News & Updates Blog

Hi everyone,

Summer is hanging around here in Bemidji and we are LOVING it! Especially those field classes that are still out every week tracking, collecting specimens, flagging trees, etc.

It’s hard to believe that the semester is flying by so fast; the second round of exams are coming next week. Dr. Hamann’s class is doing Elisa plates in Immunology, Dr. Ketel’s genetics class is doing DNA transcription, Diane Morris has students working on optimal weight and energetics in Human Biology. Acorns are falling, chokecherries are ripe, and Dr. Fulton’s Forest Ecology class is studying tree reproduction.

We hope you are doing well!

Hi everyone! Well the semester is in full swing (already!) and this week is full of exams for Introductory Biology I, Entomology and Freshwater Invertebrates among many others. The lake is cooling down and with a low of 20 degrees tonight, Dr. Guelda’s class will be a bit chilly lake sampling tomorrow.

Dr. Rave’s mammalogy class will be out bright and early looking at mammal tracks. Dr. Ketel’s class will be learning asceptic techniques this week.

Hang tight for more info!

And you can just feel the energy in the air! We here in Biology are overwhelmed, thrilled (and a little frightened) with our incredible enrollment this semester. Almost all of our courses, lower and upper division, are full! This says something about the excitement about Biology! Stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated as the semester progresses!

Hi everyone. Wow, it has been a busy few weeks here in the Biology department. The Student Achievement Conference was a huge success where many, many students presented their senior research projects. We are especially proud of the Biology students who did wonderfully during this day!

This week is the last full week of classes and exams begin next Friday. We are happy to celebrate with about 20 students in Biology who will receive scholarships for the 2011-2012 academic year. There is an award ceremony and luncheon held on�Reading Day (April 28th). We encourage you to attend!

So the end of the semester truly is right around the corner and it’s lots of studying, exam taking and (for us faculty) grading from here on out. So, this may be the last note for this academic year. We wish you a wonderful summer break and we hope to see you in the fall!

Hi everyone. We are gearing up for the annual Student Achievement Conference held on Wednesday, April 6th. This is a venue where students campus wide present the results of their research, have performances, showcase artwork, etc. We are very excited about it as this year we have some AMAZING students presenting fantastic work! To view more about the SAC and what students in Biology are presenting, just click here: http://www.bemidjistate.edu/conferences/scholarship_achievement/

Hello all! This note finds most of the department looking forward to spring break. Lots of exams are being given and there is a feel of anticipation in the air. It’s hard to believe that the semester is half over! After spring break there are only 6 1/2 weeks until the end of classes. Wow!

On another note, the weather is beginning to break and while it is still cold, ice houses are slowly disappearing from the lake. No, they aren’t falling in yet (ice is still thick). But we are certainly feeling like hard winter is over. Thank goodness!

This will be the last note until after spring break. So have a lovely time and be safe if traveling. We’ll see you soon!

Hi guys, we have a lot to report on the blog this week. Just this past weekend about 75 middle and high school students participated in the Northern Minnesota Regional Science Fair held here in Sattgast Hall at BSU. It was a huge success due to the combined efforts of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math, and Phy Ed departments as well as over 120 BSU science volunteers. Be sure and look for information about the science fair in the Bemidji local paper The Pioneer!

The Biology Club has been very busy lately and were a great help with the science fair. They also have a bowling tournament coming up and are discussing activities such as bird watches, plant surveys at Hobson Forest and the Manitoba owl surveys. We are certainly staying busy here in Biology!

It sure SMELLED like Valentine’s Day around the department as the Intro Biology II labs had enough flowers to fill a florist. They were looking at reproductive parts of flowers, plant structure and function, etc. This week was full of exams for many courses, so everyone is happy to enjoy a much needed 3 day weekend. Enjoy all!

Hi everyone. Here in Biology it’s the time in the semester when exams are coming around. Dr. Rave’s Ornithology and Dr. Ketel’s Microbiology and Molecular Genetics classes gave exams this week. Next week Dr. Guelda’s Animal Behavior, Freshwater Inverts and Introductory Biology II classes have exams.

Things are gearing up for the 58th Regional Science Fair to be held in the newly rennovated Sattgast Hall (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Environmental Studies and Nursing are housed here). The fair will be on February 19th with middle and high school students presenting projects from around the region. It will be a lot of fun!

