News & Events | Research News | Seminar Schedule | Recognition and Awards

2009 USM CAMP INVENTION

For the fourth straight year, USM is hosting Camp Invention the week of June 8, 2009. The campers participate in 5 modules daily, using their imagination, creativity and hands to create, explore and invent. They have embarked on a Viking Treasure Trek, participated in Comic Book Science, built Land Sleds, started Taking Apart old machines and created new games in Recess Remix! To see more pictures, find our group on www.facebook.com. Click on the "groups" icon and search for USM Camp Invention. Enjoy!

Below are some pictures of the event. Please click on icons to view full size images.

2009 DISTINGUISHED BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES GRADUATES

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES INSTRUCTORS RECEIVED A GRANT FROM THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Aimée T. Lee and Cynthia Littlejohn, Biological Sciences instructors, received a $26,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to fund a GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness for Undergraduate Programs) Mississippi summer academy on USM’s Hattiesburg campus during June 2009. GEAR UP MS is aimed at improving the educational environment and broadening support for Mississippi students who live in economically limited communities and who represent areas with historically limited participation in post-secondary education opportunities (www.gearupms.org). The students will spend one week exploring scientific endeavors and careers while being immersed in the everyday experience of a college environment. They will be engaged in activities including learning:
1) the science behind bacterial counts of food and soil
2) ecological assessment techniques
3) outdoor survival skills
4) team building activities
5) practical applications for a career in the sciences.
They will also get to explore Black Creek and engage in educational and fun bonfire activities.

*DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES PLANT **SALE*

The Department of Biological Sciences would like to thank everyone for their support in making our Spring Plant Sale a wonderful success. For those that could not make it to the sale (and for those who just want more stuff), we will continue to sell leftover stock until April 6th. We’ve sold out of many items, but still have good selections of some plants. We still have several varieties of unusual azaleas and mountain laurels. We also have good selection of tropical's. To view “leftover” list click here. E-mail Mike.Davis@usm.edu, if you would like to reserve items on the list. Thanks again for a wonderful Spring Sale!

25TH ANNUAL GRADUATE STUDENT FORUM SYMPOSIUM

The 25th Annual Graduate Student Forum Symposium, sponsored by the Department of Biological Sciences, Sigma Xi, and the MFGN, takes place March 7th in Reuben Auditorium of the Walker Science Building. Undergraduates and graduate students from the College of Science and Technology are presenting their research. The symposium begins at 8:30 a.m. with a Keynote Address by Irene M. Pepperberg, animal behaviorist and author of the New York Times best seller Alex and Me – a book about how a scientist and a parrot discovered new insights to animal intelligence and formed a deep bond in the process. Dr. Pepperberg is also presenting a colloquium in the Department of Psychology at 12 noon Friday, March 6th, and will be signing books at Barnes and Noble that same day from 1:00-1:30 p.m.

BSC CREATES ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION & RESEARCH CENTER

The Department of Biological Sciences in concert with University and community partners is creating a center for environmental education and research and nature preserve that will:

• Create an experience-based learning environment for our students
• Contribute to teacher preparation in the life sciences
• Provide a setting to conduct field-oriented research
• Reach out to surrounding communities to improve biology education and scientific literacy through programs designed for all ages: K - 12 through life long learners
• Enhance opportunities for outdoor recreation and a healthier community

The center is located on what is known as the Lake Thoreau property, which was owned by Mason Leon Eubanks, a faculty member in English at Southern Miss for 22 years and where he, his friends and others, hiked, fished, and hunted over the years. In 2000, keepers of his estate donated approximately 131 acres of the land to the University Foundation with the intention that it would be used as a wildlife refuge. Leased to the Department of Biological Sciences in 2008, creation of the Lake Thoreau Center for Environmental Education and Research and the Leon Eubanks Nature Preserve is entirely consistent with the intentions of Mr. Eubanks, our instructional, research and public outreach programs, and each of the University’s Strategic Areas of Focus:

• Increased visibility
• Connection with the community
• Top flight educational experience
• Promotion of healthy bodies and minds

The Center will help us to respond to widespread scientific illiteracy and the prospect that our children are increasingly alienated from the natural world, while providing an effective, healthy opportunity for outdoor recreation in line with the Governor‘s “Lets Go Walkin’ Mississippi” program.

Located a few miles west of campus on West 4th Street adjacent to the Longleaf Trace “rails-to trails” path, which extents nearly 50 miles between its Gateway on the USM Hattiesburg campus to Prentiss, Mississippi, Lake Thoreau is convenient for our teaching, research and outreach missions. Literally thousands of school age youngsters are within easy driving distance of the proposed Center.

We are designing a center of sufficient size to serve multiple functions, including experience based classrooms, research laboratories, kitchen and dining facilities, bunk rooms, and general meeting areas overlooking Lake Thoreau, and accessible by bike and hiking paths connected to the Longleaf Trace. In addition to educational, research and outreach functions, it is easy to imagine University and community organizations hosting conferences and workshops at the facility, not to mention an occasional wedding or family reunion. Creation of the center will serve as a magnet for individual and corporate donations to the University. At a very personal level, it is not difficult to find Southern Miss supporters and alumni who fondly remember time spent on Lake Thoreau.

Center property has been re-surveyed, fenced, posted as a nature preserve, a teaching deck constructed overlooking Lake Thoreau, and master planning underway with Landry and Lewis Architects and Ford Engineering Services, both of Hattiesburg.

For more information, please contact the Department of Biological Sciences:

Frank Moore, Chair
Biological Sciences
The University of Southern Mississippi
601.266.4748
Frank.moore@usm.edu
http://www.usm.edu/biology/