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Enrollment will be sometime in the Spring semester. They haven't announced the enrollment dates yet, but you won't be able to enroll until the Spring. We keep the prerequisites pretty open. We really want people to be able to take this course, so you can read them for yourself. Basically, you have to be a student biology or some kind of allied discipline, and that's pretty much it. Enrollment won't be directly through Acorn. Instead, what we'll do is set up a web page where you can submit an application. We do ask for your CV and a little bit more information, partly so we get some idea of who you are, and whether you're really prepared for this kind of experience. Again, we aren't especially exacting but it is nice to know if you've had any kind of experience in outdoor areas or that kind of thing. The best thing to do with questions is contact me directly, we're in the early stages of planning next year's field course, and I can give you more information as time goes on. And for questions waiting to actual registration and enrollment, you should talk to Diane Matias in the Biology Department. She handles the enrollment issues I handle actually delivering the course. So I hope that some of you who are listening can make it. We're currently reserving spaces for ten students. We likely can bump that up if we need to. It won't be a huge course, but it'll be a very good course and a very intense course. I'll finish off with a few photos of some of the things we've seen in the last couple of years to give you the idea of what you actually see during the course. This is part of the Study Center, as if the experience wasn't weird enough already. The Study Center is built at the site of an old experimental rocket launch site. So you're surrounded by buildings like this? I didn't know what to say about that other than as you wake up and look out the window in the morning and see what planet on. I'm actually a plant biologist. So I love plants. This is Eripohorum or cottongrass. It's a typical Arctic wetland plant, and very important food for geese. We see tons of eagles up there, mostly bald. You see them sitting on the coastal tundra. It's a bit odd to see an eagle sitting on the ground, but they're there. You've got a high probability of Northern Lights. There are Northern Lights in Churchill basically every night. The two catches are: you have to have a clear night, and you have to go late, because even by the end of the course, skies are still going to be bright until ten thirty at night. But if you do want to go out at midnight, or one in the morning you're really likely to encounter this kind of thing. Actually, one of the reasons people go to Churchill is for Northern Lights viewing people usually go in the middle of winter. Here's another nice local plant that's actually an orchid - lady's-tresses or Spiranthes romanzoffiana. These are Snow Geese.This is something I've actually worked with. I spent a big chunk of my career working on interactions between Snow Geese and the plants that they eat. They don't nest around the Study Centre, but they nest not too far to the east of there, and in late summer we start getting family groups like this, wandering in, eating the cotton grass, doing whatever geese do. If you come in the course you're going to get a lecture devoted entirely to these birds like, I say they're one of the things that I've worked on myself. This is an Arctic Fox. We saw a bunch of them this year. You may know Arctic Foxes in winter are white, but in summer they adopt this brown pelage, and they can be really hard to spot. I think there were a bunch of active dens close to the Study Centre. It's actually a contact zone between Arctic Foxes and Red Foxes, the fox you get down here. In fact, there's sort of an ongoing war between the two going on. Churchill is a big center for fox research, both Arctic and Red Fox, and I think there's a pretty good chance to get a researcher to talk about this while we're up there. That's on the road just outside the study center. Not terribly good shot of Pacific Loon. These are arctic nesting loons. You may have encountered Common Loon in northern Ontario. Here, that's a southern bird. Willow Ptarmigan, the chicken of the North. In spring these are everywhere. They really are about chicken-sized. They have an absolutely hilarious territorial call. I recommend you Google it. Hard to see later in the summer. But again they're there. These are Beluga Whales in the river. So every white dot is a whale. Typically, in late summer, when we're there they're going to be several hundred whales in the river mouth. Frankly, the one wildlife I think I can guarantee you is Beluga Whales. Barring major disaster, there'll be hundreds of them in the river about what we're there you'll get a chance to see them, and if you want, you potentially can go on a whale tour. This coastal tundra. This is an example of the really good quality tundra that's around the study center. Again, this site is right on the tree line. There are lots of spruce in the area, but headlands have really typical arctic tundra So there also are Taiga areas or boreal forest areas like this that are accessible to us; a really different environment. We spend a lot of time talking about the transition from one to another. This is a permafrost photo. The foreground there, with a sort of blotchy ground surface, that's a palsa. Palsas are permafrost-cored mounds that develop in wetland areas. In fact, most of the landscape through here at the center is permafrost invading wet forest. That's a Hudsonian Godwit. These are really a shorebird. They nest locally. It's one of the strongholds for them. This is a very rare bird. There are only about fifty thousand of them total in the world. A substantial number of them nest around Churchill. Hopefully, we'll see them. Godwits are also famous because they're long-distance migrants. These guys fly to southern South America but the really famous one is Bar -tailed Godwit in Alaska. They recently had one fly non-stop to Australia. And finally these guys again I don't guarantee them but there's a pretty good chance we will encounter them. These two are basically standing on one of our experiments. They popped out to the bushes. There's actually another cub hiding back in there. Again, Churchill is really a stronghold for Polar Bears in the summer. That's all I want to say!

