MAPS Microbes on the Move: Exploring microbiomes through mobile museum experiences draws attention to microbial communities

The Microbes on the Move pop-up museum tent.

     Microbes on the Move: Exploring microbiomes through mobile museum experiences is one of the museum community outreach initiatives supported by Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS). The program is directed by Dr. Teresa MacDonald, Associate Director for Public Programs at the KU Biodiversity Institute & Natural History Museum in collaboration with Dr. Ben Sikes, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Kansas (KU), Associate Scientist for the Kansas Biological Survey, and KU MAPS Plant Research Team Leader. The Microbes on the Move project was developed as a pop-up museum designed to travel across the state of Kansas and inform communities about the diversity of microorganisms as well as their role in natural global cycles. The program focuses on illustrating the world of microbes through museum collections and living microbial communities. The objectives of the project are to encourage elementary-age children and their families to learn about the major microbe groups; to understand and appreciate the diverse nature of microorganisms; to discover connections between microbes and their local environment; and to experience microbes as living organisms through dynamic displays.

"Dorothy" observing specimens 
with microbial connections during
OZtoberfest in Wamego, KS

     Dr. MacDonald described the program as a “'drop-in event,' so visitors can experience the facilitated activities and specimen displays in any order and for as long as they are interested.” The mobile museum includes 15 portable exhibits displaying 90 different species such as fungi, lichen, and stromatolites from the KU Natural History Museum's microbe collections. It also features interactive activities such as ‘Microbe Minute’ cards that provide fun action labels and engaging stories connecting the displays to the microorganisms living in the participants' local community. Other activities involve visitors collecting samples from the local environment to culture fungi that create living art; making mini-microbial gardens using Winogradsky columns; and using USB microscopes and Foldscopes to observe individual microorganisms. When asked what the most popular activity was, Dr. MacDonald responded, “Many are drawn to the specimen displays and their microbial connections, others opt to begin exploring items with microscopes or mixing mud and water with other materials to build microbial columns. The opportunity to collect and grow fungi to find out what lives on their face, shoe, or other surface is also intriguing – particularly for young visitors.” The program's presentation is also flexible depending on the audience as Dr. MacDonald explained, “We added some activities highlighting some connections to the Wizard of Oz stories as part of our participation in OZtoberfest in Wamego.”

Students observing specimens 
with microbial connections

     The mobile museum's presentation team consists of three education and outreach staff from the KU Natural History Museum, three student assistants as well as some occasional volunteers. When selecting locations to reach out to, Dr. MacDonald said her team considers the area’s “population size, community demographics, potential community partners like a public library or other site, free community events that fit with the microbe theme and coincide with the team’s availability, the proximity the area has to informal science education opportunities, and the distance the event is from KU Natural History Museum.” So far, the Microbes on the Move project has participated in four events. The first and second outreach events occurred in the spring of 2019. One through a collaboration with the public library in Chanute, KS and the other in conjunction with the KU Spencer Museum of Art’s “Day of Creativity.” The third and fourth events occurred in the fall of 2019. One was in collaboration with the Emporia Public Library, and the other was involved with the Wamego, KS OZtoberfest. So far, the program has traveled over 800 miles reaching close to 1000 visitors, and the response to the project has been overwhelmingly positive.
     Currently, the team is planning to participate in six more events with two scheduled in the spring of 2020 (April 10 in Independence, KS and May 9 in Topeka, KS). The Microbes on the Move project is funded through the summer of 2021.

Workforce Development, Education and Outreach funding for the Microbes on the Move: Exploring microbiomes through mobile museum experiences is provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas. The grant's workforce development and educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce and prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.

MAPS science teams from across the state meet to present research progress

The MAPS Research Team

   Forty members of the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS) research team consisting of faculty, post-docs, lab techs, and students met on November 4, 2019, at the Kansas Biological Survey located in Higuchi Hall at the University of Kansas (KU) to provide research updates and plan next steps for the MAPS project. Co-Pis, Dr. Walter Dodds from Kansas State University (KSU), Dr. Jim Bever (KU) and Dr. Sharon Billings (KU) welcomed the group and outlined the logistics of the meeting. Team leaders, Dr. Lydia Zeglin (KSU) and Dr. Amy Burgin (KU) from the Aquatic research group, Dr. Ben Sikes (KU) from the Plant research group, Dr. Matt Kirk (KSU) from the Soils research group and Dr. Tom Platt (KSU) and Dr. Fola Agusto (KU) from the Synthesis team reported on the accomplishments of their specific research teams. The presentation updates were followed by post-docs and students from each research group presenting their research projects and progress in using a lightning talk presentation format. The following students, post-docs and lab techs presented their specific MAPS research project.