Hey everyone,

This morning we awoke to a beautiful foggy day. Everything is frosted over and it is a winter wonderland right out of a storybook. The semester is in full swing and Biology is hopping. In Principles of Wildlife Management 2008 BSU Biology graduate Bailey Obershmid talked about her position with the MN DNR shallow lakes program. In Ornithology next week brings the first lab practical exam. In General Ecology, the topic is winter survival in mammals. When last week’s temperatures were -30, this seems appropriate! In General Biology: Ecology and Evolution discussion about microevolution and Sickle Cell Anemia and Malaria is occuring. In Introductory Biology II the lab is viewing bacteria and representatives of the Fungi.

Yep, I told you we were busy!

OK, I won’t mince words……it’s COLD out there! It’s about -10 right now and going to be -30 tonight. Yowzers! There are a bunch of hardy (silly?) folks right outside of my office window ice fishing right now. Dr. Cloutman has the right idea in my mind….he’s going to stay inside and send his class outside to drill holes in the ice to get samples for fish managment!

This morning in Limnology II we started the phytoplankton growth rate experiment. We’ll let you know how it turns out! Walking down the hall this morning was interesting and sounded suspiciously like spring as bird calls were eminating from Dr. Rave’s Ornithology lab. Thursdays are Dr. Ketel’s big day as she teaches 3 medical microbiology labs in a row. Dr. Drewes is working on nailing down the meanings and definitions of some common (but often missused words!) in Conservation Biology. Dr. Greenberg is teaching both Soils (a HUGE class) and People and the Environment this semester, so she is busier than ever.

We wanted to give a big shout out to Matt Phillips who successfully defended his master’s right before Christmas. Dr. Guelda and the committee just signed off on the final thesis and it’s all said and done. Matt, you were a fantastic student and one of the best we’ve ever had. Thanks for setting the bar so high. You are already sorely missed.

Hi everyone. Well, it looks like we have all survived the first week of class with its craziness, anticipation and warm welcomes back. We have lots of incoming freshmen this year and many have expressed interest into our VERY active Biology Club. If you are interested in joining, here is some information for you:

http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/departments/biology/student_club/

We hope you are all well and keep checking back for more updates and news as the semester continues!

Hi everyone. We hope that you had a wonderful and safe holiday season. Faculty are back on campus and we’ve even seen some students milling about. The first day of classes begins on Monday the 10th and it looks like it will be a busy and fun semester. Some of the courses taught here in Biology this semester are Animal Behavior, Ornithology, Wetland Delineation, Medical physiology, Cell Biology, Plant Form and Funtion, etc. For a complete list of what’s going on in the classes and labs in Biology, just click this link: http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/schedule/2011/spring/all/biol/

The weather here is cold (OK, not a surprise), but we have more snow than is normal for this time of year and the snowmobilers are thrilled. From Sattgast Hall I can see close to 100 ice houses out on Lake Bemidji. Speaking of Lake Bemidji, this time next week it will be a parking lot full of cars for students trying to get the closest parking spot on campus!

Hi everyone. This snowy day brings us to the first day of finals. There is final-exam-tension in the air mixed with the happy anticipation that the semester is almost over and the holidays are right around the corner!

Much thanks to all of the science faculty, student volunteers and presenters who made yesterday’s Share the Future a HUGE success. Yesterday 245 middle-school aged kiddos decended upon Sattgast Hall to become immersed in lectures, mini-lectures and hands-on science activities. It was a busy and fun day. GO future scientists…go!

Tomorrow the Biology faculty are all going out to lunch to celebrate another successful semester. Thanks to all of our wonderful students who make us love our jobs as much as we do. As the end of the semester brings a good amount of work to us (OK…tons of work) this will be the last blog until the beginning of next semester. With that, we here in Biology wish you a happy and safe holiday season. Be safe in your travels and we’ll see you soon!

This week in Immunology Dr. Hamann’s class was testing student’s flu antibody titer. Kind of important this time of year with it being flu season! Dr. Guelda has been up to her ears grading collections for Freshwater Invertebrates and Entomology. Human Biology lab has been working on cool DNA extraction in order to solve ‘crimes’. Watch out, CSI! On a fun note, the annual Game Feed is Monday and goodness knows what will show up in the pitch-in lunch. Representative taxa from our classes and labs are featured. I’m not sure if that sounds appealing or not!

