Teaching

MothEd is purposefully designed to provide elementary and middle school students the opportunity to shape the scientific practices of their classroom, to survey moth abundance and diversity of their local places, and to inform the ongoing ecological work of entomologists.

In this activity, students learn the fundamentals of Mendelian inheritance through concrete, insect-based examples. Moving from molecular foundations (DNA > gene > trait) to monohybrid Punnett square models, students investigate how alleles separate and recombine during reproduction.

This interactive, hands-on tabletop practicum was designed for an introductory entomology unit on insect diversity, taxonomy, and anatomical adaptations. Blending multi-modal specimen observation with an active crossword challenge, the activity served as both a collaborative learning exercise and the day's formative exit ticket.

In this introductory entomology activity, students move past the generic "bug" label to explore the definitive morphological structures that distinguish true insects from other arthropods. Through interactive comparative slides featuring Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, and social insects, learners dissect external morphology: the three primary tagmata (head, thorax, and abdomen), flight structures (forewings and hindwings attached strictly to the thorax), sensory organs (compound eyes, antennae), respiratory spiracles, and specialized mouthparts (proboscis vs. mandibles).

What would our plates look like without insect pollinators? In this active, gamified outreach lesson, participants experience firsthand how everyday foods depend on insect biodiversity. Teams begin with an unfulfilling "pollinator-free" meal—just the top and bottom of a wheat hamburger bun, representing wind-pollinated grains. To build out a full picnic plate (a complete cheeseburger, potato chips, watermelon, and brownies), participants play a giant memory-matching game to discover the specific, often surprising insects responsible for each ingredient.