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"ASU Campus Ecology Club" » Alcorn State, Mississippi
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The purpose of the ASU Campus Ecology Chapter is to promote ecology and enhance environmental awareness; to extend the boundaries of students' knowledge about nature and the safe-guarding of nature; to get students to cultivate interest in this important field; to make them aware of careers in ecology and give them the incentive to major in it; and to use it as a recruitment ploy or device for our Ecology/Environmental Biology curriculum. |
Plans for 2010-2011
1. Hold election of officers for the next academic year
2. Elect new Ecology Queen
3. Go on field trips
4. Continue to hold monthly meetings
5. Celebrate Earth Day etc
Activities of 2009-2010
- We celebrated Earth Day on April 20 to 21, 2010. There were several activities carried out which included Experts Symposium on the Environment and Public Officials Symposium(Mayors), on what is being done to safeguard the environment in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
Faculty Advisors
- Dr. Alex Acholonu
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"Research and Field Trip to New Orleans, Louisiana, the Hurricane Katrina Devastated City" Special Project |
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Funded for September 2006, this project was a two-pronged activity. The first was to visit New Orleans and survey damage done by the hurricane
both at Southern University in New Orleans and other noteworthy areas of New Orleans. The second was to conduct an investigation on the freshwater bodies
in New Orleans suspected to be contaminated by collecting water samples from them and testing them for pollution. Water samples were collected
from Lake Pontchartrain, Golf Course Pond, and the Mississippi River and tested to see if they met the MS/EPA water quality criteria. This project was designed to widen the scope of
knowledge of ecology majors and Ecology Club members, arouse the interest of their fellow students to become Ecology Club members and possibly change their majors to ecology.
The field trip gave students the opportunity to see, experience, and assess the environmental damage done by Hurricane Katrina and to conduct water quality studies to know the extent to which freshwater bodies are polluted. Club members and ecology majors drove to New Orleans and were hosted by two faculty members from Southern University in New Orleans. Participants received introductory lectures from the hosts, toured areas of damage, collected water samples, and tested these samples for pollution against the EPA water quality criteria.
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"K-12 Teacher Workshop" Special Project |
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Participants included twenty teachers drawn from eleven schools in the vicinity of the university. The activities carried out included lectures on various ecological topics by experts, a field trip to the Alcorn State University water plant and waste water treatment plant, and discussions. |
Funded twice, for July 2003 and July 2004, these summer workshops presented teachers with a comprehensive plan to integrate environmental science/ecology education into their respective existing curriculum and to increase the representation of African-Americans in environmental science/ecology careers. The workshops served as a recruitment strategy for the biology department and the university at large; aimed to encourage some of the K-12 teachers to initiate their MS degree work in ecology; and will serve as a stepping stone for running a summer institute in the future.
