results from student driven questions, most of which I had never even thought about. Stay tuned as we wrap up the semester. Below are some photos from our university photographer.

Research Abstract Movie Trailer Assignment

Well the class has been in data collection mode. I am there for support, but the student’s are busy finishing collecting videos and digitizing. We learned about data analysis and presentation these past weeks.

This week I had the students create and submit a movie trailer for their research. I wanted to give the students a creative assignment, highlight their videos, and advertise their research. Since I am a big fan of movies (and love when new trailers come out), I thought I would try this as an assignment. I created a rubric to ensure that the student’s were aware their research needed to be the focus, but that it should be creative and fun. They needed to clearly state their hypothesis, show some methods, and have fun with it. Every group submitted theirs and on the Monday before Thanksgiving, I made some popcorn and we all previewed them. I wasn’t aware that iMovie actually had movie trailer templates, so several groups used those, which helped with editing, creativity, and creative commons music (which we discussed). They were a bit skeptical of the assignment, not sure of what I was looking for, and asked if I had ever done one, which I had not. But, since we had an unexpected snow day the Thursday before, I decided to try my hand at it and created one for them. This was a really fun assignment, every group did a great job at showcasing their research and creativity. As a bonus, I will be sharing their videos with the faculty and staff here as advertisements for each group’s poster coming up at our Dept.’s annual fall poster day. The group that gets the most faculty to visit (they’ll have sign in sheets) based on their trailers will get some bonus points. I’ve also considered giving a bonus to the group that has the most views on social media as they are posted on youtube and twitter. Below are the trailers, get some popcorn and enjoy!

 

 

First up, my trailer for the assignment. I’m not a horror movie fan, but felt it was appropriate:

 

Second, team water strider takes a sci-fi suspense approach, can these scientists save mankind from the invading water striders?

 

Next, team stink bug examines the “super” flight abilities of invasive marmorated stink bugs.

 

Team crayfish introduced the world to the crayfish olympics.

 

And last, but certainly not least, team jump draws inspiration from the Hunger Games to examine the Jumping Games:

 

 

Week 9-10 recap

Well, the class is really up and running now and we are in the midst of data collection. During week 9 we spent Monday collecting videos. Everyone has been working really well and are getting some great videos. On Wed. of week 9, we had our first set of presentations by students summarizing a paper relevant to their research project. I used this rubric to grade the presentations and we learned about different crayfish escapes, crayfish facial recognition, and grasshopper jumping. I also extended the deadline for their video, digitized point, and kinematic test, so we spent some of Wed. going through their kinematic code to make sure they are getting data.

Here is a video of team jump.

 

Week 10 started off with more data collection, teams came in and started working. Groups also started working on digitizing their videos and getting kinematics. The goal is to have all our videos collected by Thanksgiving, so we can move on to data analysis. In a few weeks I’ll give a short lecture on data analysis and presentation, since all groups will be presenting at the Department of Biological Sciences poster day on Dec. 7. On Wed, each group gave a short presentation on their proposed research, graded following this rubric. We also had another student present a paper on water strider jumping performance.

Here is a video from Team Water Strider

Week 7-8 recap

Well, we are more than half way through the semester and the class has been moving along well. Week 7 started off with another nice day and trip to Oregon Ridge, the focus was to get grasshoppers and crickets, but we also got some more water striders and crayfish. We also caught some praying mantises, as they were pretty abundant in the field. We managed to get more grasshoppers, mostly short winged, and some crickets.

Wed. we had our only exam, a midterm to ensure we all understood the content. The class did well, 13 short answers and a B average.

Week 8 started with a tank of dead crayfish (miscommunication, overfeeding, and a build up of ammonia). We sent the crayfish team out to catch some more with Aaron, while the rest stayed behind and began working on collecting data. They set up their high-speed cameras and tanks to capture the performance they were interested in. By the end of the day, each group had gotten their filming setup figured out, and started collecting data. Water striders were gliding on calm water, invasive stink bugs were flying towards the light, and grasshoppers were jumping in the air. On Wed. we continued filming and the crayfish team got up and running after being a bit behind. The groups had an assignment due with a video from their research, a digitized point, and resulting kinematics. We are still working on it, as I am going to work with groups this week to finalize their kinematic code to get the data they need. But, we have animals, we have projects, and now we have some data. My concerns at the beginning of the semester of whether this whole thing will work, (what will there questions be, can we get animals, can we get them to perform) have disappeared. Some concern with the stink bugs, but once we realized that they are phototaxis, and we need the light for the camera anyway, they were off and flying.

 

Week 5-6 recap

Things are moving along in the course. Week 5 started off with another cancelled field trip due to weather. But, as I’m learning with this course, we adapted and instead spent time trouble shooting R. None of the students have ever used R, so it was a lot to ask of them. I made a simple code for them to get displacement, velocity, and acceleration from the point they digitized on their video in MTrackJ. There is a learning curve to R, so we spent the first part of Monday’s class making sure everyone can run their point through and get some data. And we did. I also asked them to get mean velocity and acceleration, not giving them the code, but pointing them to online resources.