One thing I will say about this course that's a little unusual is that we have some unusual safety issues. Here's one of them. Polar Bears are abundant locally, and can show up pretty much any time. It's great to see them. It's less nice to see them like we saw these guys. I was giving a lecture in the field, so these popped up behind me and started lolling around. Your instructors do carry shotguns We have experience. It does to some extent restrict what you can do, so that you can't go out alone, we have to always work in a group, etc. On the positive side, it means that the whole time you're there you're going to be with an experienced instructor pretty much continuously through the course. There probably will be some other opportunities during the course as well, you'll get at least one free day in Churchill, so we'll declare one day a town day, and you can do whatever you want in in town. We actually do get into town more frequently than that again. It's about twenty-five kilometers from the station but it's not unusual to pass through it, and so if there are any supplies or things you desperately need we probably can pick them up. Churchill is always an also a major tourism center, and there are a number of excellent local tour groups, so I often recommend visiting the fort. They have really good river Kayak Tours, as I'll show you the moment. Excellent whale tours. Most of these activities aren't covered by the course fee, but they're not terribly expensive, and they're easy to arrange. I do want to say something about costs. Unfortunately, this is an expensive course. That's what happens with field courses, and part of the problem is traveling. The Canadian North is really very costly. Fortunately I can give you some tips and advice and how to actually keep this under control. The basic information is that you do have to pay a standard half course fee. You also have to pay for room and board at the Studies Center, which last year was $1246 for two weeks. So they do feed you, they do house you. All I can say about that is for that latitude that is a dirt cheap price. It's expensive to be out there. If you're going to come, you will have to pay a deposit in advance. Last year it was due sometime in June, and it may be earlier this year. We also let you make your own travel arrangements. So you're responsible for your own air fare. One reason for that is, there often are ways of potentially reducing costs there, depending on your own personal situation. Last year, it cost about 550 bucks to fly from here to Winnipeg, although you can occasionally get much cheaper flights than that. The expensive leg is Winnipeg the Churchill, which is costly, as I'll mention in a minute. There are a couple of ways, and can potentially reduce that as well. I'm pleased to say there will be bursaries from the Experiential Learning Office here for eligible U of T students. The bursary is five hundred bucks, but actually they gave us more than that this year. It's not enough to pay your fees or anything like that, but at least it helps. They've told me they also will consider higher awards in cases where there's real financial need, so it is worth going to them and talking to them. A few more travel tips I can travel in the north. It's always challenging. You could often get cheap flights to Winnipeg. Actually, at one point this summer you could fly to Winnipeg for one hundred and thirty-five bucks, which sadly, I didn't do Calm Air is more expensive, but there are a couple of ways of cutting costs. Inexplicably Calm Air accepts Air Canada Aeroplan and also Air Miles. They don't give them out, but they accept them, and even more inexplicably they consider Churchill to be a local flight. It's got to be one of the best deals. So if you have any frequent flyer miles or air miles stored up, this is a good thing to use them on. Actually, I flew my entire family up there a couple of years ago like this. They also have student fares if you're under twenty-four. I don't know much about them, but the website says contact them for information. When you book flights it's good to make it as flexible as possible. It's also good to have at least three or four hours to connect in Winnipeg as flights in the north are often delayed. The airlines are pretty good about it, but the more flexibility you can give yourself the better. You can also take the train. If you take the train from Winnipeg you can save about a thousand bucks on travel costs, but there are a couple of issues. One is that it's a major time commitment, again forty-four hours over three days. They leave late one evening and arrive early in the morning two days later. The other cost is that that's the price for a seat; if you actually want to bed it costs you quite a bit more. On the other hand, if you're really short on cash, and don't mind sitting in a seat for a couple of days, it's a way to do it. We had students do this last year. We always do it. Actually, It's a really interesting trip. There are actually other more spectacular ways of cutting costs if you're really adventurous. Again, you can't drive to Churchill, but you drive to Winnipeg and get a flight or train from there again. If you're doing travel planning you might want to talk to me, and I can give you more advice.

