Hi Nicholas,

Waaaay back when I was a graduate student, I volunteered at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul. One of the exhibits I worked in was called "Backyard Monsters: The World of Insects." I did a lot of activities with visitors to help them learn all about insects, bugs, and arachnids. Sometimes I would walk around the exhibit with a scorpion in a Riker mount so people could look at one up close. Did you know that "bug" is actually a technical term? True bugs are insects belonging to the order Hemiptera that have specifc types of mouth parts and wing shapes.

Here is a link to a really old web site with some of the things I learned about insects from the exhibit -

http://ham.space.umn.edu/kris/science.html

Kris

Hi Nicholas,

In my free time, I like to spend time gardening. I'm fascinated by watching plants grow and change, and as a result of this hobby, I have spent quite a bit of time learning about plants. In particular, I live in Texas, and so I've gotten to know a lot of native central Texas plants, which require less water and are better at surviving the summer heat. Mostly this learning has been trial and error to see what lives and what doesn't survive!

Enjoy your studies!

-Randi