I N S TA N T S Y M P O S I U M 7
Engaging Undergraduate Students
in Insect Biology
Through Forensic
Entomology
DAVID B. RIVERS
T
eaching any course focused on insect
biology at liberal arts colleges and
universities offers unique challenges. First,
such institutions, with only a few exceptions, are smaller than universities that
confer traditional degrees. Consequently, an entomologist is usually the only
“spineless” faculty member on campus,
meaning there are no peers who teach or
conduct research on any type of invertebrate. “Insects” as subject matter represent
a second challenging aspect to being an
entomologist on a small campus, and the
reasons often depend on the geographic
location of the institution. For example,
insects are intimately linked to agriculture, and as a result, many topics in an
entomology course examine the bases and
consequences of relationships between
insects, crops, livestock, and other agricultural commodities. However, students
from large cities and other regions where
agriculture is not emphasized in pre-college curricula generally do not relate to
such topics. Despite these challenges,
one universal connection to entomology,
regardless of location, is that many individuals on campus, and not just students,
think of entomologists as part of a freak
show and insects as the sideshow. After
all, you cannot be normal if you willingly
work with insects. (There is some validity
to that thought!)
One of the biggest challenges to teaching entomology is the changing ecosystem of college campuses. Individual programs and departments face increased
micromanagement of course enrollments
and mounting pressure to provide realworld job training, as opposed to traditional liberal arts education. The reaction of many life science administrators
has been to concentrate on medical and
allied-health-related fields while reducing the curricular offerings in survey and
population biology courses (Wilcove and
Eisner 2000). Further, such trends have
American Entomologist • Volume 62, Number 2
Fig. 1. Undergraduate students at Loyola University Maryland, processing a mock crime scene
on campus in early April. Stillborn fetal pigs or fresh roadkill serve as the surrogate corpses.
Steel cages are necessary in an urban environment to keep feral cats, rats, and raccoons from
stealing the carcasses. Photo by D.B. Rivers.
not been criticized by student clientele,
who demonstrate increasing interests
in allied-health-focused biology perhaps more now than at any previous
time. Most students arriving on campus intent upon pursuing a life science
degree have the goal of a medical or
allied health career upon graduation.
In biology programs holding fast to a
broad life sciences education, typically
all majors must complete at least one
population biology course. As might be
imagined, such students may begin the
journey into a course such as entomology with a less-than-enthusiastic mindset.
They may feel “forced” into a class they
do not want or think they need. This
may lead to dislike of the subject matter from the onset. Other students view
insects as creatures to be feared, so their
phobia begins to crescendo with enrollment in an insect-based course. There
are few students who actually want to
take such courses. This depiction does
not represent every institution, but it
does reflect many.
As the lone “spineless” faculty member
at my institution for the past 21 years,
I have used a wide range of classroom
techniques and approaches designed
to engage reluctant students in insect
biology, with the hopes that they will
find interest and awe in a novel subject.
Some of the innovations have worked
(Rivers 2006), while others have fallen
short of this goal. One technique that
seems to work especially well, however, is focused on forensic entomology.
Death and the macabre draw student
audiences. Throw in maggots moving in
and out of body orifices, and they are
captivated (Fig. 1).
The Forensic Entomology
Curriculum
Why are students more interested in
“bugs” in the realm of forensic entomology than when discussed in other
contexts? The explanation is centered in
part with the “CSI effect” stemming from
public fascination with crime shows (Rivers and Dahlem 2014). Augmenting that
curiosity are maggot topics addressed
by television programs like Dirty Jobs,
MythBusters (both airing on the Discovery
Channel), and others that help perpetuate the “gross, yet fascinating” effect. My
students have found the idea of using fly
maggots to solve murders to be intriguing.
More importantly, students with this point
of view may be displaying a different level
of intellectual curiosity than those being
“forced” to take a traditional population
biology course.
Obviously, one has to be cautious when
developing an undergraduate course relying on such a narrow topic with a very
applied theme. One criticism is that the
course is nothing more than pandering to
student desires, possibly serving as a selfish attempt to ensure course enrollments.
