Teacher bugged by
it’s a bountiful life
Interview by Linda DuBois • Photos by Tomas Ovalle
Students Yolanda Aragon, left, and Lucas Blanco work with teacher Amy Downs on a project to study and raise awareness of the Asian citrus psyllid, a tiny insect that can kill citrus trees.
Classroom uses educator’s fellowship for studying Asian citrus psyllid
There’s an insect the size of a sesame seed that can cause a big problem for California citrus farmers. Amy Downs, a seventh- and eighth-grade teacher at Global Learning Charter School in Visalia, decided to do something about it. As the Citizen Scientist Fellow for California State University, Bakersfield, she and her students embarked on a project to study and raise awareness of the Asian citrus psyllid. The pest feeds on the leaves and stems of citrus trees and can carry a bacterium called huanglongbing disease. Once a tree is infected, it will produce bitter, misshapen fruit and die within five years. The idea for the project originated in 2017, when Downs and another teacher created an educational game for a contest. Called “The Bugs Are Breaking In,” the game was inspired by the work of Mark Hoddle, a University of California, Riverside biological control specialist. He brought a predatory wasp that feeds on the Asian citrus psyllid from Pakistan to the Center for Invasive Species Research at UC Riverside. When he learned of plans for the game, Hoddle and a teammade an educational video to accompany it. Since then, Downs and her students have been studying the citrus pest and its predatory wasp, passing on their knowledge to their families, communities and agriculture and education groups.
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January/February 2022
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