This is what a lot of the vegetation looks like. There only trees are black spruce, white spruce, tamarack, balsam poplar, and you're done. Tundra is mostly dominated by short vegetation, again, a lot of peatland and fen habitats. You're looking at one of these tundra transitional areas here with a very stunted white spruce in the foreground, a tree that probably is several hundred years of age, set in a matrix of blueberry and bearberry tundra. We also go up there for the wildlife. There's a lot to see in town. First of all, there's a fairly diverse bird community. It's a good area for arctic and subarctic birds like Snow Geese, Ptarmigan, Parasitic Jaegers. These are all things we saw in the course last year. It's also rather good for wildlife, if you know Churchill it's probably because it's the place that people go to see Polar Bears in North America. I'll warn you right now. This is not a wildlife tour. We don't guarantee wildlife sightings, but on the other hand, we do tend to see a lot of stuff. So this past year we saw hundreds of Beluga Whales. We saw Caribou, a bunch of Arctic Foxes, several Polar Bears, especially later in the summer, when have a good chance of seeing them. I mentioned before this is also a historic area. For hundreds of years has been a contact point between Cree, Dene, Inuit, and Europeans, and happily there are some good local museums that document this. I'm hoping we'll get a chance to go to Fort Prince of Wales, which you're looking at here - a huge Hudson Bay Company fort. And again, there are also a number of other local museums and displays where you can look at the history of the region, especially at Inuit art. How does the course work? Well, this is a field course, so it's an intense course. It's a two week course you don't have a lot of spare time during it. We really pack as much as we can into those two weeks. So the way that it works is that we have local trips daily for the first half of the course, usually in the morning, afternoon or both. I do actually give you lectures in the course. So in the evenings you'll get lectures on local biology. We also often get lectures from guest speakers. The Study Center is a major research center, and there are many research groups working there. Last year there was a Polar Bear group, there was a seal group, there was a shorebird group, there were the Dutch climatology people. So what we do is we also hit them up for guest lectures as well, as well as spending a lot of time in the field. You get a lot of lectures from me, and from local experts on the history and biology of the area. It is a course, and you do get a credit for it. So you'll be evaluated by a number of quizzes, presentations, and a project report you submit after the end of the course. That project report will be based on a mini project that you do during the course. The way that we do it is in the first week we show you as much as we can of the local biology. That lets me give you a few days to formulate a project, collect data and actually execute it. So your final mark will be based on a combination of these things, quizzes on the site, and ultimately the project write-up that you hand in after the course is done. The summer is a good time to be in Churchill. It's usually nice in late July and August, mean daytime temperatures that time of year around twelve degrees, which is actually a pretty comfortable working environment. But it's really variable, like a lot of coastal environments, it can shift rapidly. So even in August it could be close to zero degrees, it could be close to thirty degrees, so we have to be prepared for a wide range of conditions. It won't be really cold, though; we won't get snow. They've never had snow in August. Most days will be cool and fairly pleasant. Expect some rain. It's a rainy environment and lots of coastal fog, which is what you're looking at here. It's also again, a site with a lot of biting insects, mosquitoes, deer flies, black flies. By the end of the summer they're usually starting to disappear, but certainly last year they were going strong right until the end of the course.

Humans of UTM Biology Grissel Crasto I'm an advanced practice nurse educator in surgical services at the University Health Networks, Toronto Western Hospital. I have been working as a registered nurse for six years now in the specialty of the New York of Sciences, and I've been working particularly in inpatient practice, doing research, quality improvement, and also teaching neuroscience nursing as a clinical instructor at the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing. For three years now, I went to UTM for my undergraduate degree in biology and environmental Sciences. I completed my nursing degree at the St. George campus. Most recently, I completed my master’s at Charleston University in Australia. I initially started out knowing very little about nursing as a profession, and although the COVID-19pandemic has been very challenging for us, I can’t imagine being anything other than a nurse. Nursing has brought me great joy over the years and unexpectedly let me travel all around the world. I’m very grateful for this tremendous profession and for my fellow nursing colleagues who have taught, mentored, and supported me over the years. What advice would you give your 18-year old self? I would tell myself to be patient and kind to my younger self. I would tell myself that when one door closes, another door opens, and if it doesn't, you must work even harder to get another one open. I would advise myself to go to more office hours, prioritize my own needs, and to take care of my mental health and well being. Imagine that we are 10 years from now, what would you ask yourself? I would ask myself, what have you done for yourself, your loved ones, and your community? Are you happy and satisfied with all that you've done? And will you and can you do more to build a better and healthier world for your loved ones and society as a whole? Any pieces of wisdom you would like to share with our undergrads? It’s okay not to get it right the first time or the second time, or even the third time. What matters is one’s persistence, creativity and resilience. Consistency and hard work is key to accomplish one's goals. Get comfortable with your failures, learn from them, and move forward, because failures are ultimately steppingstones to one success. Have lots of fun and enjoy the journey along the way as you figure out your career, because you will never be able 18 again.

