Wooster Township students learn, share about bugs
Among those participating in Bugapalooza at Wooster Township Elementary School were Jeni Filbrun, left, zookeeper and program manager for the Ohio State University United Titanium Bug Zoo; student leadership team member Harper Mays; leadership team adviser Kristie Shoulders; and student leadership team member Ashlyn Haddad. The Bug Zoo and the leadership team partnered to help students learn about insects.
When Andy Hosfeld saw a mosquito walking through the hallway outside of his fifth-grade classroom, he was a bit startled, but he knew practice was about to begin.
Hosfeld, a science teacher at Wooster Township Elementary School, wrote skits for the school’s leadership team to perform at Bugapalooza, an event the school staged with help from the Ohio State University United Titanium Bug Zoo. He said the students designed their costumes for their performances to act out conservation issues related to the insect world.
Students also have been working on researching a bug assigned to them after a visit to the Bug Zoo on the OSU Wooster campus, according to team co-adviser Kristie Shoulders. They will share their findings through Google slides, drawings/sketches in bug jar sheets, clay models and posters they designed during a show-and-tell event at the school. They will repeat their one-minute talks at their exhibits for each grade level, kindergarten through sixth grade.
“You’re definitely going to be experts on your bugs,” adviser Annie McDowell said to the students.
On hand to assist them were Carrie Elvey, the Bug Zoo’s community outreach specialist; Jeni Filbrun, zookeeper and program manager; and some entomology students from the campus.
Among the 12 bugs assigned to students were the Madagascar hissing cockroach, blue death feigning beetle, Australian walking stick, taxi cab beetle, horsehead grasshopper, tarantula and scorpion. The latter two are insects only Bug Zoo staff may handle.
Harper Mays said her assigned bug — the blue death feigning beetle — looks like a little blueberry. “He’s so cute,” she said.
She said it’s named feigning beetle because it often plays dead around predators.
She likes researching the bugs because it helps her understand them. “Once we’ve researched them, we can share what’s good about them and what’s bad about them,” she said. “A lot of people feel like bugs are just scary.”
“And gross,” chimed in team member Ashlyn Haddad.
Both students hope sharing their knowledge of bugs will help people feel more comfortable around them.
Bugapalooza was an idea hatched from a one-year partnership between the Wooster Township Student Leadership Team and the Bug Zoo. When the team visited the zoo in October, students learned about zoo residents, insect conservation and ecology. They also discussed ways they could help support the Bug Zoo.
The Bug Zoo staff learned about the students and leadership program and discussed the kinds of programs the Bug Zoo could offer. Together they are offering Bugapalooza. In return students will provide the zoo with community service.
Shoulders said the team provided the zoo with the students’ artistic endeavors including the posters and five skits that were be recorded and shown to students to build anticipation for Bugapalooza.
Hosfeld used these mottos from the Bug Zoo to write the skits:
—Caterpillars feed the world; a chickadee needs almost 6,000 caterpillars to raise a nest of chicks.
—Leave the leaves in the fall; a lot of insects overwinter there.
—Be a lazy gardener: leave flower stalks, grass high, no mulch.
—Turn off the lights for insects; insects need dark skies to navigate, and bright lights can cause their death.
—Insects do a lot of jobs: remove dung, eat dead animals, turn the soil, pollinate.
Hosfeld said the students are doing an amazing job with the skits, and he can’t wait to see them all come together.
“It’s really inspiring to see young people interested in entomology,” Filbrun said. “Insects play such a vital role in our world, but they are often overlooked. Getting kids interested in entomology is opening a whole new world for them.”