About CSB and SJU | Academics | Admission | Alumnae/i and Friends | Arts and Culture | News, Events and Sports | Student Life


Biology Department Newsletter

Volume 6    Number 5    December 13, 2002

Letter from the Editor (menu)
    This is the last issue of the newsletter for the new year.  I hope that you enjoy this "Christmas Issue".  One of my hobbies is to study the biology of holidays.  Below you'll find a few biological tidbits that relate to Christmas.  I'm always on the lookout for others if you find some.  I wish you a joyous holiday season and always welcome contributions to the newsletter.  Please send them to me.  Until next year.....

Student News (menu)

Alex Mettler (SJU '01) is currently gathering telemetry data for the USFWS red wolf recovery project in the Alligator River NWR on the northeast coast of North Carolina.  He is planning to attend Utah State to study livestock predation. 

Faculty News (menu)

Dr. Marcus Webster, in his capacity as Biology Division Editor of the Council for Undergraduate Research Quarterly, reviewed 5 manuscripts this fall that were submitted to the journal for possible publication.  Papers that were considered included one on a case study in mathematical biology, GIS applications in undergraduate research, and an article about campus-wide research symposia by student researchers.

Dr. William Lamberts gave a talk at the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography.  It was based on research done with various CSB students including M McInnis and Gina Lux.  The title of the presentation was "Predation on Daphnia by Chaoborus americanus: the adaptive significance of heart rate elevation."

Dr. Larry Davis gave a presentation at Southern Utah University entitled, "The Channeled Scablands Controversy and the Negative Impact of Uniformitarianism on Thinking in the Geosciences."  He was also keynote speaker at the biannual convention of  Sigma Gamma Epsilon and the title of his talk was, "The Chambered Nautilus:  Portrait of a Living Fossil."  Davis also co-lead a field trip to Zion National Park and was re-elected as national vice-president for Sigma Gamma Epsilon chapters in the central region.

Curriculum News  (menu)

Biology of the Pacific Northwest
     This course will be offered Summer 2003.  For more information contact Dr. G Brown or Dr. L Davis.

Faculty Changes During Spring '02
     During the spring semester two faces that will be absent from the Biology Department.  Dr. J Poff will spend the semester in the Southern Hemisphere directing the CSB/SJU Study Abroad program in Australia.  He will leave in January and return in early summer.  Dr. S Saupe will be on sabbatical in the spring.  He will be in and out of his office working in the Bailey Herbarium and on several writing projects including a book about the flora of St. John's.  If you need to talk to Dr. Saupe, contact him via email or leave a voice message (x2782) and he will contact you to set up a meeting time.

Calendar of Events (menu)

Dec 11Environmental Studies Presentations - Pendulum Area, New Science; 10:00 AM
Dec 12Biology Club Christmas Party - PENGL Student Lounge, 5:00 pm
Dec 13Virology Class Poster Session - Pendulum Area, New Science; 11:30 am- 12:30 pm
Dec 21Christmas Bird Count - sponsored by Central Minnesota Audubon Society; Heritage Nature Center, 8:00 am
Feb 18Minnesota Private College Job & Internship Fair - Mpls Convention Center
Feb 28Career Day - University of Minnesota
Mar 19Summer Job and Internship Fair, Alumni Lounge, SJU
Mar 25Environmental-Related Careers; Quad 170, SJU
April 12All Campus Scholarship Day - CSB/SJU
June 28Society for Conservation Biology Meeting - Duluth, MN

Biology Club News (menu)

Biology Club Christmas Party
     Once again, the Biology club is hosting a Christmas party, to which everyone is invited.  We have been having good turnouts at all of our events thus far this year, so we hope to have a large number of students attending.  The party will be Thursday, the 12th, from 5:00 till about 6:00 or so, and it will again be in the Student Lounge in Peter Engel Science Center. See ya there...and there's a good chance that even Santa will make an appearance!

Biology Club Officers:

Scholarships/Graduate Study (menu)

New Opportunities - you can also visit the External Scholarship Office or website for more information

Budweiser Conservation Scholarship Program
     Anheuser-Busch and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation are seeking applicants for this year's Budweiser Conservation Scholarship Program. The scholarship program supports and promotes innovative research and/or study that responds to today's most pressing conservation issues. Under the program, $10,000 scholarships will be awarded to deserving students to cover direct expenses related to their tuition, fees, books, room and board and other costs related to their studies.

