Lorne Park Public School is really excited to have found the perfect location for our Malaise Trap! It’s located in our newly created « no-mow zone. » We have a hard working and inquisitive group of kid-scientists who can’t wait to discover the variety of insects that will be collected in the trap. We’re really looking forward to Monday’s official start!
On Friday we had 60 grade 5 students scout out the perfect location. We found a spot in the forest that was easy for all students to see, but clear from wayward balls flying from the sports court!!
Hello #bioSMTP participants!
Yesterday we looked for a good location for our Malaise Trap. We found a good location at the corner of the soccer field. We thought this was the best location because there are trees nearby, it is a fenced area, the grass is short, it is an area that gets a lot of sun, there are flowers nearby, and it is on level ground. We noticed that there are a lot of bugs/insects in the area already.
Today we practiced putting up the Malaise Trap. We feel that this was a good team-building exercise. On Monday we should be able to set the trap up pretty easily.
Grade 10 Science students
Grade 12 Science students
Trap is up – lots of fun fiddling with the loops and lines 🙂 Took longer than I am willing to admit for an avid camper to figure out this special tent!
Bottles are prepared and ready in the office to be added to the Trap come first thing Monday morning. Excitement (and flying insects) is in the air!
Stayner Collegiate Students having fun setting up the trap!
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
Our perfect place is visible from our outdoor classroom and close to the lake and wetlands. Easily roped off from the play area, we are excited to see what we can catch!
We received our shipping box, and will go over the materials and videos this coming week. Lots to learn! Thinking about the particular site we’ll use… maybe forest, maybe open field. We’ll assemble and disassemble the trap this week as a dry run so we’ll be all set for the Sept 21 start of actual collecting. Looking forward to it!
Walking the site today we have been keeping an eye out for the best place to place our trap as we do our site walks today. We cannot wait to get students involved in helping us set up and monitor the trap. Since we will have different school groups every day of the monitoring cycle, we are still working on how best to expose them to the program. The excitement builds!