Tag: nature

Snakes, Skinks, and Lizards Invade the Lion’s Den

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Autumn Simms, Lion’s Eye Staff Writer, als6765@psu.edu

Putting aside their fears of reptiles, students at Penn State Brandywine got to interact with various reptiles deep within the Lion’s Den. Keith Gisser, founder of the HERPS ALIVE!! program, brought creatures of varying sizes and intimidation levels for students to learn about.

Gisser has over thirty years of experience handling reptiles and amphibians. Since 1990, HERPS ALIVE!! has been traveling to 250 colleges in 36 states educating students on reptiles in a fun interactive way. They have been to Villanova University, Temple University and Delaware Valley College to name a few places.

Students like, Antonio Nicosia, got to pet one of four tortoises.

Nicosia said, “They’re pretty awesome. This stands out to me as a semester highlight.”Several students volunteered to be draped with an eight foot five inch Albino Burmese Python named Silas. Silas weighed 40 pounds. A student, named Ameer, described the snake as “super soft, exciting, and slippery.”

Bridget O’Donnell, assistant director of student affairs, said the event was, “Educational-something different for the students.”

While assisting Gisser and O’Donnell with the python, student helper, Vince Dejohn, said, “This is something I want to do for a living.”

There were skinks (a type of lizard), corn snakes, a baby alligator, a bearded dragon and an Asian Water Monitor. All the cold-blooded reptiles appeared extremely friendly and comfortable being in the hands of curious Penn State students.

There was a 5-foot, 10-year-old Asian Water Monitor named Gator, weighing 25 pounds. Gator nestled herself like a baby on students’ shoulders.

Jake Fida said, “It was fulfilling to hold a very large lizard.” He wasn’t the only one who felt this way.

Keith Gisser is also the executive director of the non-profit Herps Alive Foundation started in 2013 and dedicated to rescuing neglected and/or abused reptiles and amphibians. The volunteers of the Herps Alive Foundation rehabilitate these animals and provide a sanctuary for them until they find a new home. They emphasize the importance of educating the public about reptiles and amphibians.

Herps Alive Foundation is a member of the Northern Ohio Association of Herpetologist, U.S Association of Reptile Keepers and Zoological Association of America. They have their own website at gggreg.com/herps_alive.html and a Facebook page at Herps Alive.

 

 

Students discover vast geometry in nature

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Penn State assistant math professor and NSF researcher, Jan Reimann
Penn State assistant math professor and NSF researcher, Jan Reimann

Written by Kahri Jones

Early Wednesday evening, students entered room 113 for the second installment of Brandywine’s 2015 Speaker Series. Students were not the only ones to occupy all seats; faculty and members of the community were also in attendance.

Jan Reimann, assistant professor of mathematics at Penn State, kicked off the lecture in continuation of the four part series of free events open to the public, and immediately admitted how amazed and delighted at the interest shown reflected by the audience turn out.
He thanked the audience for attending a math lecture on their spare time. Reimann found it remarkable because math is often intimidating and gets a bad rap. He promised he would not ask the audience to solve equations.

“There won’t be any formulas,” Reimann joked. “Everyone can enjoy math, just like everyone can enjoy music or art.”

Instead of asking to solve equations and find derivatives for functions, Reimann peaked the room’s interest by acknowledging the many patterns that appear in nature and architecture.
He explained that patterns are all throughout nature and that you just have to know how to see them. He assured the audience that through curiosity and scientific endeavor, we can learn how observe patterns around us.

Mathematicians seek to understand the world. Through harmony and chaos, the fundamental patterns of geometry, lines and circles are a global regularity. It was important for Reimann to establish a foundation for the audience understanding of how mathematicians have observed the world around us and how perceptions have developed.

Reimann took the audience on a journey through a 3,000-year-old math struggle to gain a better understanding of how we see the world today. After each definitive period of how the world perceived geometry in nature, he gave light to mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot’s discovery of fractal geometry. He noted that Mandelbrot’s findings have even benefited current computer animated graphics.

The assistant professor is a distinguished researcher in the field of science and mathematics. His research is funded by the National Science Foundation, and has brought him to many places throughout the world, including New Zealand, Chicago, California and Penn State.

When Jan Reimann is not in the Penn State classrooms as assistant professor, he is more than likely researching questions on fractal geometry or information theory and the foundations of mathematics and science. His latest research is observing a type of symmetry, self-similarity, found in particular networks such as airline traffic patterns.