     This is the Budweiser Conservation Scholarship Program's 3rd year of  implementation. Last year, 20, $10,000 scholarships were awarded to deserving undergraduate and graduate students from institutions of higher learning across North America (for your reference, attached please find a copy of the press announcement detailing the winners). Scholarships are awarded based upon merit. The judges take into consideration the student's academic achievements and their ability and commitment to develop innovative solutions that are designed to address real and pressing issues affecting fish, wildlife and plant conservation efforts.

This year, we're hoping to increase the number of applicants applying for these scholarships and give more students an opportunity to ease the burden of paying for their education while pursuing their interests in environmental/conservation research and recovery. Therefore, we're hoping that you might run an item in your publication announcing this opportunity for deserving students. Materials are available on-line The deadline for submitting applications and supporting documentation is January 17, 2003.
Links for Scholarships/Grants/Fellowships for Graduate Study

Jobs/Volunteer (menu)

U of MN Biological Sciences – Career Day
The annual Career Day will be held Friday, February 28, from 11AM-3PM at the McNamara Center on the U of MN Mpls Campus.  For more information, contact Ed Stubblefield; Associate Director; Career Services; College of Saint Benedict; St. Joseph, MN  56374-2099

E-Link
    E-link is an on-line career tool available to CSB/SJU students and alums.  It is a service of the Career Resource Office and can help you find a job, info on a major, access the career calendar of events and lots of other cool stuff.  For more information, contact the Career Resource Office.

Conservation Careers - check out the Nov/Dec 2002 issue of the MN Conservation Volunteer.

Web Sites:

Internships/Research (menu)

Chicago Botanic Garden Conservation and Land Management Mentoring Program
     The Chicago Botanic Garden is offering five-month paid internships to assist professional staff at the Bureau of Land Management offices for work with the Endangered Species Act and related conservation issues.  For more information contact Dr. Kayri Havens, Chicago Botanic Garden; 1000 Lake Cook Road; Glencoe, IL  60022

Assorted Opportunities

Links to Summer Research


Internship Links

Links for Undergraduate Research

 

Seminars/Symposia/Field Trips (menu)

Environmental Studies Class Presentations
     Dr. Webster's Environmental Science class (Bio 109) will present their research projects in a Poster Session at the Pendulum on Wed. Dec. 11 at 10:00 am.  Stop by to talk to the students about their work and to celebrate their achievements.  Free donuts and coffee to all attendees.

Central Minnesota Audubon - Christmas Bird Count
The annual Christmas Bird Count will be held on Saturday December 21st. Meet at 8:00 am to assign territories and counting groups.  For more information contact S Saupe (x2782) or visit their website.

Call for Abstracts (Papers and Posters): 17th Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology.  28 June - 2 July 2003, Duluth, MN
     The 17th Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology will be held 28 June - 2 July 2003 in Duluth, Minnesota, USA. The local organizing committee is now accepting abstracts for invited symposia, oral and poster presentations. The theme of the meeting, Conservation of Land and Water Interactions, will focus attention on water, forests, wetlands, the Great Lakes and other large lakes and rivers of the world, marine and coastal systems, and associated biodiversity issues. Please note that the topics for invited symposia have already been selected, and that abstracts for symposium presentations are by invitation only.

     Abstracts should be submitted for oral and poster presentations and for invited symposia. Instructions for preparing your abstract are available on the meeting Web site. Please follow the instructions carefully, including all requested information and formatting. Any abstract with errors or omissions will be returned to the sender for correction and runs the risk of missing the abstract submission deadline. Abstracts should be submitted electronically via the meeting Web site. Please visit the URL given below, and note that Web submission is strongly encouraged.

     All abstracts must be received by 10 JANUARY 2003. The local organizing committee will attempt to notify all authors by 21 February 2003 regarding the outcome of the review process.  For More Information: University of Minnesota Duluth, Continuing Education; 251 Darland, 1049 University Drive; Duluth, MN  55812-3011;  Phone: 218-726-7810 --  Fax: 218-726-633; E-mail, web site.

Volunteers Wanted for Society for Conservation Biology's 17th Annual Meeting
     The Student Volunteer Committee is now in the process of establishing a database of volunteers for the meeting.  Volunteer assignments will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis, depending on your registration number in the on-line database.  In other words, the sooner you get your name and contact information into the online volunteer database, the better your selection of volunteer assignments will be.  As an added incentive for volunteering, the first 100 students who commit to volunteering 12 hours at the conference will have their registration fees waived in exchange for their time. (Additional volunteers will receive reduced registration fees for their time.)

