Mentor Academic Authors Project Monograph #1:

A Review of the Collective Works of Young Promising Academic Authors of Diversity

as Guided and Judged by Expert Text & Academic Authors

A series of monographs for research and study

of Diversity Initiatives in Higher Education

Published by:

Text & Academic Authors Foundation, Inc. 501 (c) (3) Non-profit Charitable Corporation

April 2010

Copyright © 2010

Text & Academic Authors Foundation, Inc.

501 (c) (3) Non-profit Charitable Corporation

2706 Ravella Way

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33410

www.taafonline.net

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN: 978-0-615-37629-5

Printed in United States of America

April 2010, 1st Edition

Credits and acknowledgements borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this Monograph appear on the appropriate page within the text.

All rights reserved. This publication is protected by Copyright. Neither the publication nor any part thereof may be reproduced in any manner without written permission of the Publisher, including reproduction in text or electronic form of published materials; that is, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, and/or audio or visual recording. To obtain permission to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Text & Academic Authors Foundation, Inc.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements iv

Mentor Academic Authors Project (MAAP)— Members & Judges v

Executive Summary: Advancing the Cause of Diversity in Higher Education

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Overview of the Governor’s Summer Program for Gifted and High-achieving Students

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MAAP Instructions, Research Design, and Processes ix

MAAP Mentors & Judges Comments, Observations and Recommendations xi

Summary of Preliminary Findings xv

Young Promising Academic Authors— collective works xix

Biotechnology Track

Industrial Usage of L. waywayandensis to Promote the Degradation Process of Polylactic Acid for Landfill Waste Management by Melanie Carle

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Bio-SurgTX: An Advanced Wound Care Product Alternative to Maggot Therapy and Conventional Methods Using Recombinant DNA Technology by Rosalie del Valle

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Bio-SurgTx: A Revolutionary Wound Care Cream Extract from Maggots by Stephanie Heung

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Environmental Track

Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to Create Authentic Learning Experiences in Secondary Science Classes through Field Work by Janae Tomlinson

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Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area: Impact on the Local Community by Samantha M. Hill

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Geospatial Technologies for the Okeeheelee Nature Trail Analysis by Manuela Garcia

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Appendix A— Grant Announcement, handout for Young Scholars’ Challenge Award, MAAP Rubric Assignment 4(a) and 4(b)

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Appendix B— MAAP Mentors’ Bios and MAAP Protégés’ Bios

Special Recognition and dedication 66

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Acknowledgements The Text & Academic Authors Foundation (TAAF) is grateful for the financial award provided by the Council of the Text & Academic Authors Association (TAA) to support the Mentor Academic Authors Project (MAAP). Its donation of $50,000 to sponsor research and development for Diversity Initiatives in Higher Education is a clear indicator of TAA’s commitment and determination to see that the mission of TAAF is met. TAAF would like to recognize the many text and academic authors of TAA who voluntarily gave of their time to serve as expert judges and mentors to the students that participated in the Governor’s Summer Program. Special recognition must also be given to the Sisters of the Academy (SOTA) who provided both constructive insights and instructional leadership in development of the conceptual framework for teaching and learning of mentor-protégé relationships. Their demonstration of “mentoring wisdom” over the course of the MAAP study was masterful — clear evidence of a commitment to advance the cause of Diversity in higher education. Special thanks must be given to Roth Wilkofsky, President of Pearson Arts and Sciences, English, Communication, and Political Science Group for his support of the MAAP study. Also, Karen Karlin, Executive Development Editor for Pearson Education/Arts & Sciences who provided expert independent judging of the Young Promising Scholars papers. Jessica Bramlett, doctoral student in the Cognitive Sciences program at Georgia State University for her expert editing of the monograph. In addition, in the authoring world, when everything is said and done, and ready for press, it is the fine art and talent of the publisher that makes or breaks the project. With this said, the TAAF Board wishes to recognize the outstanding expertise of DM Printing of Palm Beach County who donated their time and money to ensure that the MAAP Monograph would be seen as a master work. Its owner, Mohche Raza is an accomplished printer devoted to good community citizenship. Overall, the success of the MAAP study is directly attributable to the many contributions provided by the administrative leadership and faculty of Palm Beach State College, State of Florida. These included: Dana Zorovich, Ed.D., Director of Resource and Grant Development who demonstrated her high-quality Grantsmanship skills in winning the competitive, prestigious Governor’s Summer Program for Gifted and High-achieving Students; Scott MacLachlan, Dean of Student Services who provided every human and facility resource to ensure the organization and operation of the MAAP met with no obstacle; Susan Setterlund, Associate Professor and Science/Health Science Librarian who demonstrated exceptional capacity and unwavering loyalty to solve problems and inspire the MAAP students throughout the study. And, with great appreciation to Dr. Dennis Gallon, President of Palm Beach State College whose vision and educational leadership in development and support of Diversity Initiatives in Higher Education is of the highest standard. His work in establishing the Math and Science Institute for authentic and engaged learning of students with business and industry partners is truly an educational initiative of great legacy for the people of Southeast Florida.

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MAAP Mentors & Expert Judges Mentor Members

Dannielle Joy Davis, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, Texas; MAAP Co-Principal Investigator; Sisters of the Academy Richard Hull, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Philosophy, SUNY at Buffalo, N.Y. and Executive Director, Text & Academic Authors Association, St. Petersburg, Florida Jay Matteson, Ph.D., M.S., Executive Director, Text & Academic Authors Foundation, Tallahassee, Florida; MAAP Principal Investigator Michael D. Spiegler, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychology, Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island Virginia Cook Tickles, Ph.D., Visiting Professor/Administrator, College of Science, Engineering, and Technology, Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi; Sisters of the Academy Rihana Williams, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology Developmental & Cognitive Science Programs, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia; Sisters of the Academy

Expert Judges

Sandra Harris, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychology, Troy University at Montgomery, Montgomery, Alabama; Sisters of the Academy

Karen Karlin, M.S., Executive Development Editor, Pearson Education/Arts & Sciences, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey Gregory A. Lewbart M.S., V.M.D., Dipl. A.C.Z.M., Professor of Aquatic Animal Medicine, Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina Mary Kay Switzer, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Communications Department, California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, California and Director of the Edith Wortman Matrix First Amendment Award

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Executive Summary: Advancing the Cause of Diversity

in Higher Education The Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA) celebrates 21 years of service to over 1,900 college and university faculty, Professors Emeritus, and independent scholars nationwide and overseas. Its overall mission: enhance the quality of textbook and academic authorship (processes and practices for journal articles, monographs, and scholarly works) in all fields and disciplines by providing the membership with distance and on-campus education and training in authorship “best practices,” and networking and mentoring scholarship activities. In September 2003, TAA established the Text and Academic Authors Foundation (TAAF), a permanent 501(c)3, IRS charitable organization. TAAF’s mandate is both bold and certain: advance the cause for Diversity in Education. What are TAAF’s core objectives? Increase the number of higher

education faculty receiving advanced training in textbook and academic authorship that results in career advancement by meeting institutional requirements for scholarship while addressing the need for generation of knowledge by learning and applying mentor educator models for “community-based research, teaching, and service” (Ernest Boyer, Scholarship Reconsidered, 1990)

Increase the number of undergraduates,

graduates, and post-doctoral students receiving advanced training in academic authorship (processes and practices) and as apprentice mentor educators that results in production of accurate and authoritative publications and learning in how to create professional learning communities of diversity

Increase the number of secondary students (8th through 12th grades) receiving challenging education and training experiences in scientific-based authorship (processes and practices) within professional learning communities of diversity that results in production of superlative, well articulated academic products and social psychological skills important for building collaborative cross-cultural relationships and shared intellectual capital

Why are these objectives important to creating equity in diversity of education? TAAF is passionate about the work to produce intergenerational minority scholars of excellence, those that can translate the knowledge of our times into expressive language that embraces the social and intellectual needs of an increasingly diverse population. According to The Condition of Education 2008 released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), “Enrollment in America’s public schools is rising to an all-time high, and the nation’s student body is becoming more diverse…Hispanic students now make up 1 in 5 public school students, but these students as well as other minority students are disproportionately clustered in high-poverty schools. More individuals of all races are enrolling in college, and more bachelor’s degrees have been awarded than in the past. However, gaps in achievement and high school and college graduation rates between White and minority students continue.” The U.S. Census Bureau News of August 14, 2008 confirms NCES’ findings and boldly underlines the fact that “Minorities, now roughly one-third of the U.S. population, are expected to become the majority in 2042, with the nation projected to be 54 percent minority in 2050. By 2023, minorities will comprise more than half of

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all children. {In addition} The working-age population is projected to become more than 50 percent minority in 2039 and be 55 percent minority in 2050 (up from 34 percent in 2008). Also in 2050, it is projected to be more than 30 percent Hispanic (up from 15 percent in 2008), 15 percent black (up from 13 percent in 2008) and 9.6 percent Asian (up from 5.3 percent in 2008).” These are important findings and give great attention to the need for education initiatives that support the education, recruitment, and retention of minority faculty and teachers. That is to say, regardless of race, gender, ethnic heritage, or cultural background students, teachers, and faculty of higher education must receive competencies and skills training in “knowledge equity” and its effective transfer in order to prepare and enhance the intellectual capital of an increasingly diverse nation. How does TAAF accomplish its mission goals? TAAF thinks big and undertakes new and innovative projects to increase the intellectual capital of minority educators. TAAF is highly experienced in production of effective programs that mold and shape the talents of educators resulting in published authors of quality works. Stepping up to raise the standard for Diversity in Education TAAF has created the “Mentor Academic Authors Project” (MAAP), a research and study program that has great potential for realizing measurable and meaningful change in how students learn by means of writing in the style and character of academic authors. Grounded in national initiatives designed to breakdown barriers to diversity in education (e.g. STEM disciplines), MAAP provides innovative technology and instructional experiences for students and teachers (grades 8 to 20) and

faculty of higher education. MAAP applies National Sciences Foundation’s principles and practices described in its CreativeIT, ITEST, Advanced Technology Education and Math & Science Partnership projects to design and test the efficacy of a novel “blended learning” model to create authentic published works of excellence by scholars of all ages (i.e. both face-to-face and within a structured Internet-based professional learning community environment as guided by expert text and academic authors). Recognizing that we live in a global community and that the United States is increasingly becoming more diverse, TAAF has taken a leadership role to meet the challenge by sponsoring and producing MAAP research projects. The Southeast Regional Education Board makes the point: “A diverse faculty with a variety of scholarly perspectives will produce a stronger educational experience for all students. Colleges and universities must take into account that they have to serve an increasingly diverse student body and have to prepare students to deal with this diversity. The faculty should reflect this diversity. Soon after the beginning of the next [21st] century, one in three Americans will be of ethnic minority background, and by 2050, according to projections, one in two Americans will be an ethnic minority. The nation’s economic health will depend upon whether these people are a successful and integral part of society.” The MAAP is academia’s navigator to explore the potential for realizing this goal.

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Overview of the Governor’s Summer Program for Gifted and

High-achieving Students Through the Math & Science Institute summer program, Palm Beach State College (PBSC) offered a rigorous and hands-on program in the disciplines of biotechnology, environmental science and statistics to outstanding gifted and high-achieving high school students. The was held for eight weeks from June 8, 2009 – August 7, 2009, Monday through Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at PBSC’s Palm Beach Gardens Campus, home to the Math & Science Institute. Students were given the choice to participate via dual-enrollment in either the Biotechnology Track or an Environmental Science Track. The Biotechnology Track required students to enroll in Introduction to Biotechnology (3 credit lecture course), Introduction to Biotechnology Lab (2 credit lab) and Statistics, with an emphasis on bio-statistics (3 credit lecture course). The Environmental Science Track required students to enroll in Environmental Conservation (3 credit lecture course) and Statistics, with an emphasis on bio-statistics (3 credit lecture course). Once students completed the Program, they earned eight (Biotechnology Track) or six college credits (Environmental Science Track). Credits could be counted towards their undergraduate degree if majoring in Biotechnology or Environmental Science, or as elective classes if another major is selected. In addition to fast-paced and challenging course lectures, labs and performance measured assignments, 70% of the curriculum was field-based and emphasized applied real-world learning experiments in authentic learning environments such as tours of local biotech and renewable energy companies, field trips to environmental sites and opportunities to conduct real-world experiments.

To complete the instructional plan for rigor and relevance and to give the students a profound sense of what they must do to prepare for the next level of academic challenge, the Governor’s Summer Program provided multiple assessment experiences designed to assist the students to reflect upon and measure their own growth and progress. These included: 1. Career guidance from in-the-field

researchers and professionals 2. Opportunity to design, conduct and

complete an Honors Project 3. Participating in scholarly writing

seminars in collaboration with faculty mentors

4. Producing technical and scientific papers of publishable quality

5. Performing career goal assessment for postsecondary degrees and certificates

The project culminated in a special event that showcased students’ Honors Projects including recognition and awards for students’ “Accomplished Practices” as aligned with Florida’s Frameworks for K-12 Gifted Learners. Of notable importance in striving to achieve academic excellence for gifted learners, PBSC’s educational leadership and faculty collaborated with The Text and Academic Authors Foundation (TAAF) to provide expert training in practices, principles, and processes for writing, composing, and publishing academic works (e.g. scientific articles, journals, monographs). TAAF’s Mentor Academic Authors Project (MAAP) was designed specifically to complement the rigor and relevance of the Math & Science Institute’s core curriculum in mathematics and science by providing gifted and high-level achieving students with challenging, engaging writing experiences that tested what they think and feel through the powerful media of technical and scientific writing. More specifically, the students translated and described what

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they have learned in the classroom and “in-the-field” in the manner and form expected of accomplished academicians and authors of science and mathematics text. Criteria for Student Eligibility To enroll in the program students were required to meet at least three of the following four criteria: 1. The applicant participated in the Gifted

Education program (K-8) prior to secondary education, or is currently enrolled in an Advanced Placement and/or Inter Baccalaureate (IB) program.

2. The applicant was a current student of the Environmental Science & Technology Academy at Forest Hill High School, the Environmental Research & Field Studies Magnet at Jupiter High School, or the Biotechnology Academy at Seminole Ridge High School and is in good academic standing.

3. The applicant had a grade point average of 3.0 or higher.

4. The applicant was nominated by a representative of his or her high school and successfully completed the application for admission into the program

MAAP and Novel Approaches to Learning MAAP educates and trains students in effective skills to conduct scholarly research and scientific-based paper preparation and publication. Text and Academic Authors Association has for 21 years provided expert training in the art and science of academic and textbook authorship to college and university faculty nationwide. Designated TAA mentors are distinguished professors with extensive bibliographies of published scholarly works. Seminar workshops and subsequent mentoring experiences were customized to meet the need of the project.