Finals begins next week and we are seeing lots of students in study groups around the building. The semester has gone incredibly fast and it will be over in just a flash!

Well, now that the Thanksgiving holiday is over, things really pick up at BSU.The end of the semester is right around the corner and the last day of class is just 9 days away! After reading day (a no-class study day) finals week begins. During reading day the Biology and Chemistry departments work together to host Share the Future, an event where middle age kids (300 of them!) decend upon Sattgast Hall to hear speakers, do hands-on activities and become immersed in science!

We would also like to give a big congratulations to Matt Phillips, a graduate student of Dr. Guelda’s who successfully defended his Master’s Thesis this past Wednesday. His thesis was entitled ‘Spatial and temporal differences in macroinvertebrate and zooplankton populations in the headwaters of the Mississippi River’. Congratulations, Matt. We couldn’t be more proud of you…and good luck in the new position!

As we are looking forward to the Thanksgiving break, this week finds everyone busy here in biology.Algal taxonomy is occurring in Dr. Koch’s Aquatic Plants, Wetlands Ecology is doing tree core analysis and Dr. Guelda’s Freshwater Invertebrates and Entomology classes just finished their 3^rd exams of the semester.In Dr. Rave’s Mammalogy the class has just started looking at ungulates (hooved mammals). In Dr. Ketel’s Genetics and Microbiology BIG exams are just around the corner.When it comes to graduate students, Erik Anderson who is working with Dr. Hamann, is completing a manuscript on measuring protein activity using bioluminescence.

Coming up in the department is the annual Game Feed where students and faculty have a pitch-in lunch with foods representing organisms learned about in class.Last year there was lots of fish (Ichthyology), venison (Mammalogy), duck (Ornithology) kelp (Aquatic Plants) and even bugs (Entomology).Yep, really.This year Microbiology is promising yogurt and bread.No, no beer allowed!

Dr. Hamann’s Developmental Biology class is taking on some new techniques this week.They are attempting to paraffin embed (mouse) tissue.We’ll let you know how it goes.On Dr. Ketel’s side of the hall the Advanced Lab Projects are putting the “RE” back into REsearch as they are performing a second yeast transformation.Transform into WHAT you say??Not Franken-yeast…but transforming into a yeast minus one (important) gene.Meanwhile, Dr. Openshaw’s Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy students are in the process of giving student presentations.

Introductory Biology II has a fun weekend getting ready for their third exam.Yep, it must be that time in the semester because Dr. Guelda’s Entomology and Freshwater Invertebrates courses have exams next week too.What IS the difference between Corixidae and the Notonectidae?? And on a similar note, congratulations to Angela and Patrick for finding the first Tardigrade of the season!

Dr. Openshaw’s students were able to recently observe (and assist in!) 6 knee replacements. Yep, using the bone saws and everything. How cool is that??

We just wanted to say thanks to everyone at the Major and Career Expo that was held yesterday, Thursday November 5th. We talked to many students interested in Biology and look forward to seeing you in class! Meanwhile, tomorrow is the big deer hunting opener…and attendance was noticably low in some classes today. Ahem.

The semester is in full swing and it is reflected in the activities of the students. We are seeing a big push for students in Freshwater Invertbrates and Entomology to finish their organism collections….the due date is coming up! Yesterday 35 students in Microbiology visited the wastewater treatment plant and once again learned of the importance of bacteria. Mammalogy students are using telemetry gear in the field on Tuesday and students in Plant Diversity are ’sweating plant sap’ because their huge taxonomy exam is right around the corner!

The weather is still fantastic here and Dr. Cloutman was seen in waders fishing just a few days ago.Dr. Koch’s Advanced Wetland Delineation had their last day in the field just yesterday and Dr. Guelda’s Freshwater Invertebrates class will be collecting plankton tomorrow during lab.

The faculty of the Biology Department want to say a big Thank You! to all of the fantastic students and families that we met during the Academic Open House held Thursday and Friday. Please don’t hesitate to contact any of us should you have any questions….and we hope we see you in the fall!

The weather is cooling down and it’s hard to believe that the semester is half over! Students are coming in for advising as the spring 2011 course schedule is up and available. Registration for courses begins next week.

On another note, we are proud of students Jessica Schulz, Nick Whichello, Jared House, Zach Neunsinger and Ethan Karrpinen who presented information about their Summer 2010 Internships yesterday for the department. Great work, guys!