WSU master's student Abigail Urban

From the Plant Research team:

• Abigail Urban - Response of plan Communities to land use across the precipitation gradient in Kansas (WSU Houseman Lab)
• Hannah Dea - MAPS: Plant Microbiome Samples Summer 2019 (KSU Jupponen Lab)
• Matthew Kolp - Maize drought experiment and synthetic microbial communities (KU Wagoner Lab)
• Susan Magnoli - Legume-rhizobia mutualism as a driver of grassland composition and community resistance to invasion (KU Bever Lab)

KSU master's student Stephan Koenigsberger

From the Soil Research Team:

• Stephan Koenigsberger - Variation in soil redox with land use across the Kansas precipitation gradient (KSU Kirk Lab)
• Irosha Wanighunga -  Effects of land use on methane oxidation (KSU Rice Lab)
• Marcos Sarto - Soil microbial community composition across a precipitation gradient with different land uses (KSU Rice Lab)
• Paige Hansen - EPSCoR soil microbial communities (KU Sikes Lab)
• Annie Telegin - Exploring leachate from intact mesocosms (KU Burgin-Loeke Lab)
• Matt Sena - Influence of precipitation and land use in pore geometry of soils with vertic properties (with KU Sullivan, Hirmas Billings, Brookfield, Lang)

KU post doc Matt Kolp

From the Aquatic Research Team:

• Kyle Cochran - Distribution of stream water and sediment algae and bacteria across KS precipitation and land-use gradients (KSU Zeglin Lab)
• Kynser Wahwahsuck - Nitrogen cycling in grassland vs. cropland dominated watersheds (KU Burgin Lab)
• Joshua Dimapilis - Nitrogen-cycling microbes in Kansas stream sediments: linking structure and function
• Janaye Hanschu and Abagel Pruitt - Nitrogen and microbiome effects on lake toxin production (KU Burgin Lab)
• Anne Schechner - Spatial heterogeneity of metabolism in Kansas River (KSU Dodds Lab)
• Bre Waterman - Contribution of groundwater to stream discharge and biogeochemistry across the precipitation gradient (KSU Kirk Lab)
• Jess Wilhelm - Biogeochemical implications of stream intermittency across the precipitation gradient (KU Burgin Lab)

KSU Ph.D student Ha Le 

From the Synthesis Research Team:

• Rebekah Wagner - Rhizobia-AMF synergism model (KU Bever and Agusto Lab)
• Ha Le - Adaptation of pipelines to the Slurm system (KSU Liu Lab)

   Dr. Andrea Brookfield (KU) presented her and Dr. Amy Hansen's (KU) progress on their MAPS Research Education and Innovation (REI) Award project titled Integrated groundwater and surface water modeling for predicting aquatic microbiomes, and Samantha Thomas, MAPS Data Manager, provided information on options and best practices for collecting and sharing data. Following the whole group presentations, each team met to discuss future collaborative and synthesis opportunities. 

   The next MAPS team meeting, The 2020 MAPS Research Symposium , will take place in the Spring on March 2, 2020, at the Adams Alumni Center on the KU campus. In addition to the research faculty, post-docs, and students, the MAPS team will invite outreach participants, partners, stakeholders, state representatives, and university administrators across the state to participate.

Workforce Development, Education and Outreach funding for the MAPS annual all hands science meeting s provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas. The grant's workforce development and educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.

KU doctoral student teaches ecology to Kansas 3rd grade students through the MAPS KEES Program

Laura teaches students about soils

   Laura Jimenez-Jimenez understands the benefits of  STEM outreach, so when she was asked to participate in the Kansas Ecology for Elementary Students (KEES) program, she said "I got very excited and I happily joined the team. Particularly after finding out that I could teach in both Spanish and English at a dual-language school.” The KEES program is a part of the workforce development and education outreach initiatives included in the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas (MAPS). Dr.  Peggy Schultz, Associate Specialist in the Environmental Studies Program within the Kansas Biological Survey at the University of Kansas (KU) is the KEES program director. During the academic school year, the KEES program travels to elementary schools in Lawrence and Topeka, KS to provide 3rd-grade students with opportunities to conduct small group hands-on experiments in order to learn about Kansas ecology. One of the participating schools located in Topeka is the Scott Dual Language Magnet Elementary School, where they teach all of their science curricula in Spanish.
   Being bilingual and having studied ecology, biology, and statistics in her master's and doctoral programs, volunteering to teach Kansas ecology in Spanish was a natural fit for Laura. As a KEES instructor, she has “learned different strategies for teaching in elementary schools, from playing games to doing fun experiments in the classroom.” She also mentioned she enjoys contributing to the development of both the Spanish and English KEES curriculum. Her favorite part of this outreach experience is when she hears “comments from our students after they participate in a lesson. Most of them are really excited to participate and enjoy learning with us so much that they can hardly wait for our next visit.”

