Welcome to the Entomology student organizations!
Sun, 12/05/2010 - 09:07 | jstanford
Our organizations consist of the Entomology Graduate Student Association (EGSA) and the joint Undergraduate Entomology Club (UEC). The UW EGSA comprises all graduate students in the department as well as undergraduate students who have declared a major in entomology. The association hosts several departmental functions each year, including the Spring Picnic and the EGSA Thanksgiving Dinner. The clubs also organize insect collecting field trips, bug trading nights and insect movie nights. EGSA established and manages the Kinney Merit Award that provides support for graduate student enrichment, usually for costs associated with attending scientific meetings. EGSA also coordinates a Linnaean Games team that competes in an exciting question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university student teams. EGSA sells various entomology related items for fundraising like shirts and mugs. The EGSA provides a student voice for departmental affairs by holding elected seats on all departmental committees, promotes social interactions and serves the community by educating about the importance of insects and science through the Insect Ambassadors program.
Current Committe Members of EGSA
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President: Charles Mason
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Vice President: Rachel Mallinger
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Fundraising/Treasurer: JolieneLindholm
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Colloquium: Margaret Thairu
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Finance/Awards: Allison Dehnel
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Academic Affairs: Xia Lee
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Research: Jesse Pfammatter
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Extension: Anders Huseth
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Finance Member At Large: Natalie Hernandez
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Alternate Finance MemberAt Large: Rachel Arango
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Insect Ambassadors: Jesse Pfammatter
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Undergraduate Entomology Club: Ali Kane
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Spring Picnic
This year’s spring picnic was held inside due to rain but was just as enjoyable as ever. Thank you everyone for contributing dishes to share.
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Thanksgiving Dinner
This year we deep fried TWO! turkeys that turned out deliciously. Thank you to Charlie for cooking the turkeys, Rachel for organizing and everyone else for bringing dishes to flush out the meal. This years raffle prizes included a bottle of wild turkey, a whole turkey, a T-shirt, and coupons for the snack bar.
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Field Trips
Insect field collecting trips are generally 2-4 day trips to nearby states to collect insects. Often people camp out and collect at several locations throughout the trip. Frequently people in the advanced taxonomy courses attend the field trips and are able to get many families needed for the collections. Past field trips have included Missouri, southern Illinois, and Louisiana. This year there was a camping trip to southern tip of Illinois at the lake Glendale recreation area June 24-26th.
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Movie Night
Movie night is generally dedicated to insect movies of all kinds from children’s animated movies like Ants to C horror movies like Mothra. Students can enjoy some snacks and entertainment and possibly work on insect collections.
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Bug Trading Night
Bug trading night is a chance for students in the intro to entomology course 302 and other advanced taxonomy courses to exchange insects in order to complete their required collections. Students can ask questions of the students in the advanced courses and everyone can chat about insect taxonomy. People usually bring snacks to share. The next bug trading night will be Dec 13th from 8-10pm!
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Kinney Merit Award
EGSA established and manages the Kinney Merit Award in memory of Karl Kinney that provides support for graduate student enrichment, usually for costs associated with attending scientific meetings. These costs may include registration fees, travel and lodging. The Kinney Award is administered by EGSA, which puts out a call for applications once per semester. The award cannot solve all financial problems and financial inequities for entomology students. Rather, the fund is to provide a limited number of annual merit awards to deserving students. The competitive nature of these awards is meant to encourage students to strive for excellence in their work. The EGSA Development Fund was created for and should be used for the following purposes:
- To honor highly meritorious students.
- To provide financial support for individual students to attend professional meetings and workshops or to travel to research locations.
- To provide limited financial support for student publication costs.
Karl Kinney
For more information see the Kinney Merit Award section on the Funding Information page.
Linnaean Games
The ESA Linnaean games are a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts played between university-sponsored student teams. It is an important and entertaining component of the ESA Annual Meeting. Each team is comprised of four players. The teams score points by answering questions correctly. The winning team wins an inscribed trophy cups for each team member and a plaque for the team's department. The runners-up win a certificate for each team member and a plaque for the team's department. In addition to the national game, the ESA Branches conduct their own Linnaean game competitions at their yearly Branch meetings. The winning team and the runner-up both go on to the national competition. (http://www.entsoc.org/am/cm/linngame) This year our team made it to the North Central Branch semi-finals!
Videos of the games are available at http://www.youtube.com/entsoc
Entomology Items
T-shirts $12
An artistic representation of an accurate phylogenetic tree
grey shirts in small, medium or large
Mugs $8
White mugs with centennial logo
Canvas Bags $10
Tan canvas bags with a monarch butterfly and UW Entomology
Insect Ambassadors
The Insect Ambassadors are a select group of enthusiastic graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These students volunteer their time to travel to local schools, clubs, and organizations to give interactive presentations about insects and related arthropods. The purpose of the program is to teach members of the audience about insects, where they live, how they survive and the positive things they do for our environment. In addition to presenting live and preserved arthropods, Insect Ambassadors provide facts and fascinating stories. Through the program, Insect Ambassadors hope to stimulate children and adults to learn and seek out information.
Contact information for Insect Ambassadors:
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Insect Ambassadors, UW-Madison Department of Entomology
237 Russell Labs, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706 - FAX: 608-262-3322
- E-mail: insectambassadors@entomology.wisc.edu
For more information go to http://labs.russell.wisc.edu/insectambassadors/