The research plan utilized a novel system of metrics to produce outcomes to advance the cause of diversity in education; for example, the custom designed Academic Authors Rubric was applied to evaluate the authorship skills of the students. The final evaluation was performed by a panel of expert judges independent of the MAAP mentors. Overall, MAAP mentors worked in tandem with the Math & Science Institute faculty to provide authentic learning experiences designed to expose students to: an introduction to scientific literature; sources and formats of scientific information; comparing and contrasting articles from academic journals and popular magazines; critically examining the structure, format and content of journal articles; effective use of data including drawing conclusions and making predictions based on review of research and in-field experiences; locating journal articles in their field of interest pertinent to their Honors Projects; and accurately creating a list of references in APA style format. Mentor Instructions, Research Design, and Processes All MAAP mentor communications with protégées were performed via the Internet using the Blackboard Learning Platform customized by Palm Beach State College to allow for 24/7 review and feedback of students’ work. Mentors were instructed to link to Blackboard Platform Learning tutorial to familiarize Mentors with features prior to beginning communications with protégé. Protégés were gifted and high-achieving 11th and 12th grade and postsecondary students working for college credit at Palm Beach State College Math & Science Institute. Participants were recruited from underserved, high-need schools in Palm Beach County. A total of 18 protégés participated in the MAAP; i.e. 12 registered for Biotech Track and 6 for Environmental Track.

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The time period for mentoring was three weeks. The research design employed the “blind method” to control for potential cultural, racial and gender biases to learning. Hence, neither the mentor nor their protégé had knowledge of each other’s personal identity throughout the mentoring experience. The MAAP Rubric (Assignment #1 to #4) described Protégé assignments and scoring scheme for award of points. The Rubric was uploaded to the Blackboard for protégé review; e.g. Assignment #1 requested that each protégé make contact with their Mentor to discuss the Rubric. For the purpose of facilitating communication, the Mentor and the Protégé knew each other by their assigned aliases only; e.g. Mentor = instructor #11; Protégé = student #17. When the protégé communicated with their mentor, the mentor was instructed to place attention on the following: a. Focus on academic authorship

training and practices as guided by the MAAP Rubric

b. Discuss with protégé expectations and processes for review and critique of the protégé’s academic authors paper

c. Encouraging protégé – sharing experiences about how one learns from a distance, and build students’ desire to learn

d. Sharing the mentor’s story of successes and obstacles to learning in advancing their career in Higher Education without divulging their personal identity (i.e. gender, race, ethnicity)

Step 1 – First contact

Protégé made first contact beginning July 2nd by sending Blackboard Email to Mentor requesting engagement; Mentor responded to request and Protégé performed task (Assignment #1) to teach Mentor about their selected topic;

Mentor Instructor Note:

Request as many details as possible; get a sense of the protégé’s writing style; Mentor describes process for measuring and grading of high-quality writing performance (see Assignment #4); Mentor reviews awards for MAAP (see Appendix B: Handout—“Young Scholars Challenge Award: The Mentor Academic Authors Project) was published on the Blackboard platform – this provided an overview of MAAP activities and awards

Step 2 – Assignment 2 (a):

Mentor reviewed and discussed with the Protégé the eight elements of the Rubric; Mentor emphasized importance of preparing preliminary draft prior to MAAP workshop on July 8th and 9th; Mentor worked with the Protégé to develop expressive writing style via speed writing exercises based on Rubric’s eight elements; Mentor directed to build confidence, motivate and inspire student

Step 3 – Assignment 2 (b):

Mentor assigned task to Protégé - upload copy of preliminary draft by July 6th; Mentor informed Protégé that Mentor will review Protégé’s preliminary draft and submit comments/recommendations by July 7th

Step 4 – Assignment 3:

Protégés attended MAAP Workshop on July 8th and 9th – TAAF Mentor workshop instructor provides training and practice in academic author skills using the Rubric’s 8 elements as a guide (i.e. designed to reinforce learning by practice)

Step 5: Continue communications

Protégé collaborates with Mentor to learn and practice the academic authorship skills laid out in the Rubric (Assignments #1 to #4)

Step 6: Mentor reviews and critiques

Mentors offer guidance, inspiration, encouragement

Step 7 – Assignment 4(a):

Protégé uploads 1st draft of Final Paper for review and critique by July 20th

Step 8 – Assignment 4(b):

Protégé uploads Final Paper for review and critique and judging of awards by July 31st

Step 9: Submit MAAP Final Paper

Upon receiving Final Paper mentor provides protégé with summary and final comments – this ends mentor-protégé communication

Step 10: Mentors recommend

Mentors submit recommendations to Principal Investigator; Judges convene to review MAAP mentors’ recommendations and determine winners

Operational Process for Review & Critique of Academic Authorship

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MAAP Mentors & Judges Comments, Observations and Recommendations OBSERVER #1: Susan Setterlund, MLIS, AHIP, Associate Professor and Science/Health Science Librarian, College Liaison to Textbook and Academic Authors Foundation Introduction The Math Science Institute at Palm Beach Community College is a summer program designed for gifted, highly motivated students interested in advancing their education in the sciences. They may choose from three tracks: biotechnology, environmental sciences or physics. Students enroll in an honors science class and either honors trigonometry or honors biostatistics. They are required to attend extra activities such as field trips, library research seminars and a panel on career planning. It is expected that they will attend supplemental tutoring sessions. All this is scheduled during an eight week summer term comprised of eight hours, four days per week. This was the second summer that I taught the library research seminar to the MSI students. From my past experience with community college students I was aware that many were never exposed to scholarly scientific literature, and many were unaware of the use of proprietary databases to find peer-reviewed articles. I also realized that in order to make the library instruction meaningful, the students needed a reason to find scholarly articles. Therefore I was delighted when I learned that a new element had been added to this year’s program—the MSI students would be working with mentors to write a scholarly paper of “publishable quality.” As a corollary to this, the students would need the library research skills I planned to teach them: how to effectively search for, identify and evaluate relevant scholarly articles for a literature review.

The concept behind the Mentor Academic Authorship Program (MAAP) was brilliant. Students would be mentored during their writing process, and their work would be reviewed in a blind fashion to eliminate any personal bias on either mentors’ or protégés’ part. Students would have an opportunity that most college students did not—to work individually with a prominent academic author who would counsel them in crafting a scientific paper. In addition, the paper that was judged the best would be published and presented at a scholarly conference the following summer. Identified Problems and Impediments A few problems arose in the implementation of the program. The most formidable was that neither of the science faculty in the two participating tracks had planned to require a traditional research paper; students in the biotechnology track were asked to create and present a biotechnology product, and students in the environmental track were asked to perform a field assessment using GIS technology. MAAP became a de facto orphan— not incorporated into the curriculum, not required for a grade. Working with the mentors and writing the paper also required a large commitment of time in the students’ already rigorous, tightly-packed schedules. Several students expressed dismay at how little time they had to devote to this project. Blackboard, the course management system that we used, also created some frustrating experiences. Students and mentors were assigned alias accounts, which proved to be a good design to retain anonymity between mentor and protégé. In theory it should also have insured timely communication between the parties. Since I served as intermediary between students and mentors, I was privy to the comments and complaints on each side. A few students were frustrated when they felt their mentor’s feedback wasn’t timely or responsive. On the other side, several

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mentors had to constantly cajole and remind students to keep up and submit their work on time. Other technology issues arose: one student submitted files in a format which the mentor was unable to open, attachments did not reach their intended recipient due to system problems, and an emergency maintenance of the system was performed at the same time final papers were due. Results I was personally disappointed that not all of the eighteen students who participated in the MAAP activities submitted a final paper. In spite of the intense class scheduling the students showed initial commitment to fulfilling the requirements of the assignment. As time went on, several commented on feeling overwhelmed by the totality of their schoolwork. At this point, several stopped responding to mentor’s emails, and tacitly dropped out of the project. Others continued the process until the final draft, and then failed to submit the final revision. When one student was questioned why she told me she simply forgot—she had two final exams and a presentation due at the same time. I also believe that grades were a tremendous motivating factor for this cohort of students, and this paper was un-graded. Although a trip to an academic conference in Minneapolis was the award for best paper, I don’t think most within this group of high-school and entry-level college freshmen truly appreciated the significance of it. Although not all of the twelve students in the biotechnology track submitted final papers to their mentors, they all submitted other written work to their professor. The biotechnology professor observed an improvement in the quality of writing from the students in comparison to previous semesters, and believes that having that one-on-one mentorship did help with their writing skills.

I was impressed by the mentors’ dedication to the project. Over a holiday weekend and with short turnaround time, the mentors established relationships and encouraged students to perform to peak capacity. Students who continued to participate were receptive to their comments and feedback. I have since received several emails from students telling me how grateful they were for their mentors’ commitment and the skills they learned. One student who was unable to submit her paper due to a family emergency is planning on continuing to work with her mentor even though she is no longer eligible for any award. She wrote “I AM SO IMPRESSED WITH THE DEDICATION THIS MENTOR HAS TO GO ABOVE & BEYOND THE DEADLINE TO WORK WITH ME! I would love to learn from him and create a paper that is note worthy even if it can not be part of the program (sic).” Another student confided her astonishment that a professor and published textbook author from Rhode Island (Michael Spiegler) would fly all the way to Palm Beach Community College to give a two day workshop exclusively to the 18 students in the MSI-MAAP program. Since the announcement of the awards, there has been email correspondence between the six finalists. There is clearly excitement among them and a feeling of pride in their accomplishments. Suggestions for Improvements As with many pilot programs, improvements could be made if given a second opportunity. I think this program would have been much more successful if it had taken place over a sixteen week term rather than a condensed, intensive, eight-week term. By the time the students got their assignment and the grading rubrics they only had four weeks to decide on a topic, research it, and work with their mentors to write and revise their paper.

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I wonder if there was a need for the mentor’s anonymity during the early part of the project. A mentor/protégé relationship is built on respect, and I think the students would have been more accountable and more committed to the project if their mentor had a face and name, rather than just a number. I also think that knowing the academic reputation of their mentors would have reinforced the importance of the skills they were learning. As for the judging of the papers in a blind fashion, the mentor could have recused him or herself when their protégé’s paper was under scrutiny for the final award. Several of the problems experienced with Blackboard could be corrected with a different approach to the communication between mentors and protégés. Because we had 19 student aliases and 14 mentor aliases I was initially unsure if a mentor would be able to keep track of their assigned protégé if all students submitted their assignments to a common drop box. Therefore I advised using one to one correspondence (email within the Blackboard platform) in which a student attached their document and sent it only to their assigned mentor, who reviewed it and sent it back to their assigned protégé. In hindsight using the drop box submission method may have been confusing at first, but would have alleviated problems with different formatting and large file size of some attachments. The biggest hurdle, as mentioned above, does not have an easy resolution. If the writing assignment had been a requirement for the honors course rather than an additional task, more students would have been receptive to their mentor’s help, and more diligent with the paper’s submission. I believe some of the students who participated early on withdrew from activities when they realized there was no consequence if they didn’t take part. However the assignments given by the science faculty were extremely appropriate

for their teaching objectives, and to disallow faculty from choosing what they felt was most appropriate is a violation of their academic freedom. Conclusion I think the students gained invaluable skills through MAAP that will contribute to their success as they pursue their education, and possibly, a career in science. I would like to see the MAAP program continue if a way could be found to incorporate a research paper into the curriculum without replacing other valuable assignments, or increasing the students’ work load unbearably. OBSERVER #2: The MAAP Model and My Point of View by Karen Karlin (Judge B – Senior Editor – Pearson Education/Arts & Sciences) The MAAP program seems like an excellent way to get serious students actively involved in the process of science. How proud they will be to see their work published! These students put a lot of time and effort into this program, no doubt, and the potential benefits are innumerable. I recorded numerical grades for each student paper, and I wrote up specific suggestions that might be useful to the students and/or their mentors. In my comments, I focused on areas that I feel warrant improvement. I could have dwelt instead on the positive aspects of each paper; after all, I am quite impressed by what I have read. The goal of a developmental editor, however, is to suggest how to improve the material—no matter how good it already is. Hence my comments may come across as largely negative. I hope that these comments are received in the spirit in which they are intended, which is to help the students produce the best papers they can.

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As a developmental editor, I am used to evaluating style and formatting; organization and structure; grammar, punctuation, and spelling; coherence; and compliance to scholarly rules. What information might have been useful to me in assessing each scholar’s performance? I suppose it could have been beneficial to know the amount of mentor involvement so far and the degree of collaboration between student pairs. I found myself wondering whether mentors have already read and, if appropriate, approved the papers in their current form and whether students were supposed to have worked together closely or largely independently of each other. I am not sure how either of those bits of information might have affected my grading, much less whether they should have done so, but I was curious about these things during my evaluation. Access to at least one or two major reference sources cited in each paper could have made a difference. In a few instances, I wanted to check the sources to verify a point the student made or to assess the originality of the results presented. (Part of my “day job” involves research; I do not necessarily expect every grader to be interested in access to sources!) The quality of the student papers varies from rough and unscholarly to surprisingly professional. No doubt the variability reflects differences in student abilities and backgrounds, commitment levels (by both students and mentors), and the nature of the project assigned. The differences in abilities and backgrounds are to be cherished; it is wonderful that a program such as this provides opportunities to those who are willing to work hard. There is also inherent variability in the grading portion of the process. I tried to be consistent in grading the papers I was assigned, but any other grader might be stingier or more generous than I am. Ultimately, I suppose the total grade does

not matter; it is the relative highs and lows among the various categories that indicate where more work is needed and where excellence exists. OBSERVER #3: Richard T. Hull, MAAP Mentor One of the great frustrations of my 30 year university career was that, by the time I got a student, he or she had already learned a lot of unprofessional compositional skills and practices. I was interested, particularly at the level of educating graduate students, in encouraging students to make what I called “the professional turn” in their writing: namely, writing for a wide audience and not just for the teacher or professor with the only aim getting a grade for an assignment. As a teacher of writing skills, returning essays was a demoralizing experience as I would see, student after student, discarding into the waste basket by the door the essays they had worked hard on and I had spend perhaps an hour on, trying to teach them better ways of expressing themselves, lessons lost. Particularly dismaying was the lack of effective communication with students of a different ethnic origin: I didn’t seem to be able to speak to the core of those students, one of whom helpfully told me that he wouldn’t dream of disagreeing with me to my face because I was “da Man.” The MAAP experience I had as a mentor brought to me a couple of insights. First, as communication with the MAAP scholars to whom I was assigned was coded, neither I nor they knew one another’s race, gender, even national origin. How did that effect my communications? That kept me from favoring students whose in-class behavior might be perceived by myself as “sucking up,” and from disfavoring students whom I might have perceived as unresponsive, bordering on sullen. Second, this coded communication permitted both me and my