On the surface, perhaps both arguments
119
have merit. However, an examination
of the course topics, laboratory exercises, and assessment tools reveals a much
different story (Table 1). A forensic entomology course can serve as an excellent
vehicle for exploring key concepts in biology, ecology, and entomology by engaging student interests. The course I have
developed explores many of the same
concepts that a traditional entomology
course includes (e.g., succession, competition, parasitism/predation, growth and
development, environmental influences,
seasonal adaptations, morphology, and
taxonomy), as well as a small insect collection with identifications that are much
more specific to the topic. For example,
all Dipteran and Coleopteran specimens
are required to be identified to genus and
species, while any other insects should be
identified to family. Identification specificity is due to the fact that collections are
used in the context of crime scene processing and expert witness reports, and
thus the insects represent physical evidence obtained from mock crime scenes
set up around campus. The latter is the
key to motivating students in tedious
taxonomic work; they enjoy the application to mock crime scenes, a feature
that seems to be universal to high school
students and undergraduates (Schoenly
et al. 2006). Involvement in real-world
projects or authentic enterprise is also
an important experience for students to
develop their own identity as scientists
and making informed decisions about
career paths (Thiry et al. 2011).
Conclusions
The primary goal of using forensic entomology to teach undergraduates is not to
convert all enrollees to entomology. No,
the world can only stomach so many of
us at a time! Rather, the discipline serves
as a thematic framework for engaging
otherwise disinterested students into topics and concepts essential for broadly
trained biologists. Does the forensic entomology curriculum work? If the desired
outcomes are increased student interest,
motivation, and learning, the answer is
unequivocally yes. Subsequent student
enrollments in my general entomology course and involvement in research
have also increased, an indication of sustained student interest in insect biology.
Many other conceptual themes could also
be well suited for this type of curricular
design, and should be based on the interests and backgrounds of students and
instructors. Hearing students comment to
their peers that they cannot wait to take
forensic entomology is not only gratifying, but also bodes well for the future of
our discipline.
References Cited
Rivers, D. 2006. Teaching general entomology to disinterested undergraduates. Am.
Entomol. 52(1): 24-28.
Rivers, D.B., and G.A. Dahlem. 2014. The science of forensic entomology. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, West Sussex, U.K.
Schoenly, K.G., N.H. Haskell, D.K. Mills, C.
Bieme-Ndi, K. Larsen, and Y. Lee. 2006.
Recreating death’s acre in the school yard:
Use of pig carcasses as model corpses to
Table 1. Example content from the lecture and laboratory components of an
undergraduate forensic entomology course taught at Loyola University Maryland.
Lecture
Laboratory
Insect use in legal investigations
Examination of general external and internal
morphology
Short introduction to morphology, growth, and
development
Morphological characters of forensically
important flies and beetles
Necrophagous fly reproduction
Rearing forensically important species
Chemical communication and signaling in
carrion communities
Collection and preservation techniques
Natural and artificial influences on succession
Group case analyses
Applied topics of insects and death, abuse/
neglect, terrorism
Examination of physical decomposition under a
range of conditions
Modeling insect growth, degree days, and
estimating the postmortem interval
Field trip to morgue
Specialized topics on forensic
archaeoentomology and deadly insects
Crime scene investigation: A multi-week
capstone project using mock crime scenes for
processing, analyses, and presentation
120
teach concepts of forensic entomology and
ecological succession. Am. Biol. Teacher
68(7): 402-410.
Thiry, H., S.L. Laursen, and A.-B. Hunter.
2011. What experiences help students become scientists?: A comparative study of
research and other sources of personal
and professional gains for STEM. J. Higher Ed. 82(4): 357-388.
Wilcove, D., and T. Eisner. 2000. The extinction of natural history. Chronicle Higher
Ed. Sep. 14: 1324.
David B. Rivers, Department of Biology, Loyola
University Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland 21210,
410-617-2057, [email protected]
DOI:
10.1093/ae/tmw029
I N S TA N T S Y M P O S I U M 8
Stimulating
Curiosity and
Engagement with
Insects Beyond the
College Classroom
Through Citizen
Science
DEREK W. ROSENBERGER
AND BRIAN H. AUKEMA
M
any professional entomologists
were first introduced to the study of
insects through a college biology course,
yet little work has been published demonstrating effective means of stimulating
curiosity and engagement with insects
beyond such first exposures. At many
small liberal arts colleges, a single introductory course in entomology or invertebrate biology may be all that is offered.
This limitation increases a need to understand effective pedagogies that stimulate
further engagement of students.
Undergraduate research experiences
are particularly effective at stimulating
the pursuit of graduate programs in science-related fields post-graduation (Lopatto 2007). While we often perceive research
experiences to be grounded behind a
lab bench, course-based undergraduate research experiences can also promote continued engagement with science
(reviewed in Corwin et al. 2015). However, instructors of introductory courses
are often limited in time and resources,
American Entomologist • Summer 2016