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Student-scientists,
Biodiversity Center scan NE Wisconsin for new discoveries
Thank you, Dr. Shepard. I appreciate this opportunity to offer an update
on the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity and, more broadly, the work of students
and faculty in the natural sciences at UW-Green Bay.
I’m tempted to describe the Cofrin Center for
Biodiversity as one of our best-kept secrets, but a quick look at the
visitors to our Web site reveals it’s hardly a secret. Last week,
for the first time in my memory, the number of visits to the Biodiversity
Center’s Web site (www.uwgb.edu/biodiversity) surpassed the Athletics
Department as the institution’s most visited site, excluding the
Learning Technology Center, which mostly serves on-campus users.
An average of 1,180 visitors per day came from other
universities, K-12 schools, businesses, organizations, government agencies
(including the U.S. military), and private homes. Geographically, visitors
to the Web site came from Australia, Spain, France, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam,
South Africa, Uruguay, and 54 other countries — and that was just
last week!
Why is this Web site so popular? The answer, I think,
lies in the fact that people turn to universities for more than just classroom
instruction. Universities play a special role as places where knowledge
is both generated and disseminated. The development of knowledge makes
us different than online colleges and purely teaching centers.
As the following examples illustrate, UWGB is at the
forefront.
At the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity Web site and
its companion (www.uwgb.edu/birds/wbba), for example, visitors can learn
how to identify wildflowers and trees, explore current “events”
in the outdoors of Northeastern Wisconsin, find good places to go birdwatching,
and learn about spiders of the Great Lakes states. Biodiversity Center
staff members Vicki Medland and Gary Fewless
deserve credit for developing much of the content on this fast-growing
Web resource. It’s also a great place for students to find information
about research opportunities, internships, and jobs.
TO NEXT PAGE
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UW-Green Bay graduate students continue to blaze new trails.
Here, Steve Price (right) observes predator species in Door Peninsula
coastal wetland. Along with Dave Marks (checkered shirt), Price tackled
an ongoing environmental mystery: Why are frogs disappearing? The students
say the answer, in part, involves habitat loss. Their report was published
in the peer-reviewed international journal Landscape Ecology, impressive
recognition for the quality of faculty-guided research originating at
UW-Green Bay.
CHANCELLOR'S
NOTE:
Campus and community readers of this newsletter tell me they value these
monthly updates on major developments at UW-Green Bay.
They also tell me they appreciate those occasions when
I invite others to address specific areas of interest. Taking that hint,
I’ve made it a practice to step aside every few issues to make way
for a guest columnist.
This month’s guest is biologist Robert Howe,
the Barbara Hauxhurst Cofrin Professor of Natural Sciences. He is one
of UW-Green Bay’s most accomplished researchers and popular and
respected instructors.
Prof. Howe directs the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity.
I’ve asked him to share a report on this remarkable regional resource
and the exciting work being done by graduate and undergraduate students
in his area. These are wonderful examples of “Connecting learning
to life.”
 —
Bruce Shepard
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