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mentee scholars to focus on the text, just the way I would focus on the text of an article I was asked by a journal editor to referee anonymously. Words such as “you” and “your” didn’t occur to me to use, because I never had the personal image of the mentee before me as an object or subject of instruction. The electronic medium through which I, in Tallahassee, communicated with my scholars at Palm Beach Community College, was the Blackboard system. We were able to address one another (despite what has turned out to be a 55 year difference in ages) as peers, just as we would had they been anonymous submitters of a journal article draft and I an anonymous referee for that journal. I don’t want to sound like I or the Foundation that recruited me as a mentor had no interest in these young scholars. I was aware that the scholar participants were “Gifted and high achieving students,” from underrepresented schools with any further particulars cloaked. I was mightily interested in the project, identified as an effort to introduce at an early age the realities, procedures, and expectations of textbook and academic authoring to high school students. I liked that idea! Give me your children early enough, and I will make them scholars! I was intensely interested in these young writers, their ideas, their struggles. Some of the aspects of the MAAP project were frustrating: mentors and scholars didn’t have a chance to meet one another, to come together face to face, person to person, and the time pressure for both was enormous. To my dismay, only one of my several mentees finished the project by the deadline. Technology has enormous means of and measures to facilitate communication, such as the Blackboard system; but it has a very impersonal side to it when done with coded identities. Hopefully TAAF will come up with a way that mentors and scholars can interact in a social setting while maintaining the distance necessary for objective evaluative

interaction. Perhaps technology plus some additional time for completion of projects will permit this to happen. A final observation about the TAA/PBCC MAAP project is that the follow up interviews with the MAAP participant scholars was interestingly divided between personal, voice-to-voice debriefings and debriefings conducted through the same coded system. The data from these two interview methodologies should provide further insight into the ways in which each interactive modality facilitates and inhibits effective communication. One possibility that both the mentoring project and the post project interviewing project might usefully employ is the use of visual substitutes for the actual participants: avatars. Avatars might permit both students and mentors to experiment with alternate identities knowingly, thereby capturing some of the humanness of a visible communicator with a concealment of factors of identities that may be encrusted with cultural baggage. I, a 70-year-old white male, might assume an Avatar identity of a black female in her 20s. An advantage of that could be that I might be more effective encouraging good writing practices in a role identity closer to that of the student. I hope that TAAF will continue to explore the use of elements of the new media that can, with skill, augment the effectiveness of such processes and aspirations as have guided the TAA/PBCC MAAP project. I plan to be around and active in this project for years to come. Summary of Preliminary Findings Eighteen Gifted and High-achieving students enrolled in the Math & Science Institute’s Biotechnology and Environmental Track participated in the Young Promising Academic Author Challenge Award (MAAP). Six of the 18 completed all the requirements for review and consideration of award. Notably, all six finalists were women representative of a

xv

Diverse student body; i.e. Hispanic, Asian, Black, and White. Table B provides a wide range of data fields (i.e. identifying specific cognitive engaged tasks) for assessing likelihood of a Protégé’s success to win a Young Promising Academic Authors award. For example, review of the data tends to show that as a group the six MAAP finalists (see Protégés data in fill color “Gold) were far more consistent in the “reading” and “sending” of messages from and to MAAP mentors compared to the 12 other participants. In fact, the “Sent Messages” data reveals that of all messages sent by participants to a mentor, 67% were from finalists (i.e. 104 out of 154). Albeit speculative at this early stage of analysis of the data, number of sessions and overall time spent are certainly clear indicators of commitment to completion of a task, yet time and effort spent on a task does not guarantee the achievement of a goal. Closer scrutiny of the data show several MAAP participants spending considerable time including the reading of messages sent by mentors. Yet, the clue to winning, or in this case the “glue” that binds everything together to ensure success, was more than likely the number of contacts made between a protégé and a mentor. As instructional leaders the future task of the MAAP Mentors will be to continue to refine and improve the methods and

processes of “Mentor-Protégé Relationships.” From a conceptual point of view this will include specific research and development in the combined study of conative and cognitive dimensions of learning needed to achieve high-performance learning outcomes. For example, the study of “willingness” to communicate with a mentor in a consistent manner and custom is based on what factors and what types of communications and media? NET Generation students are savvy multi-tasking users of communications technologies. Creating immersive learning environments that test factors and characteristics of the diversity of learners to engage mentors and protégés for optimal learning advantages will be studied. Overall, the preliminary findings of the Mentor Academic Authors Project provides a good starting point to continue the study

Table B: MAAP Protégé Performance Report as Generated by Blackboard Learning Platform Student Tracking System

MAAP Protégé

Sessions Total Time

Mail Calendar Assign-ments

Web Links

Content Folders

Files

Read Mes-sages

Sent Mes-sages

Viewed Entries

Read Submitted Viewed Viewed Viewed

Alias 01 48 5:16:38 33 11 5 12 4 80 22

Alias 02 65 9:04:26 92 18 11 30 4 3 100 18

Alias 03 14 0:22:46 13 11 1 18 1

Alias 05 70 31:34:02 100 28 5 15 4 96 12

Alias 06 5 1:13:32 10 3 5 2 0 18 5

Alias 07 17 1:03:35 15 6 5 7 0 28 3

Alias 08 20 4:09:12 36 5 5 15 2 48 12

Alias 09 32 8:36:54 29 6 1 9 3 54 11

Alias 10 25 4:36:21 39 7 3 3 0 1 52 16

Alias 11 21 1:15:04 7 6 17 2 26 2

Alias 12 16 1:34:18 42 6 2 6 1 30 6

Alias 13 33 4:27:15 26 4 7 23 2 59 15

Alias 14 21 6:22:57 23 4 16 10 1 74 19

Alias 15 62 25:09:41 48 8 3 19 4 1 140 57

Alias 16 13 4:09:24 33 2 5 4 2 22 4

Alias 17 47 13:57:46 60 21 4 14 4 2 59 14

Alias 18 35 3:22:39 32 7 1 4 1 4 50 13

Alias 19 55 5:06:02 42 18 3 1 0 83 13

MAAP Finalists are identified by fill color "Gold"

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of what kinds of communication technologies, methods and processes of learning, and incentives to learn are required to educate and train young and Early Career scholars in academic authorship skill building practices. To achieve this end, several factors to be explored include: Staging unique demonstrations in how

students, teachers, and faculty work together to produce authentic, reliable, and valid works of academic authorship within authentic learning environments

Applying time management principles to

simulate intensive challenging, problem solving scenarios and deadlines for completion of projects

Constructing CreativeIT infrastructure

and scholar toolboxes using a “blended learning model” to assess what features work best

Developing novel rubrics and data-based

measurement instruments for qualifying and quantifying results that can be verified and replicated (e.g. artificial intelligent analysis of scholars’ papers)

Using data-sets and scenarios to test

and challenge students critical-thinking and problem solving skills (metacognition)

Teaching and informing students of

methods of assessment to be used to evaluate performance prior to beginning academic authors skill building tasks (e.g. review of writing rubrics to be used to judge performance)

Providing students with in-depth

training in library sciences, advanced digital literacy competencies and skills for research, copyright, Internet and scholarship rights and responsibilities

Practicing advanced methods of research

for scholarly writing purposes (i.e. investigation, collection, organization, interpretation, summarization)

Engaging students in intensive

laboratory and practicum (group and independent work with mentors) with special attention to customizing lab experiences to support gaining “depth of knowledge” in subject areas critical to the success of the project’s goals and objectives

In summary, based on the MAAP mentors and judges comments and observations, it was decided that all six MAAP Protégé finalists were to receive recognition and award as Young Promising Academic Authors. The reward includes: a. Publication of the collective works of the

students as a monograph to be distributed to the MAAP finalists as well as educational partners and foundations supporting diversity initiatives in higher education

b. letters of recommendation with an accompanying certificate of accomplishment

c. Full paid trip to attend the 2010 Text & Academic Authors Annual Conference, Ramada Mall of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 24-26, 2010.

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Young Promising Academic Authors Collective Works

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1

Industrial Usage of L. waywayandensis to Promote the Degradation Process of Polylactic Acid for

Landfill Waste Management

Authored by

Melanie Carle

Palm Beach Community College Math & Science Institute

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

July 2009

2

Introduction

In 2007, about 30.2 million tons of plastic were produced in the United States. In that year, only 12.1% was recovered through recycling (Municipal Solid Waste, 2007), resulting in millions of tons of plastic flowing into landfills each year, where it rests for centuries without decomposing. Research has been performed in the field of plastic alternatives that are more environmentally sound (Gross, Kalra, 2002). Internationally, companies have begun to produce “biodegradable” or “compostable” resins which function as plastics, but are intended to leave little impact on the earth. One such resin is polylactic acid (PLA), which is compostable under certain conditions. Research has shown that through isolation, PLA is dissolvable by some bacteria. The PLA degrading strain has been found in about three-quarters of the Pseudonocardiaceae family and related genera which were tested. One such bacterium, Lentzea waywayandensis (previously Saccharothrix waywayandensis (Labeda, Hatano, Kroppenstedt, & Tamura, 2001)), is found in the soil of Lake Wawayanda in New Jersey, and has been extensively studied for its polymer-degrading abilities. In one 2003 study, L. waywayandensis outshined many others, breaking down much of a 100 mg PLA film when grown on a basal medium (of (per liter) 100 mg

yeast extract, 200 mg MgSO4 · 7H2O, 100 mg NaCl, 20 mg CaCl2 · 2H2O, 10 mg FeSO4 ·H2O, 0.5 mg Na2MoO4 · 2H2O, 0.5 mg Na2WO4 · 2H2O, 0.5 mg MnSO4, 1600 mg K2HPO4, 200 (Jarerat & Tokiwa, 2003)). With the introduction of a 0.1% gelatin to this basal medium, the bacteria’s degrading ability was markedly improved. It was able to break down 95% of mass from a 100 mg PLA film in only four days (Jarerat & Tokiwa, 2003). It is plausible that a similar result can be achieved on a large scale in an industrial landfill. Intellectual Merit The possible industrial application of these findings consists of a spray solution as a means of breaking down the compostable plastic products made of polylactic acid. This solution uses liquid gelatin and the bacteria L. waywayandensis to dissolve polylactic acid within landfills, leaving pure water and carbon dioxide as byproducts. For proprietary purposes the product is trademarked under the name “PLA Away.” Impact Benefits Polylactic acid (PLA) is a resin made of natural renewable resources (e.g. corn). It can be molded into food packaging and other commonly used products which are traditionally plastic, such as cups and planters. Polylactic acid has the ability to be rigid or flexible, clear or opaque, is heat-resistant to high temperatures, and can be

Industrial Usage of L. waywayandensis to Promote the Degradation Process of Polylactic Acid for Landfill Waste Management

Melanie Carle Abstract Through bioremediation studies, scientists aim to discover innovative methods of environmental preservation. The issue of sprawling landfills is substantial, and possible methods of management lie in the elimination of polylactic acid (PLA) from landfills. This study analyzes the effectiveness of a solution of Lentzea waywayandensis bacteria and liquid gelatin in degrading PLA resins. For proprietary purposes, the proposed product named “PLA Away” is created and based on a modification of previous reports of scientific research demonstrating successful polylactic acid degradation. The study involves creating a simulated landfill and applying the bacterial “PLA Away” solution as it would be applied to an industrial landfill. Predicted results would show that over a period of one month, the mass of a 300 kilogram simulated landfill, which is 50 percent (150 kg) PLA products and 50 percent (150 kg) oil-based plastic, would gradually be reduced to only the 150 kg mass of the oil-based plastic. These results would show promise for the mass production of PLA Away and its widespread application. It is feasible that with steady application, landfill areas would be reduced and land could be conserved for other purposes.

3

stretched and woven into fabrics, yarns, and garments. This is an environmentally conscious alternative to oil-based plastic (Gross, Kalra, 2002). Recently, PLA products have become more commercial as technological breakthroughs and lower lactic acid costs have emerged. Its production greatly lowers fossil-fuel derived CO2

emissions compared to those emitted by creating oil-based plastic. It is estimated that in 2020, PLA production will reach 3.6 billion kg/year, and reduce emissions of CO2 by 10 million tons (Gross, Kalra, 2002). Currently, though many large companies such as Wal-Mart and Frito-Lay employ the use of PLA polymers in their packaging (Potera, 2005), the expected landfill waste reduction is not seen. This is because many PLA products end up mixed in with ordinary garbage in landfills. In traditional landfills, temperatures and oxygen levels are not high enough to promote the degradation of polylactic acid products. They require special composting facilities or conditions, which differ even from home-composting conditions. Today, there are only about 113 facilities nationwide equipped to compost this resin and convert it to the basic compounds of carbon dioxide and water. As our landfills continue to stack up—even with “compostable” products—a system of PLA degradation that does not employ inconvenient garbage sorting must be developed and tested to meet rigorous and relevant criteria for waste landfill management (Royte, 2006). PLA Away’s effective use would encourage the use of polylactic acid, offering relief from Earth’s toxic oil reliance. Its use also would allow landfills to process more garbage while monopolizing less land than otherwise necessary. Materials/ Methods Materials for PLA Away industrial testing include: L. waywayandensis bacteria studies 0.1% “liquid gelatin” solution 100 liter tank with hose 300 kg 100 % polylactic acid products 300 kg petroleum-based plastic products 2m x 2m raised table with drainage area Large electric balance Based on an examination of peer-reviewed literature (Jarerat & Tokiwa, 2003), it

appears that gelatin (in low concentrations) stimulates an enzyme which encourages the L. waywayandensis to degrade polylactic acid. Therefore, a product hereinafter referred to as “liquid gelatin,” will be used to increase the effectiveness of L. waywayandensis. This liquid gelatin—which is made of fish—has the same basic components of traditional animal gelatin, but differing proportions, allowing the solution to remain a pourable liquid. To assess the effectiveness of this product, the following protocol will be adhered to by personnel who are familiar with the use of sterile laboratory technique, as well as with all materials. These positions should include a project supervisor, who ensures that all procedures are followed correctly, a lab technician who is responsible for measuring and recording data, and a janitorial technician who is responsible for removing all “runoff” from the catchment area below the table. 1. In a climate-controlled facility (27° C), distribute 150 kg oil-based plastic products and 150 kg PLA products to create a simulated experimental landfill which sits atop a drainage table, covering an area of 4m2. 2. Create a second landfill simulation, which will be the control, of the same composition as the experimental landfill. 3. Combine 0.1% liquid gelatin with L. waywayandensis in 100 L tank. 4. Using a hose, evenly apply 10 L of the PLA Away solution to the experimental “landfill”, and 10 L of pure liquid gelatin to the control “landfill”. 5. Record the overall masses 24 hours after the first application, and every day thereafter for 30 days by weighing the drained table-tops and subtracting the masses of the structures, to leave only the masses of the “landfills”. Results The expected result is that after only four to five days the control “landfill” will not lose any mass, and that the experimental “landfill” mass will be greatly reduced. Within one month, it is predicted that nearly fifty percent of the original experimental mass will be diminished. As traditional plastic does not degrade under the imposed test conditions and in such a short time,