     To get your name in the volunteer database, fill out the volunteer form ON-LINE.  The student volunteer committee will start matching volunteers with their preferred assignments in April, once the Executive Committee finalizes the scientific program.  Come help us make this the best-run SCB Annual Meeting ever!  If you have any questions, please contact David Grandmaison via EMAIL. 

Miscellaneous  (menu)

Global Awareness
     A recent geo-quiz published by National Geographic showed that among 18- to 24-year-old Americans, 87% couldn't find Iraq on a map, 70% couldn't find New Jersey, and a whopping 11% couldn't find the U.S.!  For more information and to test yourself, visit their website.

An EMT Report - by Laura Steinkraus (CSB, So Philosophy Major)
      A couple of weeks ago I was on call for the EMT squad, hanging out at St. John’s, when I got a page. It was for a medical emergency, “a possible concussion,” at the training room.  I had just been taking the pager for a couple hours as a favor for one of my friends, and didn’t know who else was on call that day.  I found that out when I got to the call- no one!  This was my fourth call total, and I was going to have to take it by myself.

      When I got there, there was no one around with any information on the patient, so I started with an initial survey and a series of questions. The patient looked fine at first, and so it would have been easy to underestimate the damage that had been done. I asked the usual orientation questions, but did not get the usual answers. The patient had no idea what had happened or how he had gotten to the training room. He did not know the day or month, but was able to tell me his name, social security number, and residence. The last thing he could remember had taken place a couple of weeks earlier. I took his vitals, which were within the normal range, asked him some more routine questions, and called the medical director for advice. She said that as long as his vitals were normal, we could send him with a friend to the hospital to get checked out, which is what we did.

      Later I found out from a couple of his friends that he had been playing rugby, gone up for a tackle, and gotten kneed in the head by another player. He was not wearing his helmet at the time. The friends denied any loss of consciousness. The patient was a friend so I checked up on him the next day and throughout the next week.  The first time I saw him afterwards he said he still didn’t remember anything.  He had woken up the next morning with a hospital band on his wrist and no idea what his classes for the day were.  He admitted to having had several concussions in the past, most recently one at the beginning of the summer similar to the current one but with effects that were much shorter lasting. In the days that followed, the patient began to remember more about the weeks before the concussion, and eventually part of the day that it occurred.

       Before the call, I really didn’t know anything specific about concussions. So I asked my dad (a doctor) if he had any information he could share. He sent me several links to websites that were very helpful. The symptoms my friend was experiencing were consistent with a serious grade two concussion. In fact, the requirements for a grade two concussion are “transient confusion” and “amnesia that lasts longer than fifteen minutes,” which the patient certainly exhibited and more, including delayed responses, confusion, inability to focus, disorientation, slurred speech, and repeatedly asking questions that had already been answered.

      The consequences of such a concussion could be potentially life threatening, especially for successive injuries.  Each subsequent concussion increases the odds of brain damage and permanent memory loss.  My friend is doing much better now, and I have him to thank for my increased awareness about sports injuries.         

Water Quality Report - MN Pollution Control Agency
     Glenn Skuta (SJU '90) is currently with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency,  He forwarded to me a copy of a study they published in September 2002 entitled, "Water Quality Reconstruction from Fossil Diatoms:  Applications for Trend Assessment, Model Verification, and Development of Nutrient Criteria for Lakes in Minnesota, USA."  Lake Sag is included in this report.  I have given the report to Dr. Gordon Brown (PENGL 339).  For more information, contact Dr. Brown or G Skuta at the MN PCA. 

Sister Phyllis Donates Books
     Many thanks to Sister Phyllis Plantenberg, CSB Land Manager and former faculty member in the Biology Department, for donating a large stack of books to the Bailey Herbarium and our environmental studies program.

Hello from China - from Dr. W Lamberts  (This is a note from Bill as he wraps up his semester-long experience in China, ed.)

     I’m at the end of my duties as director of the China study abroad program.  The students are beginning to leave Beibei, and I’m packing up my apartment.  On Thursday I hit the road.

     Last night was the banquet.  The Waiban office threw a dinner for us to bid us farewell.  The president of the University was there, as were our teachers and the more important Waiban staff.  The president and I both made speeches (we were both quite eloquent, but the way), and gifts were exchanged.  I got a lovely traditional landscape painting – massive mountains with tiny temples and people.  The students chipped in and got me a nice piece of calligraphy, with the characters for the words guidance, wisdom/knowledge, friendship and respect.  I was quite touched.  It’s been a great time, but I think we’re all ready to leave here.  A couple of students are heading back home right away, and several plan to be home just before Christmas.  The rest return on Jan 6, as do I.  Most are headed south, either to Yunnan province or to Hainan Island to hit the beach.  A number of them are planning to converge in Shanghai for New Year’s.

