DATE:     11/30/99
C0NTACT:  Dr. Joe Culin, (864) 656-5041
WRITER:   Giles Singleton, (864) 656-3876

Clemson Professor Coordinates Insect Expo'99

     ATLANTA -- Live butterflies, hissing cockroaches, and edible
insects will fascinate over 2500 Atlanta schoolchildren at an
exhibit coordinated by a Clemson University professor. The
Entomological Society of America is sponsoring Insect Expo '99,
an exhibition full of hands-on learning activities to introduce
elementary school students to the world of insects on Dec. 16
from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta on Peachtree
Street.
     One hundred fourth and fifth grade students from each of 25-30
Atlanta elementary schools will attend. Joe Culin, an award-winning 
professor of entomology at Clemson University, is
coordinating the event.
     Students will walk through a live butterfly house; watch
hissing cockroaches race at Roach Hill Downs; and, if they dare,
participate in an edible insect taste test. There will also be a
game show, The Chitin Bowl, for student teams to showcase their
knowledge of insects.
     In addition, students can take a live caterpillar back to
their classrooms and watch metamorphosis occur. The State
Botanical Garden of Georgia will offer an insect puppet show.
     The Clemson University Entomology Club will offer "The 
Insect Story Hour" with live insects and books about insects.
Clemson graduate students also will give tours of the butterfly
house.
     Culin is known for making science come alive for students
and teachers alike. His Monarch Migration activity lets students 
and teachers feel what it's like to be a butterfly. In 1998 the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching named Culin
South Carolina Professor of the Year.
     In Monarch Migration, students start out as caterpillars,
curl up in balls during the chrysalis stage, emerge as adult
butterflies, and "migrate" to Mexico. On the way, depending on
which card they draw, they stop to sip nectar, get caught in
spider webs, and sometimes get eaten by a lizard. If they make it
to Mexico, they are greeted by Mexican music, tortilla chips and
salsa.
     The game was developed as part of the South Carolina
Butterfly Project, in which 100 teachers in 60 S.C. schools
participate. The project combines the game, butterfly gardens,
and the first student count of butterflies in North America. It
is sponsored by the S.C. Commission on Higher Education, the
Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service and the S.C.
Agriculture and Forestry Research System at Clemson, through
a $93,000 Dwight D. Eisenhower Professional Development grant.
     Culin developed the project based on work by Dave L. 
Kulhavy, an entomologist at Stephen F. Austin State University in
Austin, Texas.
     For more information on the S.C. Butterfly Project, check
out: http://butterfly.clemson.edu .
                              END