The hospital placements were incredible, and I really grew to enjoy the physiotherapy program. I had a placement at SickKids Hospital in the respiratory and cardiac ward as well as on the burn unit and plastic surgery. Which was sort of tough seeing the kids going through things like that. But it was also extremely rewarding. So that was a really special experience to get to have that I was also in Providence healthcare, working with neurological patients, people who had suffered strokes, you know, brain injuries, things like that which I also really enjoyed. And then I had an Orthopedic placement at Sunny Brook, St. John's Hospital, where I worked most of the time with post-surgical people, but also sometimes with amputees and stuff like that. We also had a spinal cord injury unit in the physiotherapy program. And so, we got to go to Lindhurst Center, and it was just amazing to see people who had had these injuries and were learning to walk again sometimes and live with these injuries, and it was a really amazing part of the program. So, after that covid hit and that was tough because we still had several placements to do in our program. And no one wanted to touch anybody else, because they didn't want to get Covid and Physiotherapy is very hands-on profession, so that was a little bit tough to finish the program. But luckily, I was placed at a north of private practice clinic in Aurelia, who ended up hiring me after my double placement there, finishing up. So currently I’m working in Aurelia at this private practice clinic, and I do really enjoy it. Like the physiotherapy is a highly regulated profession. So, there's a lot of paperwork there's a lot of obligations, you have to meet to the college. But at the end of the day. It's a very rewarding profession, because you feel like you're actually making this small little difference in someone's life. Like people come in, and they can barely walk and they feel like this, is it? You know this is the end of their life they're not going to be able to do stuff anymore. And sometimes you can get them walking again and enjoying life again. And playing with their grandkids and things like that, or post surgical injuries. People are just in so much pain and you're able to decrease their pain to get that back to doing the things they want to do. There's just so many opportunities to advance yourself and physiotherapy as well like you can take acupuncture. You can do lymphedema massage for post-cancer patients. You can do homework, health, physiotherapy which a lot of people don't realize that Physi is too. You can work with children, you can work with elderly people, you can work in hospital, you can work in private practice you can open your own clinic. And there's so many jobs available right now. So, it's a really rewarding profession to get into. So, was I originally going for physiotherapy? No, but I feel like I’ve landed in the right spot, and I think other people would enjoy it too. Recommendation to Travel After I finish my undergrad, I was extremely burned out. I was really tired from the 4 years of studying and I was extremely stressed, because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I was feeling a little bit demotivated because I was still waitressing, which is the job that I had had before I went to University. Meanwhile some of my friends had graduated from professional programs like nursing. Or things like that where when they came out, if they're undergrad they had a full-time job. And so, I was just sort of feeling a little bit demotivated and stuck. And I decided that I was going to go traveling just to clear my head a little bit. I worked all summer, and I saved up about 6 or $7,000, and I booked a one-way flight to Iceland. I looked a week in hostile in Iceland and then I didn't have any plans from there. I decided to go on my own, because no one could travel with me. At the same time commit to the timeline that I had So, it was sort of go or don't go so I decided to go, and it was one of the best things that I ever did. Planning a trip like that you like. I had to be careful. I had to be choosy about sort of where I wanted to go by myself as a solo female traveler. But I ended up choosing Iceland, Scotland, England, Switzerland, create an Athens in Greece. So went to 5 countries over 6 weeks, and I finally ran out of money after the 6 weeks. So, I came back home. but it was honestly just one of the greatest experiences that I've ever had. And I would recommend it to anybody who you know financially has this capable or has the time to do it because I found that after high school I went straight to university. And it was just. my life was so academic heavily all the time. And I wanted the chance to be able to really and just not be evaluated all the time. Academically, and just see what I enjoyed out of life. So going to these countries, and just seeing other cultures and trying other food. Seeing all the beautiful places that the world has to offer and broadening my horizons a little bit. Also, just like ceiling, independent, like not having someone there to plan everything for me. If you made a mistake, you made a mistake like I booked several wrong flights, and I lost money on that. And there were probably a couple of choices that I made in terms of travel that were a little bit a risky. But I made it through just fine, and the level of independence that it gave me after traveling. and knowing that I was capable of making my way across 5 countries all by myself. And having to navigate different cultures, different languages. Topographies, even with the Alps, and stuff like that. Physically, it just felt very the powering personally. And so, one asked if I would recommend it to other people absolutely, I’d recommend it to anybody who has the chance to go do that. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and I think that anybody who has the chance to do it should really go. Do it Tips For People Going Into Biology Program Last little thing as encouragement to people who are going into the biology program at UTM. I just wanted to say firstly, don't panic, information that they're hitting you with them is a lot. But don't worry the stuff that you learned in high school will carry you through. You’re gonna have to work hard. You're gonna have to study a lot. But you're gonna be okay like even if your first year is bad I failed calculus in my first year, and it was so bad that I never retook calculus and my marks were horrible. My GPA was like a 2.3, and my first year It was just really bad. I had to take 2 years of summer school after that to make up for the credit that I lost because it was a full year calculus credit. And by doing the 2 years of summer school it gave me an opportunity to take more psychology courses and things like that. that. I did like and that's when I was like Hmm! Maybe I should switch my program over. You know a biology major requires calculus, but an anthropology Major doesn't require calculus. So, I was originally going to do a biology major, but I just did a biology minor, so I just switched it around to make it work for me. I but went and applied to medical school and I didn't get in. But instead of you know, losing hope, alright gave myself a break. I went traveling for a little bit. I worked for a year, and I thought about what I wanted to do. I saw a career counselor, and overall I narrowed down my options. So, during that time it exposed me to physiotherapy. Because I had some injuries during that time, and had I gone to medical school I probably would have enjoyed it very much. But I probably wouldn't have been exposed to physiotherapy without that gap in that period of time. So even when you're having a moment that feels like a failure. Like all I failed calculus, or I didn't get into medical school, or whatever like it just seems so overwhelming. You're still creating these sorts of opportunities for other things that you enjoy to fill that time. So, I would say, just as a recommendation like don't pay it's gonna be okay you're gonna get through Even if your GPA is really bad in first year. Like I pulled my socks up in my third and fourth year. I had straight A's, and my GPA was quite good again. So, it was good enough to get into master's programs so it's not the end of the world. If your first year is really bad. You know if you bomb a test or something, there's gonna be lots of little quizzes and things like that to make up your grades. And I recommend going to your professor's office hours because meeting the one on one really kind of it's more friendly. It feels like you know them one on one you know it's just a friendlier feel when you're in class 500 people. So, I recommend going and talking to them and then sometimes they can have suggestions or things like that that you can do to make up the grades. So, if you're going to first year bio, I hope you enjoy it, and that you find some of what I've said helpful or hopeful, and if you're nearing the end, and you're just running out of

So that's like half of my school journey gone where I could have accepted some help. And I wasn't able to definitely look out for the resources that you have around you. Aside from that, I was also part of the UTM football team. The Tri campus, flag, football team and I was a coach with some of my friends and It was a lot of fun. We you know. You see, the pandemic we didn't get to play too much. But we had a couple of games, and we won a couple of games. So, it's definitely a fun experience, and I did get to play the flag football with some women down at UofT campus and it was you know one of the most cool experiences that I’ve had. You play football in the winter in the snow. so that I don't think I’ll ever experience something like that again. But I definitely recommend any new incoming students or if you're already a student at UTM or UofT. Where you'll see you know. Get up there get involved in the community, because you definitely need a balance of studying and playing. So UTM has offered me a lot of opportunities career wise. A couple of years ago, I think 2 years ago, Trillium Health Partners which is where I'm currently working came onto UTM on campus and hired students for this you know, digital tech implementation. And I actually had a little bit of experience in that, from doing kind of like a co-op. Internships every summer, so I had a little bit of that technical background. And that's where my path began at Trillium Health Partners. And you hopefully it continues from here on out. But I’m so grateful because you know that I was present in that moment when they were hiring, and you know that journey started. for me if you're in the sciences, and you're kind of looking to be placed in a hospital. Get out there, you know. Get some volunteer experience. I know that after working in the hospital there's so many positions that I just didn't know existed. I had no idea, when you're in life science, you know I feel like there could be a better job at understanding what exact rules that you can aim for after you graduate. Whereas kind of what I knew was like nurse doctor, or like it in the hospital I didn't know anything else. But there are so many positions. That’s why, it's such a you know, booming industry, and there's just so much innovation happening all around us. In terms of my education. I you know I just graduated I’m currently looking at other postgraduate programs. You know, let's see I’m taking a little bit of a break to work, and you know just kind of figure it out. But whether it's a masters or whether it's like a certification like at a college both things we great benefits. So that's definitely something I’m looking forward to. Thank you so much for reading my story and watching this video. And thank you to the Department of Biology and the UTM Staff for allowing me to share my story. And you know, working with me on this project. Thanks so much.

