By Mallory Siebers
Nature-lovers explored their interests in beetles, flies, ants and other creepy-crawlies as as part of the Summer Scholars Academy at BYU last week.
The class was entitled 'Heroes, Sloshing in Streams and Saving the World' and the students did just that. They started off the week by visiting American Fork Canyon. They hiked up to two separate springs feeding a river and took 'bug samples' back to campus.
For the rest of the week, the students used a program developed by their teacher, Professor C. Riley Nelson.
The program asked a series of questions that led the user to the scientific name of the insect.
Students had to inspect the bugs under a microscope and learn all about their anatomy in order to answer the questions correctly. After identification, the bugs were sorted into files.
The bugs collected by the students will be examined and the overall health of the two springs visited will be determined according to the types and amounts of each insect.
Knowing what makes a healthy environment can lead to improving the ecosystem everywhere and eventually save the world.
Although there were only four students, they all seem to have enjoyed the course, student Tamara Watkins said.
Watkins said she enrolled because she is thinking about majoring in Wildlife Conservation. She learned about the program from her sister, who took a similar biology class a couple of years ago.