Category Archives: Natural and Agricultural Sciences
Brandon Sharp awarded ELIAS Fellowship
Congratulations to Brandon Sharp, LLCC computer science major, for being awarded the Experiential Learning in Applied Statistics (ELIAS) Fellowship! The overall objective of this fellowship program is to provide experiential training opportunities for students in applied statistics through an immersive, two-year experience that exposes students to both traditional agricultural and environmental research methods and data analysis techniques. Students emerging from this fully supported two-year experience will be competitive applicants for any STEM graduate or professional program of their choosing and will have gained the skillset necessary to be successful in a collaborative environment as a statistician.
Brandon will be attending SIUE in the fall majoring in computer science and minoring in geographic information systems. He will begin work on the fellowship this summer.
Three LLCC students receive state geography awards
Congratulations to LLCC students Garrett Kroeschel, Andrew Law and Brandon Sharp for receiving the Illinois Geographical Society’s Outstanding Community College Student Award! This award goes to a student(s) who excelled in one or more geography classes. Kroeschel, Law and Sharp were recognized at the Illinois Geographical Society’s annual awards banquet held at LLCC’s Trutter Center on April 21. Kroeschel, from Chatham, will be attending ISU in the fall majoring in business information systems. Law, from Donnellson, is majoring in geography and will graduate from LLCC in December. Sharp, from Pawnee, will be attending SIUE in the fall majoring in computer science and minoring in geographic information systems. Congratulations!
IGS Conference
Geographers from across that state converged in Springfield for the Illinois Geographical Society’s 2023 annual awards banquet and conference April 20-23.
The IGS annual field trip was on Friday, April 21. We visited the Abraham Lincoln Library and Presidential Museum, the Dana Thomas House and the Abraham Lincoln Home National Historic Site. he day ended with the IGS annual awards banquet held at the Trutter Center. Jennifer Ramm was the evenings keynote speaker and presented a fun and lively talk on the “Geography of Bluegrass Music.”
Saturday morning was filled with paper presentations and a poster session in Menard Hall. LLCC students Kroeschel and Sharp presented their GIS projects in the poster session. Their posters were the only two community college submissions among many other poster projects presented by university students throughout the state.
Kroeschel’s project, “The Lincoln Trail: Chicago’s History of Working Class Life and Struggle,” took data from a paper brochure and put it into a digital map format. Sharp’s project, “Bird Banding: Catching Analysis,” highlighted the data collected at the bird banding station located at Jubilee Farms. Sharp’s poster won first place in the poster competition. Thank you to Thom Whalen for printing the posters.
The Saturday lunch keynote speaker was Tony Rothering who presented “The Science and Value of Bird Banding.” The conference closed on Sunday, April 23 with a field trip to the bird banding station at Jubilee Farm. Rothering and Samantha Reif shared their knowledge of birds with conference attendees.
A big thank you to Debbie Bell, LLCC Facilities, Jennifer Ramm, Samantha Reif, Tony Rothering, Julie Sutfin, Brent Todd, Binh Trinh and Thom Whalen for making the IGS conference a huge success!
Tree dedication in memory of Ada Range to be held May 3
A tree has recently been planted in memory of Adrienne (Ada) Range, former LLCC Natural and Agricultural Sciences faculty member who taught Anatomy and Physiology and who passed away in May 2022. Her colleagues had a bright and colorful magnolia tree planted to honor her and to remember her zest for life. There will be a short and informal dedication ceremony at the tree on Wednesday, May 3 at 3:15 p.m. The tree is located in front of the Millennium Center. All are invited to attend to honor Ada. Her family will also be present.
Farmers Share Luncheon held yesterday
Yesterday’s 10th annual Farmers Share Luncheon, sponsored by the LLCC Agriculture Club, called attention to the fact that farmers receive only 14% of the total cost of American food expenditures. Attendees had to pay just $1 for a full meal to represent the “farmers share.” Trivia questions asked by Bill Harmon, professor of agronomy, revealed other little known facts about agriculture.
Get tickets for Farmers Share Luncheon on April 17
The LLCC Agriculture Club is hosting its 10th annual Farmers Share Luncheon on Monday, April 17, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Trutter Center. Lunch will be either a pulled pork or chicken breast sandwich, Nelson’s cheddar potatoes, green beans, cookies and tea, lemonade or water. One hundred tickets will cost $1, to represent the fact that farmers only receive 14% of the total cost of Americans food expenditures. Tickets will be sold in A. Lincoln Commons today at noon, or they can be ordered from Ag Club Advisor Bill Harmon at bill.harmon@llcc.edu. Ag trivia and door prizes will be offered during the meal.
Get tickets for Farmers Share Luncheon on April 17
The LLCC Agriculture Club is hosting its 10th annual Farmers Share Luncheon on Monday, April 17, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Trutter Center. Lunch will be either a pulled pork or chicken breast sandwich, Nelson’s cheddar potatoes, green beans, cookies and tea, lemonade or water. One hundred tickets will cost $1, to represent the fact that farmers only receive 14% of the total cost of Americans food expenditures. Tickets will be sold in A. Lincoln Commons on April 12 at noon, or they can be ordered from Ag Club Advisor Bill Harmon at bill.harmon@llcc.edu. Ag trivia and door prizes will be offered during the meal.