Tell us about your 2011 Ig Nobel Prize So I need to step back a bit and describe what it was like for me to go to Western Australia and to go into the bush surrounding the city of Perth and even within the city of Perth, because it was a big area of natural bushland actually in the city itself. And it was such an amazing experience forRentz & Gwynne Ig Nobel a naturalist of sex to encounter so many insects, and my mission was to find some ideal katydid species in order to do my experiments and do my observations with to test the theory that I mentioned earlier and that involved, as I also mentioned earlier, encountering lots of new species. But the way I was doing that was because they sing, the males sing and attract mates. I was basically walking around at night listening for singing insects. And the other way I would do that with David Rentz, my colleague from the museum in Canberra who was naming New Species. We would go out and basically do expeditions into the Australian bush and collect it and I collect these species and everything else. So is both listening and also watching for these species that I was able to find ideals species to work on. And I found some really interesting species that ended up doing experiments with that turned out really ideal for testing some of Darwin's ideas and others ideas about sexual selection. But in the process of doing that, I got into some really interesting side projects that were interesting, very interesting stories about insect sex and the Beatles and The Bottle was one of them. When I was traveling around with with David Rentz, we would work at night walking around in the bush collecting Katydids and then we would sleep, obviously. And then in the morning we would we would hang out on the campsite drinking coffee before we moved on to our next site. And one of those mornings walking along, we were a desert road near our campsite. There were a whole bunch of shiny, obviously discarded beer bottles along the roadside, and every single one of them had a large male of what's now known as jewel beetles, the cold jewel beetles, but very large, shiny brown males and I could see as a person who was interested in insect sex that these males were trying to mate with the beer bottles. So we did a quick, quick and dirty experiment where we cleaned out bottles to make sure that it wasn't the alcohol that the Beatles were being attracted to, put them along the roadside and quickly. They attracted males who wouldn't least they would just stay on the back of this bottle with their little insect penis inverted and try and mate with the beer bottles. And so David and I wrote that up, and it became an article called Beetles on the Bottle. And it described this behavior in terms of sexual how it addressed sexual selection theory even, and made a big hit beer and sex. It made a big hit in the Australian press. And eventually about 20 years later, I think it was 2007, David and I were awarded the IG Nobel Prize, which is presented every year at Harvard University in various areas, ours was in biology. It was the IG Nobel Prize for, for biology. And it was some it was for the study. And the idea of the IG Nobel Prize, of course, was its research that first makes you think and makes you laugh at the same time. But I should say that while I was doing this, this scoping out looking for different kinds of katydids species and listening to animal sound, I made up a couple of other really interesting discoveries as well, and that included finding it was a katydid at first, but it turned out to be a little tiny moss singing from the tops of trees using pure ultrasound was way above human hearing but I had a little bat detector where I could listen to these things, where I'd detect these things. And this moth we discovered was actually rubbing its genitalia on its on its body to make the sound. I also discovered a spider that was singing on a leaf that I thought was a grasshopper. When I got close, I realized this spider was singing to attract mates And that spider is now turned out to be it's now labeled the loudest spider on earth because of this discovery. And then later on, we discovered even a small cricket that was singing very actively and mating very, very frequently. And later on, I had a graduate student when I actually came to University of Toronto, Mississauga, this campus, to to become a professor. I had a graduate student supervised with Median and brought a named Gillian Layered, and she did research on this species, and she discovered that single males could mate up to six times in a single meeting and the research was published. And it's now one of the Guinness Book of Records for the most frequent sex in a cricket When I was a first year professor, I think I think the one thing I wish I'd known, which I would have incorporated much earlier into my teaching, especially teaching first year students because I spent the first ten years or so here teaching the first year biology course here. What do you know now that you wish you'd known as a first-year professor? I think the thing I wish I'd known would be how important critical thinking skills are for students, and I would work much more many more exercises, discuss much more research that really focused on getting students to critically think about issues. How do a biologist and a modern dancer come together? Peggy Baker is a very well known Toronto modern dance - modern dancer, and she had seen some videotapes of insect behavior and insect movement. And she designed a new dance routine based on insect movement and insect behavior. And she got in touch with me as an expert in insect behavior, which is all about movement, and asked me if I would go and view these tapes that she started with and actually go and see the rehearsals for this dance and to see what I thought of it and if I could give her any critical feedback. So I ended up thinking this is going to be kind of boring, but it ended up really, really interesting. I found it so intriguing to see humans dancing, replicating the movements of insects and so it ended up it was presented, I think, on the Harbourfront, the dance. And I went down for several nights and I would start the program with a little introductory thing about insects and insect behavior out in the foyer. And then obviously we moved in and saw these amazing dance routines. What is the biggest change you have seen in your field of study from when you began until now? So I think the biggest change in especially the methodology used in my field, sexual selection, has been the advent of molecular biology and its use by ecologists and evolutionary biologists and in particular for people studying sexual selection. It's very important in studies of sexual selection. One of the focal observations one can make in nature or doing experiments is, is to look at mating success classically of males because they're the ones that are striving to get more mates than females. But mating success is what we use to use what the new molecular markers allowed us to do was actually assess what's called evolutionary fitness of males in a very different way, in a better way, and in a much improved way by actually determining their paternity. So in recent years, my lab has used molecular markers of individual males, even in the wild, to figure out which males are most successful in getting most females inseminated. And that's a really, really important component and methodology to really testing some of Darwin's ideas about sexual selection. Tell us about your field research. Any particularly challenging or rewarding moments? I think field research in general is often very challenging because you have to put up with often terrible weather. And much of my research, my field research in the last ten years or so, actually more a couple of decades or so has been in New Zealand and you can see it's a very, very interesting place to go because you can start off the evening with beautiful weather and have a storm front move in, and so that's probably the most challenging thing to do is actually dealing with the physical environment. In terms of rewards I think it would be my first field trip to study Katydids and that was in North America with this idea in mind that when males invest heavily in their mates that it could absolutely have real significance for sex differences because you could get a reversal in the mating roles when males are rewarding females at mating with a very highly nutritious food as these katydids do. You can actually get a reversal in the in the matting roles where the females will compete for males, a very male like behavior in the animal kingdom and the males would actually do this. The typical female behavior in the animal kingdom sit back and choose. And that's what I predicted. And I ended up going into areas of Utah and Colorado looking for a thing called Mormon cricket, which is a katydid, and my very first day in the field - these are these are active during the day - I actually saw exactly what I predicted. I saw females competing aggressively as they ran towards singing males, and I saw males rejecting females. And I it was such an unbelievably rewarding thing to see my prediction come true in nature. And I was so thrilled with that. See more in reply

Your hard work and dedication is evident in all your ventures. I am so proud of you!