Students then went back out to the Glenn Arboretum to collect some invertebrates with Aaron and Jess. They came back with a bunch of organisms. Instead of filming, I wanted to give them time to talk about project ideas. So, I had them brainstorm. We wrote all the ideas on the board and started thinking about experimental design, sample sizes, and feasibility. They had an assignment due the next Monday on an initial project idea with citation. Starting to move from learning about animal movement and research to conducting research. In class on Wed. we had a lecture on jumping and discussed a paper on hindlimb length and jumping in leafhoppers.

Week 6 began with weather finally on our side! So, we headed out to Oregon Ridge Park to try and collect. Students had submitted initial project ideas, so we had some target species. Many students went with Jess to catch crayfish in a creek, and they were successful, capturing ~23 in an hour. I went with several students to sample the fields, and we got some crickets and grasshoppers. Students in the creek also realized there were water striders, so they caught a bunch of them. We then sat in the pavilion and students rotated around discussing project ideas, while Aaron and Jess caught all the invasive stink bugs on the pavilion. We started to organize into groups and project ideas. Seemed there was a group that wanted to work with crayfish, a group wanting to work with water striders, another on crickets/grasshoppers and one that was open. We headed back to campus, Aaron and Jess took care of our new animals.

On Wed. we spent the first few minutes finalizing groups. They have a proposal abstract due next week, as a group. We are switching over to more group work now. We then discussed movement in the air and read a paper on bee flight performance. We’re suppose to head back to Oregon Ridge on Monday to target grasshoppers and crickets, and our midterm on Wed. Then, it is all about research.

Week 3-4 recap

A quarter of the way through the semester. Weather has not been on our side. For week 3 we spent our time in lab practicing to film using some of the crayfish we had. Everyone got some crayfish escapes. We then moved to the computer lab to learn digitizing using the MTrackJ plugin for ImageJ. We used one of the praying mantis videos I had, and after we worked through the protocol, students started clicking (and clicking and clicking and clicking). They had an assignment due at the start of the next lab day tracking one point from one of the crayfish videos. Digitized points were graded based on this rubric. In lecture on week three we had a crash course in muscle physiology and energetics based off of Biewener and Patek Ch. 2. This lecture was way too long, almost two hours with no breaks. In the future I plan to break it up. Most students had muscle physiology in A&P or Animal Physiology, but not all.

Week 4 started with a cancelled field trip to the field station. So, we tried to collect in the Glen Arboretum behind our building, but within a minute it started to pour! Luckily there was some shelter from the rain. As we stood there, we talked about project ideas, what would they do with all the money and resources in the world. How long can a dragonfly fly for? Once the rain died down, we went back in and filmed some crickets jumping to again practice our filming techniques. We then headed to the computer lab to take our digitized points and start getting some basic kinematics and performance traits in R. They had an assignment due at the beginning of the next week using their tracked points to get maximum displacement, velocity, acceleration with plots (based off of code I provided), but also figure out how to obtain mean values. While things worked okay in the computer lab, they did not on their personal computers. Stay tuned for the next update to find out what we did next. Lecture week 4 focused on terrestrial locomotion, using Biewener and Patek Ch. 4 as a guide. We then discussed Full and Tullis 1990 on cockroach running and energetics at different inclines.

Its interesting to teach this material over an extended period of time. Usually I do a truncated version of form and cuntion in one lab period. Having the time to spend learning to film, digitize, and use R has been nice. Discussing papers has helped think about research ideas and practicing filming on different animals has helped them see how to think about filming and analyzing different animals and performance.

 

Week 1-2 recap

Well, we made it through week 1 and 2 of the new course. As they say, so far so good. Going in to the week I was 50% excited, 50% terrified. I get to teach a class similar to my research, instruct students on how to film animal movement using high-speed cameras and talk about topics close to my interests and research (50% excited). However, since this is a authentic research experience based on student driven research questions and hypotheses, I have no idea what they will come up with, what performance or function they will ask, how feasible it will be, and since we are relying on locally collected invertebrates (plus some from a colleague and biological supply companies), I am concerned we will not get enough specimens. So, 50% terrified.

However, we got into class on Monday and got the ball rolling. We spent Monday going over logistics of the course, introductions of the class, some basic camera principles, and then got into filming. Every student held a hissing cockroach (good for an organismal course), and every student captured a high speed video of something moving. The video was part of their first assignment, worth 5 points and based off the following rubric I created to ensure they understand what makes a good video for analysis (Video test rubric).

 

On Wed. I got in some animals from a biological supply company, including fiddler crabs, crayfish, dragon fly nymphs, damselfly larvae, American cockroaches and German cockroaches. In class we discussed the morphology, performance fitness paradigm and spent time defining terms. Lecture and discussion was based off chapter 1 in Animal Athletes.

Monday was a holiday, so no lab time. On Wednesday students submitted their first paper summary, where they had to find a paper from the primary literature relevant to the class. The following rubric was used (Paper Summary Rubric). Lecture focused on the factors that can affect performance and we discussed a recent paper, Winchell et al. 2018.Linking locomotor performance to morphological shifts in urban lizards. Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Next week we will practice getting videos on animals, introduce digitizing and kinematics, and discuss muscle physiology.

Welcome!

Welcome to the homepage for the new Organismal Form & Function Lab at Towson University. I will be using this site to provide information on the class, update on our progress and post high speed videos student’s will be collecting throughout the semester. Stay tuned as I work on the class and this site.