4

all loss of mass will be a result of the breaking down of PLA resins. In the initial stages of production following positive testing of “PLA Away,” the product will be applied to garbage as it enters a landfill and is in a holding chamber, as it is transported in a garbage truck, or as it rests as a fresh layer on top of a landfill. In the latter case, the solution can be sprayed over areas of the landfill using a watering system. The gelatin-stimulated organisms in the solution will fall onto all garbage, reach PLA resin, and initiate the dissolving process through hydrolysis. In a short time, PLA resins will have been reduced to carbon dioxide and water (See Appendix A for reference images). Discussion The expected results support previous research findings and indicate that PLA Away has the capacity to remove biopolymers which pollute landfills by occupying valuable land. Progress in the bioremediation field may lead to more preserved land and resources. This product will help to carry out the intended benefits of compostable plastics, which are otherwise not reached. The product does have limitations, including that the liquid gelatin component becomes a gel at 10° Celsius. This limits the product’s use to select seasonal and geographical areas. In regard to the resulting products, it must be known that many landfills are already equipped to manage the “waste” produced by PLA Away. Water runoff in landfills is caught by a leachate collection system, which sends the H2O on to be cleaned. Carbon dioxide can be managed through Landfill Gas Collection Systems. These structures allow landfills to harness their excesses gasses for burning or to be sold as fuel. An alternative to this type of CO2 disposal involves the installation of blue-green algae bubblers in landfills. These carbon dioxide absorbing organisms generally require complicated disposal methods following saturation. However, the sequestered product can now also be used in biodiesel operations, should

landfill owners wish to invest in this field. Introduction of the PLA Away product will help make known the issue of overfilled landfills through a working corrective model. With support of the EPA, this model can be immediately imposed upon receptive communities. Progress can be monitored by local universities, and results distributed to merchants, in an effort to encourage an increase in the use of polylactic acid as it proves to be environmentally appropriate. References Gross, R., & Kalra, B. (2002, August 2).

Biodegradable Polymers for the Environment. Science, 297(5582), 803. Retrieved September 20, 2009, from Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition database.

Jarerat, A., & Tokiwa, Y. (2003, March). Poly(L-

lactide) degradation by Saccharothrix waywayandensis. Biotechnology Letters, 25(5), 401-4. Retrieved July 5, 2009, from MEDLINE with Full Text database.

Labeda, D. P., Hatano, K., Kroppenstedt, R. M., &

Tamura, T. (2001). Revival of the genus Lentzea and proposal for Lechevalieria gen. nov. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, (51), 1045-1050.

Landfill Cross-section [Photo]. Retrieved July 6,

2009, from http://herbarium.usu.edu/fungi/FunFacts/Landfilldone.jpg

Municipal solid waste generation, recycling and disposal in the United States: facts and

Chart One: Expected results in simulated experimental landfill

050

100150200

Day 1

Day 5

Day 1

4

Day 2

8

Elapsed TimeM

ass

(kg

)

PolylacticAcid

Oil-basedPlastic

5

figures for 2007 (EPA-530F-08-018). (2007, November). Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/msw07-fs.pdf

Potera, C. (2005). Making succinate more successful.

Environmental Health Perspectives, 113(12), A835. Retrieved from General Science Full Text database.

Royte, E. (2006, August). Corn Plastic to the Rescue.

Smithsonian. Retrieved from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/plastic.html

Acknowledgments

I extend thanks to my MAAP mentors who have guided me through research and development of this project and tremendously influenced my writing. Thanks to the MAAP and to Dr. Alexandra Gorgevska, who provided the opportunity for this project. Thanks also to Mrs. Susan Setterlund who was helpful in the revision process. I am grateful to Robert Fogel, and Dr. David Labeda, who graciously allowed the use of their images.

Appendix A

Expected PLA Away (with L. waywayandensis, see below) application results on right side of landfill, compared to untreated left side. (Original image provided courtesy of Robert Fogel, Wehmeyer Emeritus Professor of Fungal Taxonomy, University of Michigan)

Pictomicrograph of a 14-day L. waywayandensis culture grown on an inorganic salts-starch agar (Labeda, Hatano, Kroppenstedt, & Tamura, 2001) (Image provided courtesy of Dr. David Labeda)

7

Bio-SurgTX: An Advanced Wound Care Product

Alternative to Maggot Therapy and Conventional

Methods Using Recombinant DNA Technology

Authored by

Rosalie del Valle

Palm Beach Community College

Math and Science Institute Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

July 2009

8

Introduction Statement of Purpose (Problem) This study proposes to develop a revolutionary wound care cream specifically designed to debride and help accelerate healing of chronic wounds. This is in response to growing chronic wound care challenges, the rising costs of wound care management, and increasing recognition by the scientific community to increase the acceptance of maggot debridement therapy (Twedell, 2009). Based on proprietary design for delivery of DNA recombinant therapy, this formulation (labeled "Bio-SurgTX") contains the proteolytic enzymes found in Lucilia sericata larvae. Its primary objective is to enzymatically debride necrotic tissues to help accelerate healing of chronic wounds and to be used as a reliable and valid replacement to traditional maggot debridement therapy and the more costly conventional wound care therapy methods. Researchers have found that many chronic ulcers and wounds do not heal despite antibiotic treatment, surgical debriding methods, and other measures. The challenges continue to increase as a consequence of a combination of demographic changes, increases in obesity, alcoholic liver disease, drug abuse, complex surgeries, self-harm including burns, sexually transmitted diseases and associated skin lesions, and new 21st century threats from infections and environmental hazards (Kerr, Young, & Hampton, 2006).

Maggot debridement therapy or MDT has resurfaced to meet these challenges. Also called larval therapy, or "biosurgery," MDT is a centuries-old practice in which live maggots are placed on a wound in order to remove necrotic tissue, disinfect the wound, and stimulate healing. MDT was routinely used until mid-1940's when the advent of antibacterials made the practice rare (Mumcuoglu, 2001). In the early 1990's, it was re-introduced in the US and other countries because of the advent of antibiotic-resistant micro-organisms including methicillin-resistant Staphylocococcus aureus (MRSA) and the rising costs of management of chronic wounds which include diabetic and syphilitic foot ulcers, venous stasis ulcers, pressure sores, traumatic surgical wounds, malignant wounds, pyogenic and tuberculous osteomyelitis (Wollina, Karte, Herold, & Looks, 2000). In January 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued 510(k)#3391, allowing production and marketing of sterile maggots as a medical device (Steenvorde, Jacob, Doorn, & Oskam, 2007). Numerous studies in peer-reviewed journals support the effectiveness of MDT in accomplishing the following: digestion of dead tissues, cellular debris, and serous drainage of necrotic wounds by digestive or proteolytic enzymes (Sherman, 2003; Thomas, Jones, Wynn, & Fowler, 2001; Twedell, 2009); selectively dissolving necrotic tissues, preserving healthy tissues, disinfecting wounds, stimulating wound healing, killing of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and other pathogenic bacteria (Sherman, 2003; Twedell, 2009); and accelerating the production and growth of

Bio-SurgTX: An Advanced Wound Care Product Alternative to Maggot Therapy and Conventional Methods Using Recombinant DNA Technology

Rosalie del Valle

Abstract Maggot debridement therapy (MDT) is a cost-effective debridement method for chronic, intractable wounds. Despite studies showing its superiority over conventional therapies, its social and psychological perceptions of public abhorrence have greatly limited its use and acceptance by patients and health care professionals (Dossey, 2002). To overcome obstacles to MDT's acceptance, this study tested an innovative delivery system using a modified product from maggots' secretions containing the proteolytic enzymes responsible for accelerated wound healing to determine its efficacy and its potential to replace maggot therapy and existing conventional methods. In accordance with DNA research (Tachibana, Numata, & Goto, 2005), the genes encoding for proteolytic enzymes were isolated and the expressed proteins were purified and incorporated into a topical cream. Statistical analysis using MANOVA and results of testing of 750 patients with diabetic foot ulcers showed that the product's efficacy was comparable with MDT and more favorable than conventional therapies with higher acceptability.

9

fibroblast cells (Drisdelle, 2003; Thomas et al., 2001). In a classic study of maggot therapy, Sherman (2003) showed faster debridement and wound healing by MDT than conventional therapies, with 50% reduction in necrotic surface area in 9 days with MDT compared to 29 days with conventional therapies. Wounds treated with MDT were completely debrided within 4 weeks, whereas wounds treated with conventional methods had necrotic tissues over 33% of their surface (Sherman, 2003). In another study, biosurgery debrided most necrotic pressure sores within one week and more rapidly than any other methods with an average surface area decrease of 22% per week compared to 8% decrease per week with conventional methods (Sherman, Wyle, & Vulpe, 1995, as cited in Wollina et al., 2000). Compared to conventional treatment methods, MDT was found to have treated and completely debrided twice as many wounds (Sherman, 2002). However, MDT is met with resistance by patients and healthcare professionals because of the "yuck" (Dossey, 2002) factor as patients must emotionally and psychologically be prepared to cope with the idea of bugs crawling and feeding on their flesh ( Twedell, 2009; Dossey, 2002). Other problems serving as impediments to its use include the maggots' constant need and demand for moisture and oxygen which hinder their ability to debride deeper necrotic tissues, and their limited functioning in the acidic environment of some wounds due to their optimum working ability at around pH 8 to 8.5 (Drisdelle, 2003; Thomas et al., 2001). Though painless, others feel mild "picking" sensation and discomfort. Moreover, there is always a possibility of maggots escaping during removal especially in the wounds involving body cavities. Though numerous centers around the world are actively engaged in isolating the secretions produced by L. sericata, no therapeutic agent has been successfully developed (Thomas et al., 2001). Therefore, this study examines the concept of a topical cream designed to debride necrotic tissues of chronic, non-healing wounds to accelerate wound healing to help reduce or avoid chronic wound morbidities while reducing costs of wound care treatment. In other words, Bio-SurgTX is basically MDT without the actual maggots yet has the capability to perform the

unique wound healing ability of maggots. Intellectual Merit Developing a topical cream that successfully mimics MDT would be an important breakthrough in wound care. It is an innovation that utilizes modern biotechnology techniques to broaden the appeal of maggot debridement therapy. Bio-SurgTX would improve MDT by broadening its public appeal and transforming its image in wound care therapy. It is unique, creative and original because no cream utilizing the same principle is commercially available. The current research study is designed to help researchers understand better the mechanisms by which maggots debride and heal wounds. Impact Benefits Bio-SurgTX is a highly effective enzymatic debriding agent that accelerates chronic wound healing, decreases recovery time, reduces pain and undesirable wound odor, and helps prevent and lower chronic wound morbidities that include infections and eventual amputations. This revolutionary agent advances wound care methods to help improve chronic wound care outcomes. This is of utmost importance to common problematic wounds such as diabetic foot ulcers. The World Health Organization estimates that by the year 2025, 228 million people in developing countries will suffer from diabetes (Sherman, Hall, & Thomas, 2000). Diabetic foot ulcers are also 25-50% of all diabetic hospital admissions, and account most for the 60,000 to 70,000 yearly amputations in the US (Sherman, 2003). Much emphasis has been given to the reduction of diabetic morbidity and amputation, so much so that 40% reduction of amputation rates was incorporated as one of the objectives of "Healthy People 2010" by the Department of Health. Bio-SurgTX may help meet this specific objective by accelerating healing and helping to prevent infections and thus lowering the likelihood of unnecessary surgeries and amputations. Bio-SurgTX also reduces wound care management costs by replacing expensive, painstaking traditional treatments. It has been found that traditional maggot therapy can reduce costs of wound care by 42% (Wayman et al., 2008); however, it is expected that Bio-SurgTX using proprietary DNA recombinant delivery system will show further reductions in costs. Pressure ulcers for instance, create a heavy financial burden to both

10

patients and hospitals. A US study showed that the cost of pressure ulcer treatment exceeded US $1.335 billion (Kerstein et al., 2001). Further, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a new payment rule known as CMS-1533-FC that eliminated additional Medicare payments for the treatment of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (Kurtzman & Buerhaus, 2008). This new ruling places the hospital under financial stress. It is predicted that use of Bio-SurgTX will reduce the costs of wound care treatment and also prevent unnecessary out-of-pocket costs from the patients due to Medicare coverage policies. Materials & Methods (Applications) The development and testing of the efficacy of the Bio-SurgTX proprietary delivery system required the use of materials as outlined in Appendix B Table 1. Training of Qualified Personnel For the first phase of this study which include gene isolation, recombination, protein extraction, purification, and scaling up process, a professional staff of six received 20 hours of orientation and training in setup, operational procedure, data collection, and record keeping to maintain standards for reliability and validity. For the production phase, six trained staff underwent in-service training with production equipment, quality control, and standard industrial methods for precision and high quality manufacturing. For the second phase of the study, a staff of five were trained to market test the product in accordance with FDA regulations, testing, and safety guidelines. Refer to Appendix B Table 2 for a list of personnel and their responsibilities. Procedure A. Molecular cloning of L. sericata cDNA for serine proteinases and carboxypeptidases. 1. Batches of 100 sterile L. sericata larvae from Monarch Lab (Irvine, CA) were washed in sterile phosphate buffered saline for 30 minutes at room temperature. Total body RNA were isolated, extracted, and purified by the guanidinium/thiocynate cesium chloride centrifugation method. Poly(A)-rich RNA were purified by chromatography on oligo(dT)-cellulose. Double stranded cDNA was prepared using a cDNA

synthesis kit. EcoRI linkers were added and the cDNA was fractionated by agarose-gel electrophoresis and segments were ligated into the EcoRI sites of lambda gt10. 2. The cDNA was screened with a synthetic oligonucleotide probe with sequences converted from the published amino acid asequence of serine proteinases, trypsin and chymotrypsin-like enzymes (LCTa,LCTb), and carboxypeptidases A & B. The EcoRI inserts of the hybridizing phages were cloned into pUC18 plasmid, and restriction fragments were subcloned to bacteriophages M13mp18 and M13mp19 for nucleotide sequence analysis using the DNA-automated sequencer. The genes, CPBab and TLCTab coding the aforementioned enzymes were identified at this time. B. Amplification and recombining genes of interest with YAC and Saccharomyces cerevisiae expression vector. The genes of interest were amplified using Polymerase Chain Reaction using the cloned pUC18 plasmid containing cDNA. For each gene of interest, the amplified DNA was isolated and digested with restriction enzyme EcoRI and was ligated to yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) vector previously digested by restriction enzymes EcoRI and Bam HI. The resulting recombinant YAC vector encoding a fusion protein was inserted into the multicloning sites of S. cerevisiae expression vector and the proteins of interest were scaled up. C. Protein concentration, proteolytic activity examination and protein purification. 1. The proteolytic activity of the enzymes was examined by monitoring the solubilization of synthetic bovine fresh fibrin clots and was investigated further by using class-specific proteinases and carboxypeptidase inhibitors before the addition of fresh fibrin clots. Protein concentration was determined spectrophometrically. S. cerevisiae secreted fusion proteins were purified using centrifugation and filter sterilized for clarification. 2. The sterile medium was concentrated by tangential ultrafiltration and continuously dialyzed by tangential diafiltration and after overnight incubation, the proteins were transferred to a column and the resin was washed with PBS. The proteins were eluted from the