Our department is advocating for mandating the masks at UTM. Why is important to wear mask and even face shields? Mary Cheng: So on the Department of Biology, there's been a very good effort to educate and push for mandatory mask wearing while on campus. Recently, our Department's Chair, Professor Joel Levine and his graduate students, Rebecca Brooke, with the help of others, put together a petition asking the university to mandate mask wearing. I can't emphasize enough how important this is. Recent studies have shown that up to a third of covert individuals are asymptomatic and they contributes to over 50% of transmission. So even if you think you don't have, you may unintentionally be spreading it to others. So the best way to protect yourself is to wear a mask, when in public places. Now, that's not the only way you know we need to adopt and embrace core behaviors that limits the spread of COVID 19. So in addition to mask wearing, we should be observing physical or social distancing, we should not be congregating in the large crowds. We should practice good personal hygiene like frequent handwashing and if you think that you've put yourself at risk, you should get tested. And if you're positive, you should self isolator home.This is really the only way for us to defeat this virus. Shannon McCauley: I'm really in support of this petition. And I think one of the things that we've learned is you know the science has changed. Initially it was unclear whether masks mattered. But more and more evidence is coming out that a lot of transmission occurs through aerial transmission of droplets and this doesn't even necessarily mean a big sneeze. This means that as we speak, we expel droplets. This very simple mask can be even kind of cute ,right technique can save lives. You may feel fine. Again, a lot of people, we don't know the exact percentages, but up to 30% are asymptomatic. Also, people may become symptomatic, but still be transmitted before they actually develop symptoms. So, wearing a mask is really a way to very politely protect other people and you're asking them to do the same. You know, we've all adopted a number of things we all wear shoes right you go into a store you wear your shoe and we don't question that right it's polite. You don't want your dirty feet on the floor. In this case, we're just trying to protect any of those small droplets any of the things that we might be transmitting from reaching others. And this, in combination with physical distancing with good hygiene, washing your hands are critical for protecting other people. I think that's one of the things that really has to be emphasized, people sometimes say, I'm not afraid. I don't think I'm at risk. It's not about you. Right. The truth is you need other people to be wearing their masks to protect you. You're wearing a mask to protect other people and so it's a relatively simple thing. You don't need to do it when you're on your own. You don't need to walk around your house with that you have lots of the day where you don't need to wear a mask. But when you're in public. And when you're on campus please wear this. Your message to our graduate students Mary Cheng: So my message to the graduate students is, even though COVID 19 has really changed how we live our lives. You shouldn't live in fear. You shouldn't be afraid to come to work and progress with your graduate research and graduate education. I want you to know that at here at UTMBiology, the staff and the faculty have your back. We will advocate for safe working conditions for you as you come back to work at the same time I ask that. You make some responsible choices in your life, such as physical distancing, not going out to bars and having a good time remaining vigilance, because we are still in a very serious pandemic. We only need to look at south of the border to see how bad it can be. So I ask you to make responsible choices, but not to live in fear and I hope to see many of you back to work come September. Shannon McCauley: To our graduate students, you are a critical part of our community in everything we're doing right now is to try to protect you protect your family's protect your friends.And I think that in a way this you know these are hard times, but on some level, it's showing us the best of ourselves. We see people coming together. We see people making tremendous efforts to stay shirt to stay connected with one another, to keep their work going even in difficult conditions and to do things to protect each other and to help each other. And I just asked you to keep doing that: reach out to people if you're if you feel like you haven't seen a lot of never heard from a lab member in a while. You know, people are struggling. It's hard to be this isolated. It's hard sometimes to be very concerned about where's your work going, what's going to happen. So reach out to lab members, Zoom is a great tool, you know, or give them a call. Make responsible choices do the things you need to do to protect yourself to protect your lab and protect your family. But make sure you do it in a way that is healthy for you right by reaching out to people by recognizing that you know this is a community, and it's a community that cares about you. And we're all just: ee'll get through this and we'll be back together. And the best way to do that is to make those good choices and to take care of yourselves and to take care of others. So thank you for all the work you're doing in this community.