     I’m heading out to Chengdu for a while.  It was a fun place when we were there before, and there are lots of westerners hanging about.  I want to pick up some travel tips and maybe hook up with some travel partners.  I’ll take the train down to an industrial city named Panzhihua and then bus over to Lijiang.  The latter is often referred to as “Shangri-la.”  It’s in the edge of the Tibetan Plateau, and is supposed to be spectacular.  There’s a Nature Conservancy project going on there of which I was promised a tour.  From there the plan is to go south to Dali, a backpacker hangout, and then on to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan.  Eventually I’ll make my way back to Beijing, maybe by train, and then fly home.  It’s a bit hard for me to know if I’m at the end of something or the beginning.

    I’ve been surprisingly busy here with teaching and lots of miscellaneous business.  The Aquatic Ecology course I taught got time-consuming towards the end.  The students presented me flowers at the end of the last class (“We think you will be our teacher always,” said the presenters).  Again, I was touched.

     Now I’ve got to assign grades for my senior seminar (grading's all done!) and fax the grades for the other classes that the students took from the Chinese teachers.  A few more bills to pay, some more packing, and I’m ready to go.

     Oh yeah, bowling league is tonight.

Costa Rica Trip - March 8 -15
     Contact Thom Woodward in the Benedictine Center for Lifelong Learning for more details.

News from the Melancon Greenhouse - by Susanna Hynes (menu)
       

News from the CSB/SJU Bailey Herbarium -  (menu) - by Stephen Saupe

     There will be lots of action in the herbarium during the spring semester.  I will be spending my sabbatical working on a number of projects that include: creating an electronic database for our specimens, labeling the dried weed collection on top of the cases, and labeling and mounting some of my old specimens.   I also plan to upgrade our herbarium website.  Come visit me and our student curators there next semester.

Web Sites Worth A Visit  (menu)
 (have you visited any cool sites lately?  Send us your suggestions)

none submitted

Puzzler of the Week (menu)
 (Do you know any good puzzlers?  Please send us your ideas)

New Puzzler
     Can you solve these word puzzles in which words, letters, numbers, and symbols are juxtaposed in such a way to form a phrase or idea?  For example - YY4U = Too wise for you.  Give it a try:

  1. Food - Food - Food - Food - Food
  2. C | E | L | L
  3. Helix
    Helix
  4. Ion < 0
  5. 25 BSc. M.Sc., PhD., DSc.
  6. ET
    ET
  7. INTESTINE


To enter the competition, simply send your answer (anyone can participate!) to Dr. S. Saupe via email  or snail mail (c/o Biology Department, St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN 56321), campus mail, or simply slide the entry under my office door, SC335). The winner will be selected randomly from among the correct entries.  The winner will receive an official CSB/SJU Herbarium Magnet. Entries are due January 24, 2003.

Puzzler from the last issue:  Hoorah!  There were actually several entries in the last issue of the newsletter to explain the cause of the strange growth in the photo submitted by Gina Lux (CSB Nat Sci, '04).  I'll let you in on a secret, I'm not exactly sure of the answer myself, but I believe it's due primarily to snow sliding down the mountain.  Other possibilities include wind and my personal favorite suggestion, which comes from our own Dr. Michael Reagan, is that the "...strange structure clearly results from a yeti (also known as sasquatch and the abominable snowman) running into [the] tree at full speed and putting ... [a] strange dent in it. "  Although creative,  this response didn't win our prize.  The winners were Scott Schloe and R Rabe and they both will receive a beautiful Bailey Herbarium magnet.

Joke of the Week  (menu)
 (Have you heard any good jokes?  Please share them with us)

Time for supper? (thanks to Justin Cass for sharing this picture of my "favorite" critter)

 

 

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions  (menu)

 

For more information, contact:

Dr. Stephen G. Saupe
Professor & Herbarium Curator
Biology Department
College of St. Benedict/St. John's University
Collegeville, MN 56321
(320) 363-2782; (320) 363-3202 (fax); ssaupe@csbsju.edu


Copyright © 2008 College of Saint Benedict (37 South College Avenue, St. Joseph, Minnesota 56374; 320-363-5011) and
Saint John's University (P.O. Box 2000, Collegeville, Minnesota 56321; 320-363-2011). All rights reserved.
Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employers. E-mail the CSB/SJU Web Coordinator.