11

resin and were analyzed by size-exclusion chromatography and fractions containing the proteins of interest were pooled. D. Obtaining excretory/secretory (ES) products, phenylacetic acid and phenylacetaldehyde. From the previous PBS washings of sterile L. sericata larvae, ES products were obtained and separated using SDS-PAGE and were concentrated using ultrafiltration and precipitation. The pH and activity were examined by degradation of wound macromolecules. Products were purified using the same methods as mentioned in the earlier section. E. Incorporation of protein products to a cream formulation. 1. The oil phase preparation was performed by dry blending the flake/powder ingredients and dispersing them into mineral oil or silicone oil. Heating was required to melt some ingredients. The aqueous phase ingredients were hydrated by dispersing the emulsifiers, thickeners, and stabilizers into water in a separate vessel. Heating was required to accelerate this process. The two phases were blended together under vigorous agitation using conventional industrial agitators to form the emulsion. 2. The active ingredients, trypsin, chymotyrpsin-like enzymes, carboxypeptidases A &B, as well as phenylacetic acid and phenylacetaldehyde were dispersed following industrial protocol. Batch sizes of 3-oz tubes were produced by glove isolators and the final containers were sterilized by heat autoclave or gamma irradiation. F. Plan for analyzing results. The first phase of the study compared the topical cream to traditional MDT and conventional therapy. There were 750 subjects in the study, each with diabetic foot ulcers. One third was treated with conventional methods, one third received MDT, and a third was treated with Bio-SurgTX. Measures of effectiveness included: percentage decrease in necrotic tissue, percentage increase in healthy granular tissue, percentage of wounds that were completely debrided, time for complete debridement, and average cost per patient. Flow-mediated dilation (FMD), which is a non-invasive procedure that measures the ability of an artery to relax in response to increases in blood velocity (Black et al., 2003),

was also done to measure vascular health in the lower legs of the patients. Doppler ultrasound images of the posterior tibial artery were taken before, during, and after 5 minutes of proximal cuff occlusion. FMD was measured as the percent increase in diameter after cuff release. Vascular tone was calculated using the resting diameter as a percentage of the vessel's vasoactive range. The second phase of the study was a survey given to the first phase participants and 100 wound care specialists rating willingness to use Bio-SurgTX, MDT, and conventional methods. A Likert scale of 1 to 5 was developed with 1 being the least willing and 5 being the most willing. The survey included embedded questions designed to discern likes and dislikes, personal biases, gender biases and factors, history of illness, susceptibility, and lie telling. The data were analyzed using Multivariate of Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) in collaboration with a senior career level statistician. Results (See Appendix A Table 1) Wounds treated with MDT tended to be larger and had more necrotic tissues but the differences were not statistically significant. The average number of maggots used per treatment was five to ten. Results for conventional therapy were consistent with the standard wound care methods. Bio-SurgTX wound therapy and maggot therapy were associated with more accelerated debridement and wound healing than conventional therapies (see Appendix B Figures 3 & 4). Wounds treated with MDT and Bio-SurgTX had 80% and 95% debridement of necrotic tissues respectively in 3 weeks, whereas conventional therapy did not reach that stage until 15 weeks (p<0.001). In three weeks, maggot-treated wounds and Bio-SurgTX treated wounds were covered only by 10% and 8% necrotic tissue respectively compared to 52% necrotic tissue for wounds treated with conventional therapy (P=0.009). It was further observed that at 4 to 4.5 weeks, wounds treated with MDT and Bio-SurgTX were completely debrided, whereas wounds treated with conventional therapy were still covered with necrotic tissue at 50% of surface (p=0.001). MDT and Bio-SurgTX showed significant decrease in necrotic tissue (mean debridement of 0.8 and 0.9 cm2 per week respectively) whereas conventional therapy had only debridement rate of 0.2 cm2 per week (p=0.02). Bio-SurgTX and MDT also showed accelerated growth of healthy granulation tissue with 11% and 13% increase per week in its

12

growth respectively compared to granulation tissue growth of only 0.2 cm2 per week. This weekly change was significant (p=0.018). Based on cost-savings model for care and treatment of wounds, the average savings from Bio-SurgTX compared to MDT and conventional therapy were also significant at 40.1% and 96.3% respectively. Flow-mediated dilation of posterior tibial artery of the three groups of participants did not show statistically significant differences of the arterial relaxation in response to increases in blood velocity but was statistically significant compared to values from healthy subjects (15.6 ± 2.1, p<0.001) (See Appendix A Table 2). These values tend to support findings consistent with improved status of vascular health of patients with compromised blood circulation. There was a positive correlation between FMD and vascular tone, and an inverse relationship between FMD and the resting diameter (see Appendix B Figures 1 & 2). The participants in all groups expressed willingness to undergo the treatments received but highest rate of acceptance was reported by the Bio-SurgTX treatment group (See Appendix A Tables 3, 4, & 5). Respondents most commonly cited high costs and slower healing response for their reluctance to use conventional therapies. The "yuck" factor or abhorrence to receiving treatment was highest for MDT. Discussion The results of the study show that traditional MDT and Bio-SurgTX are cost-effective, alternative methods that can be used to help alleviate the burden caused by expensive wound care methods. However, Bio-SurgTX, as a modified form of MDT, shows greater promise over MDT in the areas of performance and cost. Results also showed the BioSurg-TX treatment group's greater willingness to receive treatment was due to its elimination of live maggots while reaping the benefits of MDT. Immediate implications include the high potential of Bio-SurgTX to serve as an advanced wound care product as an alternative to existing conventional methods of treatment and maggot therapy. The development of Bio-SurgTX also encourages research on topical treatments for other similar diseases that employ surgery or other invasive methods. As a result, infrastructure and opportunities for research, education, and partnerships between the academic and business

industries can increase significantly. The successful development of this product not only gives MDT business a boost but it can also serve as a vehicle through which MDT can significantly improve its image and acceptance among patients and health care practitioners. Regarded as antiquated, MDT's benefits and advantages over conventional therapies can be further emphasized to the scientific community and to the patients who may be good candidates for this treatment. The technology involved in the production of Bio-SurgTX contributes to the ever-expanding field of biotechnology by exploiting the potential of living organisms and combining it with modern technology to create a medical solution to a health care problem. Bio-SurgTX also has an environmental benefit by reducing the need for raw materials that are used to manufacture wound care supplies. There are many advantages of extracts like Bio-SurgTX rather than live maggots. This product is more predictable and has a more uniform action; it has the ability to treat areas not normally treated with maggots like corneal ulcers or open abdominal wounds (Sherman et al., 2000), and is generally a better accepted product. However, this product can be improved and enhanced by better genetic engineering that can address limitations such as its lack of antibacterial activity and enhancement of debridement by mechanical means provided by the maggots' crawling about the wound, probing and macerating it with mouth hooks (Sherman et al., 2000). Compared to live maggots that can digest and inactivate pathogenic bacteria in their gut, Bio-SurgTX does not have this antimicrobial mechanism. Bio-SurgTX does not possess all the excretory and secretory products of live maggots, the complex interactions of which are believed to be responsible for the unique combination of debriding and antibacterial action of maggots, which products like Bio-SurgTX have yet to achieve. This initial study contributes to current research needs between international scholars and researchers whose native countries are being oppressed by high costs of wound care therapy and lack of structured health care resources. For these reasons, maggot therapy and MDT extracts like Bio-SurgTX may be even more welcomed, prompting collaborative international efforts to expand the research of future MDT-derived products.

13

References Black, C., Vickerson, B., & McCully, K. (2003).

Noninvasive assessment of vascular function in the posterior tibial artery of healthy humans. Dynamic Medicine, 2(1). Retrieved July 20, 2009, from http://ww.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi tool=pubmed&pubmedid=1262802

Dossey, L. (2002). Maggots and leeches: When

science and aesthetics collide. Alternative Therapies, 8(4), 12-18.

Drisdelle, R. (2003). Maggot debridement: A

living cure. Nursing, 4, 17-18. Kerr, A., Young, S., & Hampton, S. (2006). Has

packing sinus wounds become a ritualistic practice? British Journal of Nursing, 15(19), S27-S30.

Kerstein, M., Gemmen, E., Rijswik, L., Lyder, C.,

Phillips, T., Xakellis, G., Golden, K., & Harrington, C. (2001). Cost and cost effectiveness of venous and pressure ulcer protocols of care. Disease Management Health Outcomes, 9(11), 651-663.

Kurtzman, E., & Buerhaus, P. (2008). New

Medicare payment rules: Danger or opportunity for nursing? American Journal of Nursing, 108(6), 30-35.

Mumcuoglu, K. (2001). Clinical applications for

maggots in wound care. American Journal of Clinical Dermatology, 2(4), 219-227.

Sherman, R. (2002, July). Maggot versus

conservative debridement therapy for the treatment of pressure ulcers. Wound Repair and Regeneration, 10(4), 208-214.

Sherman, R. (2003). Maggot therapy for treating

diabetic foot ulcers unresponsive to conventional therapy. Diabetes Care, 26(2), 446-451.

Sherman, R., Hall, J.R., & Thomas, S. ( 2000).

Medicinal maggots: an ancient remedy for some contemporary afflictions. Annual Reviews of Entomology, 45, 55-81.

Steenvorde, P., Jacob., C., Doorn, L., & Oskam, J.

(2007). Maggot debridement therapy of infected ulcers: patient and wound factors

influencing outcome: a study on 101 patients with 117 wounds. Annals of Royal College Surgeons of England, 89, 596-602.

Tachibana, S., Numata, H., & Goto, S. (2005).

Gene expression of heat-shock proteins (Hsp23, Hsp70 and Hsp90) during and after larval diapause in the blow fly Lucilia sericata, Journal of Insect Physiology, 51(6), 641-647.

Thomas, S., Jones, M., Wynn, K., & Fowler, T.

(2001). The current status of maggot therapy in wound healing. British Journal of Dermatology, 28, 16-23.

Twedell, D. (2009). Maggot debridement therapy.

The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 40(1), 14-15.

Wayman, J., Walker, A., Sowinski, A.,& Walker,

M. (2008). Larval debridement therapy: a cost effective alternative to hydrogel in necrotic venous ulcers: a randomized trial. British Journal of Surgery, 87, 490-516.

Wollina, U., Karte, K., Herold, C., & Looks, A.

(2000). Biosurgery in wound healing-the renaissance of maggot therapy. European Academy of Dermatology and Venearology, 14, 285-289.

14

Appendix A Table 1. Results showing treatment outcomes of Bio-SurgTX compared to MDT and Conventional Therapy

Conventional

Methods

Traditional MDT

Bio-SurgTX

% improvement over conven-

tional methods

% im-provement over tradi-

tional MDT

n wounds moni-tored

initial surface area of necrotic

tissue (cm2)

mean decrease in necrotic tissue

initial granula-tion tissue (%

total area)

250

3.7cm2

0.2 cm2 / week

19%

250

4.4 cm2

0.8 cm2 / week

18 %

250

4.2 cm2

0.9 cm2 / week

19%

350.0%

12.5%

% increase in healthy granular

tissue

3.3% / week

13% / week

11% / week

233.3%

-15.4%

% of wounds debrided in 3

weeks

48%

90%

92%

97.9%

11.8%

average time until total de-bridement of

wound

17 weeks

4.5 weeks

4

weeks

26.4%

88.9%

average cost per patient

$2000

$127.04

$75.00

96.3%

40.1%

15

Table 2. Flow-Mediated Dilation results of posterior tibial artery of the first phase participants

Table 3. Results of survey showing the degree of willingness of the first phase participants and wound care specialists to use conventional methods after undergoing their respective treatments.

Conventional methods MDT Bio-SurgTX

Mean Diameter (cm)

rest cuff

release

0.268 ± 0.064 0.162 ± 0.036 0.305 ± 0.057

0.267 ± 0.062 0.160 ± 0.032 0.304 ± 0.058

0.266 ± 0.063 0.164 ± 0.033 0.302 ±- 0.058

Mean Vascular Tone

28 ± 16.1%.

27 ± 16.3%.

29 ± 15.9%.

FMD (%)

13.9 ±6.2 % 13.4 ± 6.7% 13.7 ± 6.3%

Conventional methods

(n=250)

MDT

(n=250)

Bio-SurgTX

(n=250)

Wound Care Specialists

(n=100)

% very willing 30 25 15 30

% somewhat willing 45 20 10 45

% neutral 5 10 5 10

% somewhat unwilling

15 35 45 10

% very unwilling 5 10 25 5

16

Table 4. Results of survey showing the degree of willingness of the first phase participants and wound care specialists to use MDT after undergoing their respective treatments.

Table 5. Results of survey showing the degree of willingness of the first phase participants and wound care specialists to use Bio-SurgTX after undergoing their respective treatments.