Mary Cheng: Hi, my name is Mary Chang and I'm a professor in the Biology Department. Shannon McCauley: My name is Shannon McCauley, associate professor and currently serving as the Associate Chair of Research for the Biology Department at UTM. Starting with Monday, June 15, labs with approved plans for reopening restarted/resumed their research. What was your experience so far? Mary Cheng: So I've returned to the lab since the university opened on June 15 and my experience has actually been quite mixed. I've noticed that most of the researchers have been wearing masks, while in public areas of the campus, such as the quarters, but there's still there was still a sizable number of people that elected not to wear masks. So that was actually at the beginning when the university just opened. But since then, I feel that things have improved, with consistent and frequent messaging more and more people are actually wearing masks now. Shannon McCauley: So my lab does a lot of its work off campus. We have had some work going on since the university began reopening and we've had a pretty good experience now partly we do some work in the lab, but we were able to maintain very few people. The other thing is, some of our work is actually happened at the UTM grounds and people have been quite respectful and have managed to keep their distance and so well my experiment. Well, but for example my graduate student ran an experiment out in the courtyard of Davis, she found that people were very respectful and of course being outdoors is quite a lot safer so we've been fairly comfortable. However, we have been trying to minimize our amount of time in the building, in part because we know that capacity is limited and if we can work out of the building that sort of frees up some of the capacity within the building. So that's been part of our strategy. Is KSR open? Shannon McCauley: So the Koffler Scientific Reserve is open, although it's subject to the same sort of rules. So you have to apply and you have to make sure that your plan is approved and that all goes through John Stinchcomb who's the Reserve director. Being outdoors, we're able to conduct research relatively safely. But still, we're maintaining social distance. So for instance, people aren't working together my graduate students are having to do the work on their own. Also facilities are not open so the lab is not open if you need equipment in there. You need to coordinate with Kate Brown, who's the manager. Nonetheless, they've been incredibly helpful both John Stinchcomb and K Brown have been very helpful with graduate students are beginning to resume their work with getting the permissions very quickly and with getting equipment that they need. So Koffler is open, but you do need to go through all those procedures and I think if you do that, we have a very safe work environment there. What concerns you the most and this point? Mary Cheng: My primary concern is actually for the health and safety of our graduate students, undergrads, staff and our faculty. Covid 19 has really changed how universities work and how we do research and teach. It's actually very important to realize that the research must go on. But it must go on in a safe environment. So for me I think as a professor of biology and as a number of this community I would want to emphasize that mask wearing will save lives. This is a very dangerous virus, people should not let their guard down people must remain vigilant so mask wearing will ensure that you don't infect another person. And if we all wear masks, we can protect not only the community, but our also our families when we return home from work. Shannon McCauley: My biggest concern right now is that, as things begin to open up, we face the risk and one of the big issues is fatigue. We are all right, tired of doing some of the things that we have doing to protect ourselves and to protect our loved ones and protect our colleagues. Masks are incredibly valuable. They're very simple, but they can help us protect our families and it's very easy as it gets warm and we move out of what is typically flu season you'd feel like, yeah, it's probably okay. You know, Ontario has been doing a pretty good job. But as we've seen in the States, these things can come back very quickly and very viciously. I'm also concerned that young people, you know, they haven't typically been as badly affected but nobody is safe. And that's the thing that we're really learning about coven is that who is hit hard by this does not seem to be related. Just to the risk factors we know but sometimes can be really random and because of that, we want to make sure that young people are taking care of themselves and also taking care of their families. We know that a lot of people can be transmitting they're asymptomatic and so one of the big concerns I have is that people will feel like I'm tired of this. I'm tired of wearing a mask. "I'm tired of not seeing my friends" and the let their guard down. And as a result, they'll either become very ill or they'll carry it to their families and there's there's both the risk to their own health physical as well as psychological, you know, and so I really think we have to we have to hold the line and that's critical. And it's hard. And we just have to all realize we're in it together. This will pass. And when we do now is going to have a huge effect on the future that we go to.

Thanks for putting this together! I loved it!