Dear Friends,
Tomorrow is #GivingTuesday and this year, the School Malaise Trap Program will be part of a crowdfunding campaign through @UofG! Through your generous support we hope to keep this unique #CitizenScience program alive for students across Canada.
Please share/donate today! #DNAbarcoding #EnviroEd
Hello #bioSMTP participants!
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
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!
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!
| 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 |
Hello All,
This week, BIO has been hosting live virtual tours of our BIObus (our field research vehicle). During these tours students have been learning about different insect trapping methods, insect orders, and have had the chance to interact with our expert!
Can you name the insect trapping methods pictured below?
BIO has also been collecting specimens this week. Check out our week 2 bottle below!
Happy Collecting!
Hello All,
We’ve had some lovely weather here in Guelph, ON over the past week and we thought that this would be a good time to set up our Malaise trap here at BIO which we use for spring/summer/fall educational programming!
You can already see that the attached ethanol bottle (see the dark and cloudy areas) has collected a few insects (mostly flies).
However, there are more than just flies out there! Over the weekend, one of our E&O team members spotted a Leaf-footed bug on her balcony.
Reminder: Trap deployment is Monday, April 20th. Now would be a great time to finalize the location of your Malaise Trap. You may also wish to set up your Malaise trap on Friday, April 17th so that come Monday morning, all you will have to do is screw in the week 1 ethanol bottle and make trap observations.
We look forward to seeing what you collect!
Exploring Insect Identification and Trapping Methods
Date: Wednesday, March 25th/2015 Time: 9:00am-3:00pm
Outdoor educators have always known that insects are amazing classroom study organisms! They are easy to collect and have a fascinating array of life histories. Insects are also important indicators of ecosystem health and are an integral part of every park, schoolyard and habitat surrounding us. Come enhance your knowledge of the world of insects with us at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (BIO)!
This workshop is specially designed to teach outdoor educators about the Malaise trap, a tent-like apparatus used for the collection of flying insects, as well as insect identification, classification
The Biodiversity Institute of Ontario at the University of Guelph is an institute dedicated to the study of biodiversity, particularly at the species level. BIO is also the birthplace of DNA barcoding, whereby short, standardized gene sequences are used to accelerate species discovery and identification. BIO is home to several world-class biodiversity experts and entomologists who are eager to share their knowledge with you!
Enrollment is limited to 30 participants.
Pre-registration is required
Registration Deadline: Friday, March 13th/2015
Registration fee is $50.00 +HST. (Please make cheques payable to The Biodiversity Institute of Ontario)
Date: Wednesday, March 25th/2015
Time: 9:00am – 3:00pm
*Light breakfast, snack & coffee/tea provided (Please inform us of any dietary restrictions)*
Lunch: Available for purchase on campus
Location:
The Biodiversity institute of Ontario
University of Guelph
50 Stone Rd. East
Guelph, ON. N1G 2W1
Pre-register:
Contact Vanessa Breton
P: 519-824-4120 x 58125
E: bretonv@uoguelph.ca
Happy Halloween from everyone at BIO!
It may have been a cold and rainy day here in Guelph, but that definitely did not dampen our Halloween spirit!
Hello School Malaise Trap Program participants,
So far, our Collections team here at BIO has provided you with amazing first-hand accounts of what happens to your specimens once they arrive at our facilities to be DNA barcoded. During this blog post, we are going to show you what our facilities and the DNA barcoding process looks like.
Below, you will find an educational video which explains the first steps towards ultimately obtaining a DNA barcode – sorting and imaging your specimen.
Stay tuned for our next video which will showcase our lab and sequencing processes!