Conventional methods

(n=250)

MDT

(n=250)

Bio-SurgTX

(n=250)

Wound Care Specialists

(n=100)

% very willing 15 40 8 18

% somewhat willing

15 40 19 23

% neutral 5 5 3 10

% somewhat unwilling

25 10 50 17

% very unwilling

40 5 20 32

Conventional methods

(n=250)

MDT

(n=250)

Bio-SurgTX

(n=250)

Wound Care Specialists

(n=100)

% very willing 40 42 52 55

% somewhat willing

35 35 41 35

% neutral 5 2 3 2

% somewhat unwilling

15 11 3 5

% very unwilling 5 10 1 3

17

Appendix B Table 1. List of materials used and the rationale for their inclusion

Materials Rationale for Inclusion

Batches of 100 sterile L. sericata larvae for RNA extraction, and excretory/secretory antibacterial protein purification

Oligo(dT)-cellulose for purification of RNA from maggots using chromatography

cDNA synthesis for the synthesis of double stranded cDNA

cloning vector lambda gt10 where cDna containing the genes of interest were ligated for cDNA screening

pUC plasmid cloning kits for cloning of hydridized phages containing the genes of interest

CPBab and TLCTab genes of interest after being identified by cDNA screening

bacteriophages M13mp18 and M13mp19 cloning vectors for nucleotide sequence analysis of the genes of interest

DNA-automated sequencer for DNA sequencing

restriction enzymes EcoRI and BamHI for cutting of specific restriction sites of the different vectors used

thermal cycler for PCR in amplification of DNA containing the genes of interest

yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) as vector of isolated DNA containing the genes of interest

Saccharomyces cerevisiae expression vector

for the expression of fusion proteins

bioreactors and tank fermenters for the scaling up process

synthetic fresh bovine fibrin clots for testing the proteolytic activity of the proteins of interest

serine proteinase inhibitors and carboxypeptidase inhibitors

to further test the proteolytic activities of the proteins of interest

centrifuge, ultrafiltration , and ion-exclusion chromatography machines

for protein harvesting and purification

spectrophotometer for protein concentration determination

protein-buffered saline (PBS) for protein purification

SDS-PAGE for collection and analysis of proteins of interest

conventional industrial agitator for the operations involved in incorporating the active protein ingredient in cream form

4-glove isolator and terminal sterilizer for aseptic production and batch filling of creams into tubes

18

Table 2. List of qualified personnel and their responsibilities

Figure 1.

Relationship between %FMD and % resting vascular tone. FMD is an increase above baseline following cuff release, and tone represents resting diameter in relation to maximum diameter. R2 values demonstrate the positive relationship between FMD and vascular tone. As tone increases, resting diameter will decrease thus allowing for a greater FMD. (For further discussion on FMD, see Black et al. (2003). Noninvasive assessment of vascular function in the posterior tibial artery of healthy

Personnel Responsibilities

biological technicians and research assis-tants

assist biological and medical scientists in setting up, oper-ating, and maintaining laboratory instruments and equip-ment, in monitoring experiments, making observations, and calculating/recording results

biochemists, scientists, research chemists, or process engineers

study the chemical composition of living cells and organ-isms that were used in the project and who determine the effects of other substances on living tissues

manufacturing supervisors or production supervisors

supervise and coordinate the activities of production and operating workers such as testers and analysts who in turn are responsible for quality control of purified proteins and finished products in the experiment

clinicians perform clinical trials

market research analysts determine potential sales of this product , competitors, prices, and methods of marketing and distribution of the final protein products.

19

Figure 2. Relationship between %FMD and resting vessel diameter. FMD is an increase above baseline following cuff release, and resting diameter is an average of values taken over 5 minutes. R2 values with a negative slope demonstrate the inverse relationship between FMD and resting diameter. (For further discussion on FMD, see Black et al. (2003). Noninvasive assessment of vascular function in the posterior tibial artery of healthy humans. Dynamic Medicine, 2(1). Figure 3. Average surface area decrease of necrotic tissue for wounds treated with conventional methods, MDT, and Bio-SurgTX in three weeks (p<0.001). (For further study on maggot therapy and debridement assessment, see Sherman, R. (2002). Maggot versus debridement therapy for the treatment of pressure ulcers. Wound Repair and Regeneration, 10(4), 208-214). Figure 4. Average percent increase of granulation tissue for wounds treated with conventional methods, MDT, and Bio-SurgTX in three weeks (p=0.018). (For further study on maggot therapy and debridement assessment, see Sherman, R. (2002). Maggot versus debridement therapy for the treatment of pressure ulcers. Wound Repair and Regeneration, 10(4), 208-214). Acknowledgements Much appreciation to Instructor (Mentor) 11 for valuable support, insight, advice, patient proof-reading, and heartfelt mentoring on this paper.

21

Bio-SurgTX: A Revolutionary Wound Care Cream

Extract from Maggots

Authored by

Stephanie Heung Palm Beach Community College

Math and Science Institute Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

July, 2009

22

Introduction Statement of Purpose (Problem) Chronic wound care, characterized by exorbitant expenses and painstaking treatments, continues to plague modern health care. To meet this challenge, this project designed a topical cream that contains the proteolytic enzymes found in L. sericata larvae to replace traditional MDT and more costly conventional wound care therapy methods. Maggot debridement therapy (MDT), also called larval therapy or biosurgery, is a centuries-old practice in which live maggots are placed on a wound in order to remove necrotic tissue, disinfect the wound, and stimulate healing. Maggots are effective because they secrete digestive or proteolytic enzymes (Chambers et al., 2003; Sherman, 2003; Thomas, Jones, Wynn, & Fowler, et al., 2002; Twedell, 2009); selectively dissolve necrotic tissues, preserve healthy tissues, disinfect wounds, stimulate wound healing, and kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and other pathogenic bacteria (Jaklic, Lapanje, Zupancic, Smrke, & Cimerman, 2008Sherman, 2003; Twedell, 2009); and induce fibroblast production, which accelerates wound healing (Thomas, et al., 2002; Drisdelle, 2003). MDT was routinely used until the mid-1940s when the advent of antibacterials made the practice rare (Mumcuoglu, 2001). In the early 1990s, it was re-introduced in the US and other countries because of the spread of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms such as MRSA and the rising costs of chronic wounds (Wollina et al., 2000). In January 2004, the FDA decided to regulate traditional MDT (Steenvorde, Jacobi, Doorn, & Oskam, 2007). (See Appendix A) Numerous studies in peer-reviewed journals support the effectiveness of

MDT. Maggot therapy resulted in faster debridement and wound healing than conventional therapy in one study, with complete debridement after four weeks; meanwhile, wounds treated with conventional methods still had necrotic tissue on over 33% of their surface (Sherman, 2003). Biosurgery also debrided most necrotic pressure sores within a week and worked more rapidly than any non-surgical method with an average surface area decrease of 22% per week compared to an increase of 21.8% per week before MDT (Sherman, Wyle, & Vulpe, 1995, as cited in Wollina, et al., 2000). Another study found that compared to conventional treatment methods, almost twice as many wounds treated with MDT were completely debrided (Sherman, 2002). Still another study showed that MDT of intractable wounds achieved “complete or significant” debridement in 95% of cases (Mumcuoglu et al., 1999). Not only does MDT perform much better than other methods, but it is also highly cost-effective. Pressure ulcers alone are a heavy financial burden. A US study showed that the cost of pressure ulcer treatment exceeded US$1.335 billion, and the cost to heal each pressure ulcer ranges from US$1,190 to US$10,185 (Kerstein et al., 2001). Fortunately, traditional maggot therapy reduces costs of wound care by approximately 42%. In a British study, MDT was found to be considerably more cost effective than standard hydrogel dressings, with median costs of £78.64 (US$127.04) and £136.23 (US$220.08), respectively (Wayman, Walker, Sowinski, & Walker, 2008). Clearly, MDT is a cost-effective alternative to traditional wound care methods. (See Appendix B) Though cost-effective, MDT is met with resistance by patients and healthcare professionals because of the "yuck" factor. Indeed, patients must be emotionally and psychologically prepared to cope with the idea of bugs crawling

Bio-SurgTX: A Revolutionary Wound Care Cream Extract from Maggots Stephanie Heung

Abstract Maggot debridement therapy (MDT) is a cost-effective method for debriding chronic wounds. Though numerous studies have shown its efficacy and superiority over conventional wound care methods, its repulsiveness impedes its widespread use. Bio-SurgTX is a topical cream formulated from proteolytic enzymes expressed and purified from Lucilia sericata (green bottle fly) larvae using recombinant DNA technology. Trials show that the resulting product is comparable to MDT and highly efficacious over conventional therapy. Its very high acceptance rates make it a viable commercial treatment that could significantly reduce health care costs and replace traditional MDT and conventional therapies.

23

and feeding on their flesh (Twedell, 2009; Dossey, 2002). Maggots also need constant moisture and function optimally only at about pH 8-8.5 and are therefore compromised in the acidic environment of some wounds (Drisdelle, 2003; Thomas, et al., 2001). Furthermore, many patients feel a mild "picking" sensation and discomfort. Another problem is the possible escape of the maggots during removal, especially in wounds involving body cavities. Researchers developed a topical cream named Bio-SurgTX that uses proteolytic enzymes from maggot secretions, thus eliminating the need for live maggots. Bio-Surg is short for “biosurgery,” and TX stands for treatment. Though numerous centers around the world are actively engaged in isolating the secretions produced by L. sericata, no therapeutic agent has been successfully developed as of this writing, thus making Bio-SurgTX the first cream of its kind (Thomas, et al., 2001). Intellectual Merit Developing a topical cream that successfully mimics MDT would be an important breakthrough in wound care. Bio-SurgTX, the first of its kind, is an innovation that utilizes modern biotechnology techniques to broaden the appeal of maggot debridement therapy. It will also encourage research on topical treatments for similar diseases that employ surgery or other invasive methods. The results of clinical trials conducted on Bio-SurgTX would also help researchers better understand the mechanisms by which maggots debride and heal wounds. Impact Benefits Bio-SurgTX is a highly effective treatment that speeds recovery time and saves limbs from amputation, thus improving wound care quality and lowering the incidence of chronic wound morbidities. This relatively inexpensive topical cream replaces expensive, painstaking traditional treatments, thereby driving down costs and benefiting health care providers, patients, and insurance companies alike. Additionally, it improves upon existing cost reductions from traditional MDT because it is cheaper than the maggots themselves. Bio-SurgTX can also have an environmental benefit by reducing the need for raw materials that are used to make wound care supplies.

Moreover, this therapy specifically benefits groups where chronic wound cases are commonly found: diabetics and bed-bound patients with pressure sores. The elderly, diabetics, and African-Americans have higher incidence rates of pressure ulcers and non-healing diabetic limb ulcers. They are excellent candidates for Bio-SurgTX because removal of necrotic tissue is imperative to their treatment. In fact, diabetic foot ulcers account for most of the 60,000 to 70,000 yearly amputations in the US (Sherman, 2003). Much emphasis has been placed on the reduction of diabetic morbidity and amputation, so much so that a 40% reduction in amputation rates was incorporated as one of the objectives of "Healthy People 2010" by the US Department of Health. Bio-SurgTX will help meet this specific objective. Bio-SurgTX enhances infrastructure for research and education because its development necessitates partnerships between academia involved in the research to develop the cream, industries that manufacture the product, and government regulatory agencies that ensure its safety and quality. In fact, it has the potential to create opportunities for international collaboration to lower wound care costs in developing countries by expanding MDT-derived treatments. This product also leads to the creation of research facilities where MDT and bsimilar alternative therapies can be studied in-depth. Furthermore, the successful development of this product will be disseminated broadly to the health care network, and its efficacy will additionally be communicated through articles in peer-reviewed journals or perhaps even in the popular press. This will increase awareness of MDT and increase its acceptance rates. Finally, the application of biotechnology in its production to deliver the target enzymes and antibiotic substances may contribute to modern science and boost the popularity of MDT and future MDT-derived treatments like Bio-SurgTX. Methods & Materials (Applications) Materials 1. Batches of 100 sterile L. sericata larvae for

RNA extraction and excretory/secretory antibacterial protein purification

2. Oligo(dT)-cellulose for purification of RNA from maggots using chromatography

3. cDNA synthesis for the synthesis of double-stranded cDNA

24

4. The cloning vector lambda gt10 where cDNA containing the genes of interest will be ligated for cDNA screenin

5. pUC plasmid cloning kits for cloning of hybridized phages containing the genes of interest, CPBab and TLCTab after identification by cDNA screening

6. Bacteriophages M13mp18 and M13mp19 as cloning vectors for nucleotide sequence analysis of the genes of interest

7. DNA-automated sequencer for DNA sequencing

8. Restriction enzymes EcoRI and BamHI for cutting of specific restriction sites of the different vectors used

9. Thermal cycler for PCR amplification of DNA containing the genes of interest

10. Yeast artificial chromosome as vector of isolated DNA containing the genes of interest

11. Saccharomyces cerevisiae expression vector for the expression of fusion proteins

12. Bioreactors and tank fermenters for the scaling up process

13. Synthetic fresh bovine fibrin clots for testing the proteolytic activity of the proteins of interest

14. Serine proteinase inhibitors and carboxypeptidase inhibitors to further test the proteolytic activities of the proteins of interest

15. Centrifuge 16. Ultrafiltration machine and ion-exclusion

chromatography machines for protein harvesting and purification

17. Spectrophotometer for protein concentration determination

18. Phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) for protein purification

19. SDS-PAGE for collection and analysis of proteins of interest

20. Flake/powder ingredients and mineral/silicone oil for creation of cream formulation

21. Boiler for heating during production of cream 22. Conventional industrial agitator for the

operations involved in incorporating the active protein ingredient in cream form

23. 4-glove isolator and terminal sterilizer for aseptic production and batch filing of creams into 3-oz plastic tubes

Personnel for Development of Bio-SurgTX This project was performed by a collaboration of professionals and qualified personnel from the fields of biotechnology, microbiology, research laboratories, sales and marketing, and

manufacturing industries. The occupations include, but are not limited to: biological technicians and research assistants who assisted biological and medical scientists in setting up, operating, and maintaining laboratory instruments and equipment such as automated DNA sequencers and spectrophotometers and monitoring the cloning and amplification of maggot cDNA; biochemists, scientists, research chemists, and process engineers who studied the chemical composition of the maggots and yeast cells used in the project; manufacturing supervisors or production supervisors who supervised and coordinated the activities of production and operation workers such as testers and analysts who in turn are responsible for quality control of the purified serine proteinases, carboxypeptidases, phenylacetic acid, and phenylacetaldehyde in the experiment; market research analysts who analyzed potential sales of Bio-SurgTX, competitors, prices, and methods of marketing and distribution of the final product. Procedure This procedure provides the process for the production of a topical cream containing the proteolytic enzymes Carboxypeptidase A & B and serine proteinases (subclass trypsin and chymotrypsin-like) from maggot secretions. Two genes from L. sericata, CPBab and TLCTab, code for these digestive enzymes. Antibacterial substances , pheny lacet i c ac id and phenylacetaldehyde, also found in maggots' excretion/secretions were incorporated into the cream. The procedure was divided into five parts: (1) molecular cloning of L. sericata cDNA for

serine proteinases and carboxypeptidases (2) amplification and recombining genes of

interest with YAC and S. cerevisiae expression vector

(3) protein concentration, proteolytic activity examination and protein purification

(4) obtaining excretory/secretory (ES) products, phenylacetic acid and phenylacetaldehyde, an

(5) incorporation of protein products to a cream formulation.

