Teaching through action: Insect Ecology students learn at Dilmun Hill

Cornell AES manages farms and greenhouses that support research but are also unique teaching tools for over 40 courses covering topics in plant science, soil science, entomology, food systems, agricultural machinery, and more. This is the fourth story in a series about on-farm teaching; Insect Ecology (ENTOM 4550) is taught by entomologist Jennifer Thaler.

Kendrick Nakamura ‘24 kept ants as a hobby for years while maintaining a career in IT, before realizing that the insects were his real passion. He came to Cornell to major in Entomology and said that one of his favorite courses was Insect Ecology, taught by entomologist Jennifer Thaler.

“When people reach out to me about potentially coming to Cornell, Insect Ecology is one of the courses I always talk about,” said Nakamura, now a Ph.D. student at Arizona State University and founder of antscihub.com, a citizen-science initiative for ant enthusiasts. “That course was absolutely helpful in transitioning straight from undergrad to a Ph.D. program. One of the first things they did when I came to Arizona State was tell us to go collect some ants. I had that fieldwork experience from Dr. Thaler’s class so I knew how to do it and how to recognize when something was different or unusual.”

For 20 years, Thaler has been bringing students in her Insect Ecology class (ENTOM 4550/BIOEE 4550) to Dilmun Hill Student Farm, where they can observe insects in natural conditions, develop questions, and carry out complete research projects: they generate their own hypotheses, gather field data, analyze their data in the lab, create written reports and present their findings.

“We couldn’t teach the class the way it’s taught without Dilmun Hill,” said Thaler, who holds joint appointments in the Departments of Entomology and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. “The fact that they can go to such a biologically diverse place, that they can go at any time, and that they can, within reason, do anything they want, means that the only limit is their own creativity.”

student in goldenrod — Natalie Brennan collecting goldenrod stems at Dilmun Hill Student Farm. Photo: Jennifer Thaler

Student collecting goldenrod stems — Laura Martinez is researching whether galling insects reduce goldenrod fitness. Photo: Jennifer Thaler

Students working on a research project in a barn — Insect Ecology students (L-R) Tasnim Makhmudova, Laura Galvao Attarian, Audrey Lockett, Sophie Stolberg conduct behavioral trials to see whether spiders change their body color based on the color of the background. Photo: Jennifer Thaler

Thaler’s is one of over 40 courses that utilize Cornell’s farms and greenhouses to enrich their teaching. The Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (Cornell AES) manages nine research farms across the state and most of the greenhouse spaces on the university’s Ithaca campus. Dilmun Hill was founded to give students the opportunity to manage their own small farming operation, though the farm also hosts a variety of courses and independent student projects.

Natalie Brennan ‘24 took the class her junior year. She’s now a Ph.D. student at Montana State University, studying aphid-mediated transmission of potato virus Y.

“For a lot of people, it’s easier to ask good questions if you’re physically seeing what’s happening. Our natural observations came because we went out to the farm,” Brennan said. “Insect Ecology is not about whether you can memorize a concept, it’s whether you have curiosity to develop your own ideas. I think everyone had a really valuable experience, whether they were an entomology major or not.”

Students holding a caterpillar — Students find the full-grown larva of a spicebush swallowtail butterfly at Dilmun Hill Student Farm. Photo: Anja Timm

For the first six weeks of the course, students spend three hours every Wednesday at Dilmun Hill. They implement one individual field project, and one group project. Students have studied native bee habitats, the impact of various agricultural practices on soil insect populations, and interactions between predator and prey species in the farm’s wild areas, among many other topics, Thaler said.

“I think that everybody in their life – even if you’re never going to do science again – should get to do an independent research project. Because we all encounter data that is interpreted for us and we’re told to do something with it,” she said. “Going through the process of generating scientific facts can help students understand and interpret data more critically.”

Ash Canino, a master’s student in natural resources, used some of their course time to study soil microarthropod communities, and how they are impacted by different forestry practices in the Northeast. Canino hopes to work in some capacity helping to site renewable energy infrastructure in ways that are minimally harmful to wildlife.

“Dr. Thaler is a phenomenal professor. She makes what can sometimes be higher-level ecological theory very accessible to people from all different backgrounds, and she gives students hands-on, practical experience with experimental design, which is a hard thing to do” they said. “After you get a theoretical foundation, to be able to apply it yourself through action is invaluable as a teaching experience.”

Krisy Gashler is a freelance writer for the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station (Cornell AES).

Teaching through action: Insect Ecology students learn at Dilmun Hill

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