S-STEM/TRAIN Scholar Christopher Livingston's Blog

To start off my research, I assisted Matt in measuring large black PVC tubing in six inch increments... I didn't really understand why but I was happy to help. Upon further discussion of the pipe measuring I discovered that these pipes were going to be made into insect/arthropod traps that would be used in the garden, I love the garden so this is perfect for me! I am also finding five different scholarly sources about Arizona insects and different types of insect traps. Dr. Ortiz filled me in on more of the specifics of the project to help me find good scholarly sources. We are developing a native pollinator garden on the Phoenix College campus grounds, one of the things that we want to know is how the insect/arthropod biodiversity will change once the landscape has changed. We are building these insect traps in order to study that change, and we will first test them out in the Phoenix College edible garden. This should prove to be a very interesting project!

Hello all, this is my first blog post ever! My name is Chris Livingston (just like the blog says), I am a STEM student at Phoenix College and this is my first semester joining the S-STEM/TRAIN scholarship experience, and hopefully not my last! I will be getting acclimated to my internship at Phoenix College in the next few weeks and I'm sure you will be updated via this blog to see how it's going for me. At first I was a bit nervous about joining this project since I have to balance it with my other classes, but after speaking with Dr. Chapman I feel better about it, in fact I feel a bit excited since it will give me experiences that will be immensely valuable to my future. I look forward to what I'm going to learn and the contacts that I will make through this program. Wish me luck! Here are pictures of the door and door bell of the Dalby building on campus, which is where I will be spending my time working on the project.