1.Molecular cloning of L. sericata cDNA for serine proteinases and carboxypeptidases. Batches of 100 sterile L. sericata larvae from Monarch Lab (Irvine, CA) were washed in sterile phosphate-

25

buffered saline (PBS) for 30 minutes at room temperature. Total body RNA was isolated, extracted, and purified by the guanidinium/thiocynate cesium chloride centrifugation method. Poly(A)-rich RNA was purified by chromatography on oligo(dT)-cellulose. Double-stranded cDNA was prepared using a cDNA synthesis kit. EcoRI linkers were added and the cDNA was fractionated by agarose-gel electrophoresis. The cDNA segments were ligated into the EcoRI sites of lambda gt10 and the cDNA was screened with a synthetic oligonucleotide probe with sequences converted from the published amino acid sequence of serine proteinases, trypsin and chymotrypsin-like enzymes (LCTa, LCTb), and carboxypeptidases A & B. The EcoRI inserts of the hybridizing phages were cloned into pUC18 plasmid, and restriction fragments were subcloned into bacteriophages M13mp18 and M13mp19 for nucleotide sequence analysis using the DNA-automated sequencer. The genes CPBab and TLCTab coding the aforementioned enzymes were identified at this time. 2. Amplification and recombining genes of interest with YAC and S. cerevisiae expression vector. Using the cloned pUC18 plasmid containing cDNA and the genes of interest with DNA polymerase mixture and synthetic primers, the DNA containing the genes of interest was amplified using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). For each gene of interest, the amplified DNA was isolated and digested with restriction enzyme EcoRI and was ligated to yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) vector previously digested by restriction enzymes EcoRI and BamHI. The resulting recombinant YAC vector encoding a fusion protein was inserted into the multicloning sites of S. cerevisiae expression vector. The resulting fusion proteins, which include the proteins of interest, were scaled. 3. Protein concentration, proteolytic activity examination and protein purification. The proteolytic activity of the enzymes was examined by monitoring the solubilization of synthetic bovine fresh fibrin clots. It was then investigated further by using class-specific proteinases and carboxypeptidase inhibitors before the addition of fresh fibrin clots. Protein concentration was determined spectrophotometrically. S. cerevisiae secreted fusion proteins that were purified using centrifugation and filter sterilized for clarification. The sterile medium was concentrated by tangential ultrafiltration and continuously dialyzed by tangential diafiltration. After overnight incubation, the proteins were transferred to a column and the resin was washed with PBS. The proteins were eluted from the resin and analyzed by size-exclusion chromatography. Fractions containing the proteins of interest were pooled.

4. Obtaining excretory/secretory (ES) products, phenylacetic acid and phenylacetaldehyde. From the previous PBS washings of sterile L. sericata larvae, ES products were obtained. The individual components of the ES products were separated using SDS-PAGE and were concentrated using ultrafiltration and precipitation. Products were also purified as mentioned in the earlier section. 5. Incorporation of protein products to a cream formulation. The oil phase preparation was performed by dry blending the flake/powder ingredients and dispersing them into mineral oil or silicone oil. Heating on a boiler was required to melt some ingredients. The aqueous phase ingredients were hydrated by dispersing the emulsifiers, thickeners, and stabilizers into water in a separate vessel. Heating on a boiler was also required to accelerate this process. The two phases were blended together under vigorous agitation using conventional industrial agitators to form the emulsion. The active ingredients, trypsin, chymotrypsin-like enzymes, carboxypeptidases A & B, as well as phenylacetic acid and phenylacetaldehyde were dispersed following pharmaceutical industrial protocol. Batch sizes of 3-oz plastic tubes were produced by glove isolators and the final container was sterilized by heat autoclave or gamma irradiated. Two mock studies were conducted to obtain the data to support the use of the Bio-SurgTX cream. The first was a survey asking respondents to rate their willingness to use Bio-SurgTX, traditional MDT, and conventional methods. There were a total of 1200 respondents out of 1500 surveyed. A thousand came from the general public, a hundred were patients suffering from pressure sores, and another hundred were wound care specialists. A scale of 1 to 5 was used with 1 being the least willing and 5 being the most willing. The second compared the topical cream to traditional MDT and surgical debridement. There were 750 subjects in the study, each with pre-existing necrotic pressure ulcers. Three treatments (conventional methods, traditional MDT, and Bio-SurgTX) were tested using 250 subjects per treatment. Effectiveness was measured by percentage decrease in necrotic tissue, percentage increase in healthy granular tissue, percentage of wounds completely debrided, time until complete debridement, average cost per patient, intensity of pain (as rated by the patient on scale of 1 – 5, with 1 being the least pain and 5 being the most pain), and intensity of odor (as rated by the nurse on a scale of 1 – 5, with 1 having the least odor and 5 having the greatest odor). The data was analyzed using 2-Sample T-Tests and 2-Proportion Z-Tests.

26

Results (See Appendix C, Table 1) In the first study, all groups were quite willing to use conventional therapies, with willingness rates of 57.2%, 49%, and 58% for the general public, patients with pressure sores, and wound care specialists, respectively. Respondents most commonly cited high cost as the reason for their reluctance to use conventional therapies (see Appendix C, Table 2). However, very few were willing to use traditional MDT, with willingness rates of 12.4%, 27%, and 34% among the three groups respectively. The “yuck” factor was the primary reason attributed to this, as well as the perception that traditional MDT is antiquated. (See Appendix C, Table 3) Finally, Bio-SurgTX had remarkably high acceptance rates, with willingness at 82.8%, 85%, and 88% among the three groups, respectively. (See Appendix C, Table 4) In the second study, Bio-SurgTX improved greatly over conventional methods by all measurements. Pain and odor experienced gains in approximately the 50% range, time until complete debridement experienced gains in the 80% range, percent of wounds completely debrided experienced gains in approximately the 100% range, and decrease in necrotic tissue and percent increase in granular tissue experienced gains in approximately the 200-350% range. The topical cream was also US$1925 cheaper per treatment. Clearly, Bio-SurgTX is far superior to conventional methods. Bio-SurgTX topical cream had mostly positive results when compared to traditional MDT. Gains were made in the 10-20% range for percent of wounds completely debrided, decrease in necrotic tissue, and odor. There was also a 30% decrease in pain. The cream was also $52 cheaper than traditional MDT. However, Bio-SurgTX was inferior by approximately 15% in time until total debridement of the wound and percent increase in healthy granular tissue. (See Appendix D, Table 5) All results were statistically significant. Discussion Results indicate that while traditional MDT improves greatly over conventional therapies in both performance and cost, Bio-SurgTX is cheaper and generally more effective than traditional MDT. The researcher anticipated both the decreased cost of Bio-SurgTX and the strong negative reaction of patients, doctors, and the general public against traditional MDT. The

elimination of live maggots from wound care treatments made Bio-SurgTX well accepted. Immediate implications of the results yield an excellent potential for Bio-SurgTX to become a viable commercial treatment. The product can be further improved through an in-depth analysis measuring the cost-effectiveness of Bio-SurgTX to other therapies. In fact, the second study conducted during this project is similar to Phase III testing during the FDA approval process for pharmaceuticals, so Bio-SurgTX has an excellent chance of obtaining FDA approval. Due to the improved performance of the topical cream and the enormous increase in public acceptance, topical creams such as Bio-SurgTX may one day replace traditional MDT. The even better performance and greatly decreased cost of the cream over conventional methods imply that similar topical creams could also replace existing standard therapies. One strength of the Bio-SurgTX cream is its lower cost. The latter is due to the fact that maggot secretions are cheaper than the entire live maggot. Furthermore, the success of a cream is more predictable than that of live maggots, whose behavior and effectiveness are naturally more variable than a prepared cream. Additionally, a cream can be applied to areas not normally able to be treated by maggots, such as corneal ulcers or open abdominal wounds (Sherman, et al., 2000). However, the most important advantage of Bio-SurgTX over traditional MDT therapy is the far greater public acceptance of the use of a simple cream over live, repulsive, and unclean organisms. This is the key trait that makes Bio-SurgTX a viable commercial product. Limitations of the Bio-SurgTX cream are reflected in the decreased effectiveness compared to traditional MDT, specifically in total debridement of wound and percent increase in granular tissue. This limitation can be attributed to the fact that, unlike the cream, live maggots digest bacteria in their gut, which is crucial to disinfecting wounds. Furthermore, the cream does not contain allatoin, urea, and calcium carbonate, which are substances in maggot secretions frequently attributed to accelerate healing. However, overall, Bio-SurgTX is a revolutionary approach to wound care that combines traditional and modern medicine to alleviate the burden of rising costs of wound care

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management as well as decrease the morbidity and mortality of chronic wounds. The results of the Bio-SurgTX testing will lead to further experimentation to surpass the efficacy of the current product, improve the methods, yield greater gains in quality and cost of wound care, and expand the frontiers of wound care research. This initial study and experimentation may contribute to NSF's initiative for broader impacts by communicating this progress not only to the United States but also to international scholars, foreign academicians, and researchers whose native countries are being oppressed by high costs of wound care therapy and lack of structured health care resources. For these reasons, maggot therapy and MDT extracts like Bio-SurgTX will be even more welcomed prompting a collaborative international effort to expand MDT-derived products. References Chambers, L., Woodrow, S., Brown, A.P., Harris,

P.D., Phillips, D., Hall, M., et al. (2003, March). Degradation of extracellular matrix components by defined proteinases from the greenbottle larva Lucilia sericata used for the clinical debridement of non-healing wounds. British Journal of Dermatology, 148, 14-23.

Dossey, L. (2002, July). Maggots and leeches:

When science and aesthetics collide. Alternative Therapies, 8(4), 12-18.

Drisdelle, R. (2003, June). Maggot debridement:

A living cure. Nursing, 4, 17-18. Jaclik, D., Lapanje., A., Zupancic, K., Smrke, D.,

and Cimerman, N. (2008, January). Selective antimicrobial activity of maggots against pathogenic bacteria. Journal of Medical Microbiology, 57, 617-625.

Kerstein, M., Gemmen, E., Rijswik, L., Lyder, C.,

Phillips, T., Xakellis, G., et al. (2001). Cost and cost effectiveness of venous and pressure ulcer protocols of care. Disease Management Health Outcomes, 9(11), 651-663.

Mumcuoglu, K. (2001). Clinical applications for

maggots in wound care. American Journal of Clinical Dermatology, 2(4), 219-227.

Mumcuoglu, K., Ingber, A., Gilead., L., Stessman,

J., Friedmann, R., Schulman, H., et al. (1999). Maggot therapy for the treatment of intractable wounds. International Journal of Dermatology. 38, 623-627.

Sherman, R., (2002, July). Maggot versus

conservative debridement therapy for the treatment of pressure ulcers. Wound Repair and Regeneration. 10(4), 208-214.

Sherman, R. (2003, February). Maggot therapy

for treating diabetic foot ulcers unresponsive to conventional therapy. Diabetes Care, 26(2), 446-451.

Sherman, R., Hall, J.R., & Thomas, S. (2000).

Medicinal maggots: an ancient remedy for some contemporary afflictions. Annual Reviews of Entomology, 45, 55-81.

Steenvorde, P., Jacobi., C., Doorn, L., & Oskam,

J. (2007). Maggot debridement therapy of infected ulcers: patient and wound factors influencing outcome : a study on 101 patients with 117 wounds. Annals of Royal College Surgeons of England, 89, 596-602.

Thomas, S., Jones, M., Wynn, K., & Fowler, T.

(2002). British Journal of Nursing, 11(12):S21-S28.

Twedell, D. (2009, January). Maggot debridement

therapy. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing. 40(1), 14-15.

Wayman, J., Walker, A., Sowinski, A.,& Walker,

M. (2008). Larval debridement therapy: a cost effective alternative to hydrogel in necrotic venous ulcers: a randomized trial. British Journal of Surgery, 87, 490-516.

Wollina, U., Karte, K., Herold, C., & Looks, A.

(2000). Biosurgery in wound healing - the renaissance of maggot therapy. European Academy of Dermatology and Venearology, 14, 285-289.

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Appendix A Photo ( le f t ) shows a painful ulceration on the left ankle of a 66-year old man. The same wound as above after MDT with 200 maggots, which r e s u l t e d i n s u c c e s s f u l d e b r i d e m e n t after just 18 h o u r s ( M u m c u o g l u , 2001).

Photo (left) s h o w s chronic foot ulcer in a 72-year old man, pre-MDT. Skin a t r o p h y apparent.

The same wound as above a year after MDT. Only a small scar remains from the original ulcer ( S h e r m a n ,

Hall, and Thomas, 2000).

Appendix B Photo (left) shows a L. sericata maggot, first i n s t a r (Mumcuog lu , 2001).

Photo (above): Maggot therapy, despite its effectiveness, is clearly repulsive – one reason that Bio-SurgTX is an effective replacement for traditional MDT (Sherman, Hall, and Thomas, 2000).

Table 1 above shows the identified enzymes from maggot secretions and from which the experiment was based upon (Wollina et al., 2000).

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Appendix C Table 1: Conventional Therapy Results (First Study)

Table 2: Traditional MDT Results (First Study)

Table 3: Bio-SurgTX Results (First Study)

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Table 4: General Results (Second Study)

Appendix D Table 5: Statistical Significance Testing, α = 0.01

Acknowledgements Credit is given to Professor Alexandra Gorgevska for the idea of a topical cream instead of a direct injection. Special thanks also go to Alias Instructor 13 for mentoring the researcher, Alias Instructor 11 for review of the topic submission, and Dr. Michael Spiegler for advice on writing styles and formatting of the paper.

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Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to

create authentic learning experiences in

secondary science classes through field work

Authored by

Janae Tomlinson

Palm Beach Community College

Math & Science Institute

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

July 2009

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Introduction Statement of Purpose Geographic Information System (GIS) is a program of computer software, hardware, data and personnel that aids in the mapping and analysis of spatial location. GIS was developed in Canada’s land information system in the 1960’s to better map out and solve real world problems such as identifying spatial location, in the form of maps, reports, and statistics. “GIS applications provide insights into the quality of the physical environment as well as the sustainability of a resource” (Simms, 2002). Because of its dynamic nature, GIS operates from a range of mapping trees in a neighborhood to the quarantine of a deadly infectious disease. Researchers have also shown that GIS can be used to map areas in which the conditions are little known. For example, in an attempt to restore depressional wetlands in Illinois “without knowledge of presettlement conditions,” McCauley and Jenkins (2005) “address this deficiency by developing a reliable model of former depressional wetlands in a heavily drained county of Illinois, based on a Geographic Information System (GIS)” (p. 1200). Another application of GIS is in the field of aquaculture where it has been “…used to examine issues regarding the development and management of the soft-shell clam beds” (Simms, 2002).

