University of Wyoming Extension News

Category Archives: University of Wyoming

UW molecular biology assistant professor praised for course design,drive for student success

Naomi Ward

Naomi Ward

Turning traditional course design upside down, her enthusiasm for teaching and her drive for student success are among reasonsassistant professor Naomi Ward has received the John P. Ellbogen Meritorious Classroom Teaching Award at the University of Wyoming.

Ward, who has a split position between the Department of Molecular Biology (75 percent) and the Department of Botany, is in her sixth year at UW.

“I’d like to express my thanks to the Office of Academic Affairs and the award’s donor (Mary Ellbogen Garland) for this recognition and for the very generous prize,” said Ward, in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “I am honored and grateful.”

This year’s other award recipients are Peter Parolin, associate professor in the Department of English, and Doug Russell, associate professor in the Department of Art.

“Naomi is simply a gifted teacher,” said Anne Sylvester, a molecular biology professor and director of Wyoming’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). “She excels not only in content delivery but in designing courses that are relevant and rigorous.”

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UW Extension hosts management-intensive grazing school near Glenrock

Range specialist Mike Smith, center, and others calculate forage during last year's management-intensive grazing session.

Range specialist Mike Smith, center, and others calculate forage at a session during  last year’s management-intensive grazing program.

A four-day school to coax more out of pastures, extend grazing seasons and reduce or eliminate the need for harvested feed is being sponsored at a Glenrock ranch by the University of Wyoming Extension.

The management-intensive grazing school is May 28-May 31 at the Duncan Ranch. Each day has classroom work in the morning followed by hands-on applications of the concepts on the ranch.

The school will teach participants how to design and implement a management-intensive grazing program focused on profitability and pasture production.

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UW assistant professor receives early career undergraduate teaching award

Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Exemplary contribution in teaching and advising of range management students at the undergraduate level has netted a teaching award for a University of Wyoming wildlife habitat restoration ecologist.

Jeff Beck, assistant professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, received the Range Science Education Council’s Early Career Undergraduate Teaching Award at the 2013 Society for Range Management Honor and Student Awards Ceremony in Oklahoma City, Okla., Feb. 6.

“It was an honor, absolutely an honor to be recognized by them,” said Beck, who is in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. “It was also equally satisfying to earn the award because the person who won the career teaching award was one of my mentors, Karen Launchbaugh, professor of rangeland ecology and management at the University of Idaho. Right after I received my award,they announced hers.”

The Early Career Undergraduate Teaching Award is sponsored by the RSEC and SRM.

“Attending the SRM meeting is a highlight of my year,” said Beck. “I really enjoy attending those meetings, interacting with scientists from other institutions and keeping up to date on the whereabouts of rangeland scientists. It’s also a great way to share our research results with other scientists from around the world.”

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UW agroecology student attends agricultural outlook forum

Tyler Harran

Tyler Harran

University of Wyoming agroecology student Tyler Harran was one of 30 agricultural university students nationwide who attended the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Outlook Forum Student Diversity Program in Arlington, Va., Feb. 21-22.

“I feel veryprivileged to have been selected,” said Harran. “Of the 30 nationwide, it was an honor to be invited as the only agroecology major and to represent the University of Wyoming.”

Students were chosen to attend based on their winning “Agriculture as a Career” essays.

“When applying, I knew the chances of being selected were slim,” said Harran. “So I basically convinced myself to write the essay on the grounds that it would be good writing practice without expecting necessarily to have been chosen.”

Harran, from Jamestown, N.C., is an Ag Ambassador for the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

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Flying Oreos and hourglasses: UW researchers name insects in Ecuador cloud forest

Meteorus oreo, named for its white middle.

There are Oreos, beans, pearls and hourglasses flying through the moist, cool and amazingly green high-elevation cloud forests in the Ecuadorian Andes.

And, some of those species on the lush slopes are named in honor of University of Wyoming (UW) students, faculty members and alumni.

About half a world away – 12,000 miles – a newly discovered wasp in Thailand was named by the researchers in honor of Scott Shaw, professor of insect biology and classification at UW and curator of the UW Insect Museum. That wasp is in the same journal article that describes the Lady Gaga wasp. The Shaw species name, not nearly so flamboyant, is Aleiodes scottshawi.

Despite what you may be thinking, entomologists take naming new insect species they’ve discovered pretty seriously. UW Ph.D. student Guinevere Jones names 10 new species of Meteorus wasps in an article published in the November issue of the journal Zootaxa. Shaw, her adviser, is coauthor of the paper.

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