Wasp wrangling may sound like risky business, especially
for children. But it’s actually quite safe, according
to UGA entomologist Robert Matthews, as long as the critters
are WOWBugs™ — wasps so tiny that their stingers
can’t penetrate human skin. These insects, said Matthews,
are an excellent vehicle for teaching science.
In collaboration with UGA science education colleagues and
about 100 Georgia middle school science teachers, Matthews
has developed 20 different classroom activities using WOWBugs.
“The first lesson is handling the organism,” he
said.
Students practice sweeping the bugs across their desks with
paint brushes. In a second lesson, called WOWBug Racetrack,
students learn how to collect and analyze data. They record
the time it takes for the flightless wasps to scuttle from
one end of the track to the other.
Matthews and his colleagues have studied this wasp’s
biology for more than 30 years, but he first recognized its
potential as a teaching tool when he was in graduate school.
“They literally found me,” he said of the discovery
that WOWBugs had infested his thesis experiment involving
a bee. From this fiasco, Matthews learned of the wasp’s
hardiness and short (24-day) life cycle, which makes it a
convenient animal to study.
He named these bugs WOWBugs because of the enthusiasm they
generated.
“They were originally called Fast Wasps in allusion
to their rapid life cycle,” he said. “Unfortunately,
the name did not have good marketing appeal as it conjured
up a quick sting!”
Not much bigger than a flea, the parasitic wasp (Melittobia
digitata) preys on a wide variety of solitary bees and wasps,
including mud daubers — large, black wasps that make
mud nests. And this tiny bug has some fascinating characteristics — the
male, for example “is most un-insect looking,” said
Matthews. “He’s blind, his antler-like antennae
are grotesquely modified and he’s got little stumps
for wings.” This compromised chap’s pheromones
let him do his procreative duty, however, as long as he can
steer clear of other males who will try to kill him.
In any case, teachers are enthusiastic about using WOWBugs.
Brenda Hunt, of North Habersham Middle School in Clarkesville,
Ga., teaches her students how to collect wild specimens by
scraping mud dauber nests off the sides of buildings. “I
also tell them,” she said, “not to use their
mothers’ spatulas without permission.”
“Fifteen years ago, if you had said WOWBugs were going
to go national or international in the next decade or so,
I would have said you’re crazy,” Matthews said. “But
it’s becoming another model organism for classroom
use at all levels.”
Building the New Learning Environment
The new learning environment is an academic and intellectual
community on the campus of the University of Georgia humming
with the vibrancy of the true college experience—bright
and talented students working with brilliant faculty formally
in the classroom and informally over a cup of coffee or lounging
in the greenspace which stretches from one end of campus to
the other. It is a place which recognizes that new information
technologies are transforming traditional academic disciplines
and embraces those opportunities. |
In
collaboration with UGA science education colleagues and about 100
Georgia middle school science teachers, Matthews has developed 20
different classroom activities using WOWBugs.
