All posts by SMTP Team

Back at BIO

“Mountain-mania”

Leave a comment

Carlene, a Collections Technician with the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, has just returned to work after taking the trip of a lifetime – a 6 month adventure spent hiking the Pacific Crest Trail!

“For those who were/are interested in my thru-hike, I haven’t fallen off a ridge or caught on fire. I am now finished with my adventure and have taken the time to compile my notes and photos so that I can describe the rest of my hike to you! It turns out that when you are walking all day (and sometimes at night) there is little time for blog writing…so here it is!”

Continue reading about Carlene’s adventure here!

Glad to have you back Carlene!

Back at BIO, Fall 2015

Announcing the Fall 2015 #SMTPselfie Winners!

Leave a comment
We are pleased to announce the winners of our Fall 2015 #SMTPselfie contest!
Thank you to all who entered, we had some great entries this program! The winners for the #SMTPselfie contest will receive a Life Scanner Kit  which will essentially allow them to DNA barcode 4 organisms of their choice and find out what species they are!
Currently these kits are being offered for free for first time users + shipping online at the above mentioned link, so be sure to sign your class up for one!
And without further ado…the winners of the Fall 2015 #SMTPselfie contest are:
1) Brooksbank Elementary School – BC
Brooksbank
2) Preeceville School – SK
Preeceville
3) Crestview Public School – ON
Selfie_Crestview
4) New Horizons School – AB
New Horizons
5) The York School – ON
The York School
Congratulations to all!
Back at BIO, Fall 2015, School Malaise Trap Program

School Malaise Trap Program Data Published in Open Access Journal, PLOS ONE

Leave a comment

Hello #bioSMTP participants (past and present)!

Today, the School Malaise Trap Program Team has exciting news to share with you about your contributions to biodiversity research and the international scientific community.  Quite recently, a research article titled “Exploring Genetic Divergence in a Species-Rich Insect Genus Using 2790 DNA Barcodes” was published in PLOS ONE. The researchers utilized DNA barcode data collected by several School Malaise Trap Program participants to support their research. The Director of Education and Outreach at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, Dr. Dirk Steinke, explains the significance of your contributions in a recent blog post entry on his site (http://dna-barcoding.blogspot.ca/) and has allowed us to re-post it below for your convenience:

School DNA Barcodes Published
Participants of the School Malaise Trap program told us repeatedly that perhaps the most important aspect of the project, the one that students regard as particularly exciting, is the fact that they take part in the creation of a valuable public and scientific resource. They know their work will have a lasting impact. In case there are people that had any doubts that school data would actually be used in science let me point you to a new paper published just yesterday. Research colleagues in Norway analysed data of the chironomid genus Tanytarsus:
 
We explore the quality of DNA barcodes to delimit species in the diverse chironomid genus Tanytarsus (Diptera: Chironomidae) by using different analytical tools. The genus Tanytarsus is the most species-rich taxon of tribe Tanytarsini (Diptera: Chironomidae) with more than 400 species worldwide, some of which can be notoriously difficult to identify to species-level using morphology. Our dataset, based on sequences generated from own material and publicly available data in BOLD, consist of 2790 DNA barcodes with a fragment length of at least 500 base pairs. A neighbor joining tree of this dataset comprises 131 well separated clusters representing 121 morphological species of Tanytarsus: 77 named, 16 unnamed and 28 unidentified theoretical species. 

 

Chironomids are notoriously common in Malaise trap collections. It comes to no surprise that a global search for data records will reveal some school samples. However, to my knowledge this is the first time such a result makes it into a research paper. In total the study includes 47 samples from Canadian schools. And here we go – congratulations to the following schools. Your data have just made it into PLoS ONE.

 

  • Belfountain Public School: Belfountain, ON
  • Centennial C.V.I.: Guelph, ON
  • John F. Ross C.V.I.: Guelph, ON
  • Hagersville Elementary School: Hagersville, ON
  • Listowel Central Public School: Listowel, ON
  • Craig Kielburger Secondary School: Milton, ON
  • Woodcrest Public School: Oshawa, ON
  • Owen Sound C.V.I.: Owen Sound, ON
  • Mornington Central School: Perth East, ON
  • Little Falls Public School: St. Marys, ON
  • St. Marys District C.V.I.: St. Marys, ON
  • Sacred Heart School: Teeswater, ON
  • Walpole Island Elementary School: Wallaceburg, ON
  • Donald A. Wilson Secondary School: Whitby, ON
Back at BIO, Fall 2015, School Malaise Trap Program

Reminder: Report Collection Volume Tomorrow!

Leave a comment

Hello #bioSMTP participants,

We hope everyone is having a good first week of insect collecting!

This email is a reminder to remove the collection bottle from Week 1 from the trap by the end of tomorrow (Sept. 25).  Be sure to secure the cap back onto to the bottle and store it out of direct sunlight (cool, dark, secure place). Remember to install the bottle for Week 2 on Monday, Sept. 28th (no collecting will take place over the weekend).

ALSO! – At some point tomorrow, don’t forgot to let us know how your collection is coming along. Refer to the tick lines marked along the side of the bottle to give us an estimate as to how many insects you have collected so far as well as how the weather has/will be for your area. If the insects fall below the first tick line, please try to do a rough count of the specimens if possible.

Please feel free to blog about your collection volume in order to share your findings with students from across Canada. You may also tweet/blog pictures of your collection bottle @SMTP_Canada. Comments are enabled on our blog so that you will be able to respond to other school’s posts!

Great work so far & happy collecting!

Sincerely,

The School Malaise Trap Program Team

Back at BIO, Fall 2015

Happy Collecting! (Day 1)

Leave a comment

Hello #bioSMTP participants!

