Outreach

I have been conducting outreach educational programs since 1983, presenting live amphibians and reptiles to local schools (pre-school – 12th grade), museums, and university events.  My aim is to educate kids and adults on the behavior and natural history of local and exotic amphibians and reptiles.  One goal is to have participants become comfortable with these animals and to see that they are docile and interesting creatures. We present the message that these animals are an important part of our ecosystem, they do not need to be feared, and should be protected rather than harmed.

I welcome inquires from teachers interested in having us come to their class to present a program on amphibians and reptiles.  First, I recommend that teachers check with their school administration to obtain permission for the presentation of live animals in their classroom.  We have visited classes as small as 15 students and as large as a gymnasium of 200 students.  For a classroom presentation, students are allowed to touched and held the animals.   

I also present aspects of my research, highlighting the utility of my work on pythons in biomedical fields, to professional and social organizations.  I can provide lunch-time or evening presentations to groups.

Discovery Buddies

I am the faculty advisor of Discovery Buddies, a student led program that pairs University of Alabama students with elementary school students to learn about science through fun and interactive experiments. This program was developed in 2013 from the efforts of a UA undergraduate student, Monica Britt.  Monica’s aim was to develop a program to spark children’s interest in science and provide them with role models who are passionate about scientific discovery and education. The experiments performed cover basic scientific concepts and can be easily and safely replicated, in the hope of encouraging the students to learn, explore, and discover on their own. The goal of Discovery Buddies is to inspire confidence in young students by stimulating their curiosity about the world around them and engendering a life-long passion for scientific inquiry and discovery.

Discovery Buddies is looking for new UA student volunteers each semester.  To volunteer, students must first attend an orientation from Tuscaloosa One Place and fill out a background check early in the semester. If interested, please email discoverybuddies@gmail.com. 

Links to articles about Discovery Buddies

http://www.cw.ua.edu/article/2014/01/ua-students-teach-science-after-school
http://undergraduate.ua.edu/find-your-passion-a-buddy-for-discoveries/
http://www.cw.ua.edu/article/2015/03/student-run-lecture-series-tide-talks-celebrates-2-year-birthday

Services

Bomb Calorimetry

We are equipped with a Parr 1266 Bomb calorimeter with water-handling and temperature-control systems.  Samples sent wet or dry, will be bombed in triplicate and the energy value per mass wet and/or dry weight will be determined.  If necessary, energy content can also be determined for ash-free mass.  Contact for request of pricing.  

Metabolic Rate

We can perform measures of standard metabolic rate (oxygen consumption and CO2 production rates) of large invertebrates, amphibians and reptiles using closed-system respirometry.  Contact for request for pricing​

Intestinal nutrient uptake

We can measure uptake rates of nutrients across the intestinal brush-border membrane using the everted-sleeve technique.  This methodology provides mass-specific rates of nutrient uptake and summed uptake for the entire small intestine.  Traditionally, we measure nutrient uptake rates from three regions of the small intestine (proximal, middle, and distal).  Requirements for a study are animals under different treatments (feeding schedule, meal type, meal size, etc), a minimum of four assistants (my students), radio-labeled nutrients and adherent-fluid marker, and chemicals and expendables. Contact for feasibility and pricing.