Making an insect collection is a required portion of this course; it represents 20 percent of the overall grade. Your collection, along with the equipment we check out to you at the beginning of the semester, must be turned in by November 6, 2009.
Your textbook does not cover methods of collecting and preserving insect specimens, but an inexpensive collecting reference (How to Collect and Preserve Insects, $6.00) is available at the Information Desk of the Illinois Natural History Survey, I Building, 1816 S. Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820.
Good places to collect include ... south farms, Hartley Gardens, Crystal Lake Park, and Meadowbrook gardens (NOT the Meadowbrook prairie). You will receive directions to these places during the first week of lab. Don't forget to look: under rocks and logs, in soil (you can use a Berlese funnel to extract the insects and other invertebrates), in leaf litter, in basements and bathrooms, and around lights. Think small!!! We will also go collecting as a group during labs 2 and 3 and on one or two optional Saturdays.
Grading:
The grading system outlined below gives you the opportunity to earn 188 points. Your score will be converted to a percentage of 175 points (so you can earn a little extra credit by meeting all the maximums), and that percentage will be applied to the 20 points which your collection is worth in the overall grade for the course. For example, if you receive 159 points using the system below, 159/175 = 91 percent; 91 percent of 200 points is 182, so your collections would earn 182 of the possible 200 points for the "insect collection" category of your overall grade.
- correctly identified orders, 3.5 points each for the first 12, for 42 possible points
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additional correctly identified orders, 2 points each, to a maximum of 16 points
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correctly identified families, 2 points each for the first 15, for 30 possible points
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additional correctly identified families, 1 point each, to a maximum of 15 points
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number of species included, 1 point each for the first 30, for 30 possible points
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additional species, 0.5 points each, to a maximum of 15 points
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non-insect arthropods, at 0.5 points each, to a maximum of 2.5 points
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insect products (galls, nests, cocoons, etc. ... but NOT honey ... at 0.5 points each, to a maximum of 2.5 points
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QUALITY OF CURATION: 35 points. Good curation includes the condition of the specimens, collection data, and correct label format. (One can earn scores of 0 to 5 in this category for very poorly prepared collections.)
See the examples of good collections provided in the lab!!! |