Happy collecting on this first day of trap deployment! Several of you have been tweeting and blogging pictures and we are so glad that you have found the perfect locations for your Malaise traps! We encourage you and your class to take a “#SMTPselfie” with your trap as well as tell us about the weather in your area!
Don’t forget to start filling out the “Collection Records Spreadsheet“, as you will need to submit this document to us at the end of the program (hard or electronic copy).
Happy collecting!
Back at BIO, Fall 2015

Trap Deployment Reminder!

Leave a comment

Hello #bioSMTP participants!

We are approaching trap deployment; Sept. 21st is just around the corner! Please remember to set up your trap and have the first collection bottle ready to go on Monday morning (Sept. 21). We encourage you to set up your trap tomorrow so that come Monday morning, all you will have to do is screw in the week 1 bottle and make trap observations (store bottle lid in a place you will remember!).

Report Catch Volume
Recall that we ask you to let us know at the end of the first week how your trap is doing. We will send out another reminder, but please send us an email indicating your catch volume on Friday, Sept. 26th.

Collection Bottle Send-off
Please have your collection bottles and Malaise trap packed and ready to be sent via FedEx on Monday, Oct. 5th. Please arrange a package pick-up time with FedEx for this date. Further details will follow.

Don’t forget to keep up the great blogging work! We encourage you and your class to take a picture with your Malaise trap (#SMTPselfie) once it has been set up as well as tell us about your schoolyard habitats. Please feel free to blog, tweet, or add these pictures/comments to our FaceBook page.

If there are any questions please let us know. We are here to assist you at every step along the way and there will be more reminder emails to come!

Happy Collecting!

School Malaise Trap Program Team

Back at BIO, Fall 2015

#SMTPselfie – Share your Malaise Trap Selfie and your class could win a prize!!

Leave a comment

Once again, the School Malaise Trap Program team is continuing one of their favorite program trends…taking a selfie with the Malaise trap! We encourage all classes to participate and post your #SMTPselfie on our blog or tweet at us (@SMTP_Canada). You can also email us your selfie and we will post it on your behalf. Once a class has submitted their selfie, they will be entered into a draw for one of our prizes (yes, you can enter more than one selfie!)! Further contest/prize details to come.

Check out our #SMTPselfie below!

#SMTP selfie

Fall 2015

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2015 FALL SCHOOL MALAISE TRAP PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS!

2 Comments

Thank you to all who applied for this Fall’s 2015 version of the School Malaise Trap Program! This version, we received an overwhelming amount of applicants to the program (~ 150 schools) from across Canada. We are thrilled with this response, and it is because of your continued enthusiasm and support of the program that we have become so successful.

We are pleased to announce the following 64 sites have been accepted into the 2015 Spring School Malaise Trap Program. Congratulations to all!

2015 Fall School Malaise Trap Program Participants:

School Province or State
Fr. Scollen School AB
Holy Cross Catholic School AB
Kate Chegwin Jr. High School AB
Monsignor JS Smith AB
New Horizons School AB
St. Michael AB
Sundre High School AB
Two Hills School AB
Arrowview Elementary School BC
Brooksbank Elementary School BC
Columbia Park Elementary BC
David Hoy Elementary BC
École Cedardale BC
Glenwood Elementary School BC
James Kennedy Elementary BC
Maple Ridge Secondary BC
Mount Moresby Adventure Camp BC
Nukko Lake BC
Salt Spring Elementary School BC
West Bay Elementary School BC
Oak Lake Community School MB
Onanole Elementary MB
Belleisle Regional High School NB
Moncton High School NB
Rothesay Park School NB
Random Island Academy NL
Chedabucto Education Centre/ Guysborough Academy NS
Cobequid Educational Centre NS
Assiginack P.S. ON
Blair Outdoor Education Centre ON
Camp Heidelberg Nature Centre ON
Colchester North ON
Crestview Public School ON
Cyril Varney Public School ON
Denlow PS ON
Eastdale CI ON
Elmvale District High School ON
Hamilton District Christian High School ON
Heartland Forest Nature Centre ON
Lorne Park Public School ON
Marchmont Public School ON
Nipigon Red Rock District High School ON
Patrick Fogarty Catholic S.S. ON
St. Anthony’s School ON
Stayner Collegiate Institute ON
Swan Lake Outdoor Education Centre ON
Swansea Public School ON
The Riverwood Conservancy ON
The York School ON
Thousand Islands Intermediate and Secondary School ON
Timiskaming District Secondary School ON
Toronto Botanical Gardens ON
W. R. Best Memorial Public School ON
Warden Avenue Public School ON
Woodbine Junior High School ON
Miscouche Consolidated School PEI
École Ducharme SK
M.C. Knoll SK
Preeceville School SK
Whitewood School SK
J V Clark YT
La Jolla Library CA
San Diego Central Library CA
Scripps Ranch Library CA
Back at BIO

Introduction to DNA Barcoding: 8-Week Online Course

1 Comment
Do want to learn more about DNA Barcoding?

Are you interested in:

  • gaining an understanding of DNA-based species identification and discovery?
  • reviewing the historical framework for species identification and learning why DNA barcoding presents an advance in the identification of existing species and discovery of new species?
  • exploring barcode workflows and applications in food safety, pest and health management, bio-surveillance, habitat monitoring, ecology, and conservation biology and evolution?
  • finding out how DNA barcoding can be turned into relevant classroom experience for your  students?

downloadBIO and the University of Guelph offer an 8-week online Introduction to DNA Barcoding distance education program.  This international course brings together researchers, educators, government regulatory staff, graduate students, forensic staff, lab technicians, and museum collection staff to teach skills in DNA Barcoding and species identification and discovery.

Sign up and be part of a truly international learning experience that requires around 4-6h/week of your time.

Course Dates: June 1 to July 24, 2015. Registration is open until June 5.