UMaine Researcher Gets Top Honors in Vienna
Contact: David Munson (207) 581-3777
ORONO, Maine — UMaine doctoral student Christy Finlayson recently placed first in the 4th European Conference on Biological Invasions poster competition in Vienna, Austria with her poster “Considering Biocontrol and Biological Invasions: An Experimental Unit for Primary and Secondary School Classrooms.”
Selected from more than 200 other posters, Finlayson’s entry was the only one that focused on education with regard to biological invasions. The poster, created by Finlayson and primary and secondary school teachers Charlotte Carrier, Storie Brown, and Arthur Libby, was based on her work with fourth, fifth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders as a National Science Foundation GK-12 Fellow. The GK-12 program connects graduate students with primary and secondary school students and their teachers.
“My research is focused mainly on lady beetles and the effects of non-native species on native populations in agricultural and natural systems,” said Finlayson, who is pursuing her doctorate in biological sciences at UMaine. “But I think that the educational component of my work is just as important. The fellowship really helped me to learn how to speak to people outside of the scientific community about the impact of invasives and what can be done about them.”
Finlayson’s poster outlined her collaboration with teachers in the Brewer, Bucksport, and Hampden school systems, where she used hands-on activities to teach about biocontrol techniques and bioinvasions using lady beetles. The students raised potato plants infested with aphids, an insect that feeds on potato plants and can spread disease, and tested lady beetles against other methods for controlling the tiny pests. Lady beetles, in general, are very good predators of aphids, but can, themselves, become invasive species.
The conference and poster contest were sponsored by NEOBIOTA, the European working group on biological invasions.