Prestudying for Entomology!

[All4College]

Hi guys, this will be my first year doing scioly at high school (ever, really). Our school is pretty darn competitive, so me and my partner thought we should study some stuff now to get an edge on competitors for a spot on the A team. We're considering many topics (water quality, dynamic planic, Bungee drop), but for now we're going to focus on entomology. I looked through for some infor on this competition, and it appears mostly about identifying species. I've memorized the important orders, but the old competition details said we could bring an identifying guide so memorizing the 100s of families shouldn't be necesarry right We've got some nice guides like Smithsonian and Audubon

So aside from that, I was wondering if any of you (particularly those that did this event before) know what to study to do good in entomology? Any advice is appreciated!

[hexagonaria]

Entomology hasn't been around for 6 years, so you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody who has done it before. But the events that it rotates out with (Herpetology, Ornithology, Forestry) are very similar, so the studying techniques should be transferable.

I think the trick to these events is to avoid memorizing things that you don't have to. You want to use your field guide, not become your field guide. Generally, most of the answers to the question can be found in a good field guide (and they usually let you write in them, so you can super-charge it with information!). So, it's best to study identification. identification identification identification identification. identification is key. I like to make flash cards (image on one side, name on the other) and quizzes for myself. The olympians that end up doing poorly are the kids who bring a huge expensive field guide with all the answers, but they just spend the whole time flipping through it trying to find a bug that looks like the one on the test. You want to get to a point where you can ID a specimen and find its page in seconds. Then all the other non-identification questions (habitat, mating and feeding habits, etc.) you can find in your field guide/ notes.

In addition, you'll want to know some basic stuff about anatomy and nomenclature.

That's my strategem, other people might have a better way though.

Welcome to science olympiad!

[Skink]

As said above, once you've done one bio ID event, you've kinda done them all (though we all know what the best of the four is ). I have no direct experience with this event (c'mon, it's bugs, people ), so the primary advice I have is to do...what you've already done: work from the old list as a starting point, and see what you get when the rules arrive in your hands. I am unsure how much the list will change since the '06-'07 (I think) one(s), but I'd imagine, even if we expect changes, the core of the list will remain the same meaning studying put in now won't necessarily be a shot in the dark.

The other thing you can work on, as also suggested above, is insect anatomy and other general information (like ecological stuff, everyone’s favorite, which is also included in the rules). That doesn't change far as the basics are concerned. A start would probably be the opening pages of your fiend guide. To go deeper, a zoology text would have probably sufficient general material in a chapter on insects, but I'm sure you could find an entomology book if you really wanted, too. I don't think general questions would ever exceed that which you could find in an upper-level high school or introductory college zo course, though. I point this out because you may have such a text available at school (meaning free) depending on if your school offers zo or an equivalent.

The novel piece of advice I have to offer is to spend the summer while you still have it playing with bugs as opposed to squashing them. Get a pair of magnifiers and some container and inspect live (for as long as they’re live, anyway) samples. I don’t know how much range is affected by the changes in the seasons, but I’ve caught the most exotic-looking bugs during the summertime in my own experience. If you’re not the outdoorsy, get-your-hands-dirty type, go buy some crickets, the kinda stuff people feed to their pet lizards and the like. They work just as good. And, when you’re through with them, you’re free to eat them yourself.
I don't know to what extent or even really how practical stations might be utilized in this event, but, as I said, crickets are always available. And ants and caterpillars are common, too. Point being, I'd expect more samples than in Forestry because you can still find bugs during even the winter months.

[All4College]

Thanks for the reply guys! I think I will do the flash card thing, my friend and I may go to the baylands to look at some insects. I've always been fascinated by them, but also ignorant of them when I was small... I bought crickets (they drowned in the rain) and caught a preying mantis (starved to death)

I'm having problems distinguishing between certain families since they're so similar, are there any websites that detail this? I've found numerous forums with lots of nice pictures, but there's no place that actually says "family XXX has larger mandibles and shorter thorax than YYY", etc.

[fozendog]

(water quality, dynamic planet

Do these. 10x better

[Crazy Puny Man]

(water quality, dynamic planet

Do these. 10x better

+1 (not for WaterQ, for Dynamic Planet xD)

[hexagonaria]

Rocks and Minerals all the way!

[Skink]

I'm having problems distinguishing between certain families since they're so similar, are there any websites that detail this? I've found numerous forums with lots of nice pictures, but there's no place that actually says "family XXX has larger mandibles and shorter thorax than YYY", etc.

Now might be the time to either tell or remind you that the field guides about which we spoke before are kinda like baby's first field guides. The real deal are the dichotomous keys. The purpose of a dichotomous key is accurate identification in a flow chart type style, so the series of questions found in one of those is one surefire thing that would highlight the differences you're looking for, no matter how minute they may seem to us. You don't necessarily have to find a print one, either. I'm sure such a thing is online sooooomewhere...

[tuftedtitmouse12]

Rocks and Minerals all the way!

+1

Would a magnifying glass be allowed this year? Since some bugs are pretty small...

[Skink]

The old rules say dissecting microscopes will be provided where needed. That's better, anyway. Let the supervisor bring the stuff! Let it be someone else's problem! You just bring your noggin and some other junk. Granted, there's nothing preventing them from changing it now, and I don't know what the probability is of them changing it. I'd assume the old rules will stand pretty closely considering part of the idea behind event rotation is that old events return eventually, so I wouldn't expect this event to be warped too much. That's just a supposition, note.