Laura teaches trophic levels as she gently
supports a King Snake 

   Laura's doctoral research uses mathematical models to study a wide range of problems in biology and ecology. She first became interested in combining mathematics with the natural sciences when she took a statistical ecology course in her master’s program. Laura explained, “having the opportunity to observe science through mathematics has been a beautiful experience. It has stimulated my creativity and helped to enhance my analytical thinking skills. Through statistics, I am able to use mathematical models to better understand random phenomena and analyze data. Moreover, working with ecologists has made me realize that I can contribute to solving problems that will have a positive impact on society.” Specifically, her area of interest focuses on “estimating the fundamental niches of species from occurrence and physiological data.” Laura described her research as follows, “The fundamental niche of a species is defined as the set of environmental combinations the studied species needs to maintain populations; leading, at the same time, to the survival of the species. The concept of the ecological niche is central to ecological biogeography, which focuses on spatial patterns of ecological communities called species distributions. Estimating the fundamental niche of a species is assumed to require physiological experiments, which require bringing specimens to the lab and placing them in chambers where environmental conditions are fully controlled. However, these experiments are not viable for all the species. The kind of data that is widely available is occurrence points, known to represent a subset of the fundamental niche. Our work focuses on finding an approximation to the fundamental niche from occurrences and any information related to physiological data. We do this by providing a statistical model for estimating the parameters that represent a fundamental niche. So far, we created some examples of virtual species for which the resulting estimates were compared to its theoretical fundamental niche with the purpose of evaluating our proposed model. The analysis of data from virtual species helped us describe conditions that may produce better estimates for the fundamental niche in real cases. Therefore, we are working on a second version of the model that takes into account what we learned from previous analyses.” Currently, Laura is a fifth-year Ph.D. student pursuing a doctoral degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Her adviser is Dr. Jorge Soberón, a University Distinguished Professor of the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and the KU Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum.

Laura Jimenez-Jimenez
hosting a LAGO recruitment table

     Originally, Laura is from the state of Puebla in Mexico where she lived for fifteen years. Then, she and her family moved to the state of Guanajuato, Mexico where she went to college. While living in Mexico, Laura earned a bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the Department of Mathematics (DEMAT) at the University of Guanajuato and a master’s degree in Probability and Statistics from the Mathematics Research Center (CIMAT). She also received two scholarships from the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT). The first scholarship fully funded her master’s program, and the second has funded four years of her doctoral studies. During both her undergraduate and the master’s programs, she was an instructor for Matemorfosis, a group dedicated to the dissemination of science at the Mathematics Research Center (CIMAT). As an instructor, she specialized in teaching geometry with origami. By using origami, Laura could assemble several pieces of paper to build various 3D shapes which created a hand-on visual display to explore geometry concepts such as symmetry, volume, and regular polygons. Though she has used origami as a teaching tool, Laura added “Origami is one of my hobbies and it helps me relieve stress. In addition, I occasionally give origami workshops and talks as well.” While studying for her Ph.D. at KU, Laura has volunteered with the KEES program for 3 years, joined the KU Tango Club, and served as both the vice president and the president of the KU Latin American Graduate Organization (LAGO). This fall, Laura became a Graduate Teaching Assistant for an introductory statistics class for biology students, and stated, “I am very excited about having the opportunity to teach at KU.”
     After Laura completes her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, she would like to find a postdoc position that also provides her with an opportunity to continue her research.

Workforce Development, Education and Outreach funding for the KEES Program is provided by the Kansas NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Award OIA-1656006 titled: Microbiomes of Aquatic, Plant, and Soil Systems across Kansas. The grant's workforce development and educational objectives are designed to enhance STEM education in Kansas by supporting activities that will lead to an expanded STEM workforce or prepare a new generation for STEM careers in the areas of aquatic, plant and soil microbiome environments and ecological systems.