LLCC Ag students excel at national competitions
L-r: Alex Sidener, Anthony Joiner, Wes Bland
Members of the Lincoln Land Community College Ag Club and Livestock Judging Team earned top honors at recent national competitions.
The Ag Club’s Soils Specialist Team was named 2023 National Professional Agricultural Student (PAS) Champions at the National PAS Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. The Soils Team includes Anthony Joiner of Carlinville, Wes Bland of Eldred and Alex Sidener of Rochester, who also placed second, fourth and fifth individually. They are the fifth LLCC team to win the soils event since its creation in 2004.
L-r: Wyatt Buckles, Anthony Joiner, Caedyn Finneran, Alex Sidener, Elizabeth Lee, Charlie Gum, Cole Repscher, Wes Bland, Logan Kearns
The Crops Team of Cole Repscher of Taylorville, Wyatt Buckles of Mechanicsburg and Charlie Gum of Tallula placed sixth. The Swine Team of Elizabeth Lee of Springfield, Caedyn Finneran of Chatham and Logan Kearns of Springfield placed eighth. The College Bowl Team of Logan Kearns, Wyatt Buckles, Alex Sidener, Wes Bland and Anthony Joiner placed fifth. Two LLCC students competed in the Employment Interview event. Elizabeth Lee placed fifth in Specialty Crop Production, and Cole Repscher placed fourth in Agronomic Production.
The students earned the right to compete at the national event by placing in the top three at Illinois PAS contests held earlier this year. This is the 24th year that LLCC students have participated in this national competition, made possible this year by grants from Growmark and the Kreher Farm Perpetual Charitable Trust. LLCC will serve as the host site for the 2024 National PAS Conference. Ag Club advisor is Bill Harmon, professor of agronomy.
The LLCC Livestock Judging Team recently wrapped up its season at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The team placed 11th overall with several other team and individual placings. The team also finished ninth overall at the San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo, with a first-place win in sheep judging. Eight members of the team are currently being recruited to join judging teams at senior universities including Colorado State, Purdue, Iowa State and Texas A&M. The team includes Kylie Schakel, Carson Hoth, Cole Ellerbrock, Bailey Wadlow, Shaylee Maddox, Tommy Slack, Adam Bensman and Morgan Black, all of Springfield, and Tommy Tarr of Dawson. The team is coached by Craig Beckmier, professor of agriculture.
Youth Leadership Institute students visit LLCC
On Friday, March 24, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Nu Omicron Omega Chapter in Springfield partnered with LLCC to hold a career exploration day for its leadership program targeting middle school youth called Youth Leadership Institute (YLI). It is part of a national initiative focused on giving middle school kids opportunities to cultivate leadership skills.
The program entails multiple modules in areas such as goal setting, civic and social awareness, life skills, career exploration and community service. On Friday, four YLI participants representing Iles, Franklin and Hazel Dell Middle Schools took part in a tour of four career areas — surgical tech, occupational therapy assistant, art/graphic design and biology.
Michelle Pulce-Flynn, director of grant development, is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and serves on the YLI committee. She reached out to Kim Wilson, recruitment specialist, who coordinated a tour for the YLI students.
Fall 2022 bird banding highlights
Fall 2022 was LLCC’s 20th banding season (11th fall season) since the station’s inception (fall 2012). Below are a few of the highlights:
- We banded 1,568 birds of 78 species over 68 banding days. This translates into 23.1 birds banded per day.
- We also had 325 repeat captures (birds banded earlier during the fall 2022 season) and 58 return captures (birds banded during a previous season).
- One of the more interesting recaptures was a Black-capped Chickadee that was originally banded in fall 2015.
- Our highest one-day total for the season was 121 birds banded on Oct. 7.
- The top five species banded (by abundance) for the season were as follows — species (# banded): Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler (214), Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Junco (204), American Goldfinch (117), White-throated Sparrow (84) and American Robin (80).
- The cumulative total number of birds banded (over 20 seasons) at the LLCC BBS is 33,142 birds of 134 species.
- We did add a new species this season to our cumulative station list: Pine Warbler.
- The weekend after Halloween (Nov. 4-7), we had an owl banding event during which we captured/banded one Northern Saw-whet Owl.
- We continue to host many volunteers and guests, including a number of LLCC biology classes, dual credit biology classes (Lanphier High School), UIS graduate students and employees from the Illinois Natural History Survey’s Havana Field Office.
- This past November, a UIS graduate student (Kayla Ferron) presented a poster at the annual meeting of the Inland Bird Banding Association. For this project, Kayla utilized data collected at the LLCC BBS. Stacey Olson and I were co-authors of this poster, and we are continuing to work on this project.
- Our spring banding operations are scheduled to begin March 15, 2023.
If you are interested in following our daily/weekly banding activities, we have two Facebook pages you are welcome to follow: Lincoln Land Community College Bird Banding Station (daily reports/photos of our banding activities at LLCC) and Lincoln Land Association of Bird Banders – LLABB (~ weekly reports/photos of banding activities at other sites throughout central Illinois).
Tony Rothering, professor of biology