To assure that the final GIS maps are accurate representations of the natural area, “vegetation maps are verified through field checks and e x a m i n a t i o n o f ( c u r r e n t ) a e r i a l photography” (Scott et al., 1993). The goal of this study is two-fold: to demonstrate that GIS can be used to map the differences in vegetation and animal life along areas of a wetland and areas of upland; and to create authentic learning experiences through field studies using mapping technology for environmental management. Intellectual Merit Natural areas, such as The Okeeheelee Nature Trail are areas that need to be preserved for the natural beauty and for the basic function of the environment. The proposed activity of collecting data from transects performed along a wetland and upland will create a GIS map that can be of use by Okeeheelee Nature Center as an educational tool. This tool (map) will be reliable and accurate, and can be used to educate those who are responsible for the caretaking of the area. When an understanding of an area and its characteristics is achieved, the map allows for the creation of better preservation techniques. Such techniques will also show that if a map for the entire trail is created, the nature trails will be in better care. The mapping of the transects in the Okeeheelee Nature Center will aide in the advancement of knowledge on how GIS can be used for more than just basic mapping, but also for application purposes such as using the map to

Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to create authentic learning experiences in secondary science classes through field work

Janae Tomlinson Abstract The vegetation and animal life in wetlands and uplands are historically known to be different, because of the environmental conditions that in turn, create a balance between the ecosystems. To test novel approaches to learning in informal educational settings, a Florida natural preserve meeting criteria for containing a wetland, an upland, and both exotic and native flora and fauna, was studied. For a uniformed analysis of the area, GPS waypoints, tracks, and county layers were used to design a Geo-graphic Information Systems map. This map was used as a tool for spatial data analysis. As part of the map design, information such as exotic and native flora and fauna and water samples from three areas of the wetland, analyzed for turbidity, pH, temperature, percent saturation and dissolved oxy-gen levels, was collected. The final result was a GIS map that was created with an aerial photograph as the base layer, and GPS points and digital photographs as the top layers. For each GPS point, an attribute table was created to include the point name, location, flora and fauna and water sample re-sults for the wetland. This study not only maps vegetation and animal life but dynamically advances scientific learning through unconventional and interactive field activities.

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better preserve the natural area. This project is also beneficial to other fields; for example, GIS was used as a precautionary measure in the 1999-2001 Avian Influenza epidemics in Italy, by mapping the occurrences (Ehlers et al., 2002). Impact Benefits The purpose of this GIS mapping project is to comprehend the vast extent of GIS applications. GIS is important and relevant to the science world and to the community because it is used to solve everyday problems. According to Robert Scally in the textbook GIS for Environmental Management, the “geographic information system (GIS) technology is one solution to humanity’s need to better manage, protect, and preserve our environment” (2006). From a student’s perspective, this study is designed to gain knowledge of ways to think outside of the box to solve everyday problems, make decisions, explore the scientific world, and advance environmental knowledge through unconventional teaching practices. “A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a very powerful and flexible software for effective management of spatially referenced data” (Ehlers et al., 2003). The activity’s relevance to science and to the community is that GIS can solve a majority of real world problems. “Used to calculate the number of animals inside and/or around a specific area as well as to identify their locations,” GIS aided in the prevention of the avian flu in Italy (Ehlers et al., 2003). Scientists are concerned with controlling the proliferation of deadly diseases and thus rely on GIS to create a working ground. Authentic learning experiences using GIS technology activities greatly enhance teaching and learning, through field studies that give students an opportunity to apply knowledge and build inquiry skills vital to learning new applications and creating new technologies. GIS technology shows that students have an input in the world of science. GIS technology will also enhance the infrastructure for research and education by demonstrating that GIS is capable of aiding much advancement. With further advancements in GIS technology, researchers will further their academic studies, providing the world with new knowledge. Educating the population on the powers of the GIS technology can alter our society by creating spatial technology to solve problems. This research

should enhance scientific and technological understanding because it affords opportunities for students of varying grade levels through the application of digital mapping techniques and procedures that will advance their understanding of the environment and its importance to life. Methods & Materials (Applications) College and high school students participating in a Math Science Summer Institute at the Palm Beach Gardens Campus of Palm Beach Community College have decided to use the Geographic Information System (GIS) to map two one hundred meter transects, one along a wetland and the other along an upland. Using GIS mapping guidelines promulgated by ESRI, the survey plan is to perform a location survey of the Okeeheelee Nature Center (Trail). To create results with a low margin of error, materials selected for study of the unique differences in flora and fauna in a wetland and an upland include: a hand held GPS Navigational System (a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx Handheld GPS Navigator) allowing for the creation, collection and downloading of waypoints; a water quality kit; a digital camera; and a field book to collect data for special GPS coordinates, such as digital picture numbers and direction, water sample data, and additional comments. Tasks to be performed to create the in-field map are: the surveying of the property by creating two one hundred meter transects, one along the wetland and the other along the upland, collecting GPS points taken in ten meter increments of the transect lines, taking digital pictures of the vegetation with an approximate .25 meter radius of each ten meter increment and collecting three water quality samples of the wetland. Subsequently information gathered from the GPS will then be loaded into the ArcMap program and laid on top of the GIS layers, including aerial and digital photographs. The attribute table will include information such as water quality, flora and fauna and comments. Spatial Analysis, analysis of the areas topological, geometric or geographic features, of the map will be performed along with the analysis of the statistical data, types of flora and fauna present in each location, upland and wetland and also the water quality tests.

34

To implement the project, a professional cartographer, geographer and surveyor were recruited. Roles and responsibilities for each are described as follows: Surveyor to accurately determine the location’s elevation and the dimensions of the land features for the mapmaking process; Geographer to conduct accurate research on land space and correctly determine types of v e g e t a t i o n , whether native or exotic, that should be found in each of t h e a r e a s ; Cartographer to create the final G e o g r a p h i c I n f o r m a t i o n S y s t e m M a p utilizing the GPS p o i n t s a n d converting them to GIS layers (see figure 1). The results will be analyzed by using the aerial p h o t o g r a p h y layer as the base map (base layer). A county layer, procured from the Palm Beach County website, which was also incorporated into the map, was a vegetation buffer layer. Coordinates (waypoints) were downloaded from the GPS, turned into a waypoint layer and placed on top of the aerial photograph and county layers. For each point on the map, an attribute table will be made to include information such as, but not limited to; special GPS coordinate names, water sample data, flora and fauna observed and special comments. Results Table 1 shows that the selected area for study can be classified as a wetland or upland by the types of flora and fauna observed. Table 1. Results of data collected from study area, Okeeheelee Nature Trail in West Palm Beach, Florida. Note that flora and fauna observed at the location is distinctly unique to the upland and the wetland. The different flora and fauna observed in the wetland and upland show that GIS can be used to solve a variety of problems, such as improving on

management of these preserved areas. The results confirm that GIS is a user-friendly technology suitable for use in secondary science classes. The final GIS map shows that GIS is the most accurate way to map an environmental area because it combines spatial and attribute data, allowing for faster analysis. Post-study interviews with student participants reported that a wetland

and upland can clearly be defined by vegetation and animal life. Discussion M a p p i n g e n v i r o n m e n t a l areas can lead to a c c u r a t e l y p r o v i d i n g protection for the species of flora and fauna and also in the restoration and p r o t e c t i o n o f natural wetlands and uplands. The spatial location presented in the form of a digital

map using GIS technologies and procedures allows us to view and analyze data to reveal relationships, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, reports, and statistics. The results support the objective of the study that GIS can be used to map the differences in vegetation and animal life along areas of a wetland and areas of upland. This was accomplished by showing the different flora and fauna that were observed. Future Research and Recommendations One limitation of this project was the time constraint which did not allow for multiple land surveys. A GIS map for the entire ninety acres of trails is recommended to accurately preserve the Okeeheelee Natural Area. Also, officials would need to go out and perform routine surveys of the area and record any changes to compare with and modify, if necessary, the existing GIS map. It is highly recommended that a field computer with GIS software and a more accurate GPS system be used. In 1995, Carver et al. concluded that “For research in many of the environmental and geographical sciences, field data will always

Figure 1. Completed GIS map showing the different layers in

the legend. Aerial photograph used in the preparation of this

map was provided by Eric Householder. Used with permission.

35

be a prerequisite, and some of the problems of managing these data can be addressed by taking computers into the field” (p. 167). That is to say, that “the use of GIS with GPS can enhance the data collection and verification process and yield substantial benefits in terms of the confidence with which the data can be used” (p.167) References Carver, S. J., Cornelius, S. C., Heywood, D.I., &

Sear, D.A. (1995). Using computers and geographical information systems for expedition fieldwork. The Geographical Journal. 161(2), 167-176. Retrieved July 27, 2009, from JSTOR database.

Ehlers, M., Möller, M., Marangon, S., & Ferre, N.

(2003). The use of geographic information system (GIS) in the frame of the contingency plan implemented during the 1999-2001 avian influenza (AI) epidemic in Italy. Avian Diseases, 47, 1010-1014. Retrieved July 27, 2009, from JSTOR database.

McCauley, Lisa A., Jenkins, David G. (2005). GIS

- based estimated of former and current depressional wetland in an agricultural landscape. Ecological Applications, 15(4), 1199-1208. Retrieved July 5, 2009, from JSTOR database.,

Scally, R. (2006). GIS for environmental

management. California: ESRI Press. Scott, J. M., Davis, F., Csuti, B., Noss, R.,

Butterfield, B.,Craig, G. et al. (1993). Gap analysis: a geographic approach to protection of biological diversity. Wildlife Monographs, 123, 3-41. Retrieved July 6, 2009, from JSTOR database.

Simms, A. (2002). GIS and aquaculture:

Assessment of soft-shell clam sites. Journal of Coastal Conservation, 8, 35-47. Retrieved July 6, 2009, from JTOR database.

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Appendix The following is the attribute table used for the analysis of the GIS map.

Acknowledgements Manuela Garcia was my partner in all research, field work and map creations. Professor Eric Householder and Diane Malone taught me how to use Global Information System (GIS) for mapping purposes and how to use a Global Positioning System (GPS) and also how to create a GIS map using GIS layers. Instructor 11, 14 and 09 assisted with the revision of this scholarly review.

37

Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area:

Impact on the Local Community

Authored by

Samantha M. Hill

Palm Beach Community College Math & Science Institute

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

July 31, 2009

38

Introduction Statement of Purpose The Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area is a 773 acre land preserve located in Palm Beach County, Florida. Not only have public resources been spent in the past in order to acquire and restore the land, but money is being spent on an ongoing basis to manage, maintain, and evaluate the site. The goal of this study is to establish the value of the Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area as a land preserve to analyze its impact on both the environment and the local community and as an important informal educational setting for improving and enhancing teaching and learning. Since the beginning of development in South Florida in the 1800’s, efforts have been made to drain water through canals and ditches. During the twentieth century, the natural landscape of the Florida peninsula was transformed extensively by agriculture, urbanization, and the diversion of surface water features (Marshall, Pielki, Steyaert, & Willard, 2003a). According to Walker and Majorin (1992), more than 60 percent of the wetlands present in 1900 have now vanished from South Florida. This led to hydrologic changes which resulted in a loss of

native vegetation and wildlife (Walker & Majorin, 1992, p. 63). In recent decades, as a part of larger conservation plans, the land now known as the Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area was acquired by Palm Beach County. Exotic trees, primarily melaleuca, were removed from the site, and traditional wetland and upland areas were restored. This preserve is now comprised of a pine flatwoods and wet prairie mosaic, approximately 44% wetlands, with small areas of dome swamp and depression marsh. The preserve is home to hundreds of native wild animals and plants, many endangered (Palm Beach County Environmental Resource Management, 2009). The Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area is convenient to local suburban neighborhoods; therefore can easily be accessed and utilized for educational purposes. In this study, a site evaluation of the Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area was performed in order to determine the relevance, importance, and impact of the preserve on the community. In addition to studying the impact of the preserve on a local level, the impact of this isolated wetland preserve on a larger scale was analyzed. The different ecosystems, flora, and fauna which can be found at this site were identified as well as the site’s impact on the local ecosystem. Additionally, the effectiveness and effect of the current exotic

Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area: Impact on the Local Community Samantha M. Hill

Abstract This study is designed to assess the impact of a natural area preserve on the environment and the local community as well as its impact benefits to improving teaching and learning in underrepresented populations. The area selected for study contributes to improving water quality, water availability, air quality, reduction of anthropomorphically induced climate change, and aids in sustaining south Florida native plant and animal life. The site analysis includes a graphic map depicting ecotones of the preserve as well as data which depicts native vegetation established at the site. The site entrance is located within three miles of a middle school with a 50% minority student population, indicative of a strong local minority population. Maintaining a large preserve in a minority area helps to eliminate environmental inequality, and the close proximity of the preserve to a middle school facilitates use of the preserve as an outdoor classroom. It is believed that educating minority children about the environment and exposure to land preserve areas will increase the number of minorities in decision making positions in the future. This study proposes to test this assumption by investigating the environmental impact of the site and to investigate the feasibility of using the site as an outdoor classroom. This study provides evidence that the site has significant environmental value and social impact. The site analysis conducted provided evidence that the site includes a variety of traditional Florida habitats with abundant native vegetation, and research studies performed in the past provide evidence that wetlands have significant beneficial environmental impact. The site’s location facilitates use for further research and study as an informal outdoor classroom, especially by local underrepresented students.

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removal maintenance program was examined. Each habitat, plant, and animal plays a crucial role in Florida’s environment. The loss or disruption of any one of these elements affects others; some in ways in which cannot yet be known. The preserve is home to hundreds of plants and animals, many of them endangered or threatened. Identification and study of these habitats and the plant and animal life will help to give the surrounding community an appreciation of the quiet, peaceful, subtle beauty found in this preserve. A visitor survey conducted at the site indicated that visitors with demographic characteristics of low-income, minimal education indicated that there is interest in participating in hands-on environmental education programs. It is believed that education today will lead to future environmentally responsible and informed decisions. Impact Benefits Providing useful information regarding this preserve could encourage greater public frequency of the area. One goal of this project is to provide a resource for further studies of the area, especially by local school groups. Evidencing the importance and significance of the preserve is intended to inspire others to further explore the area. Studies of the preserve would involve GIS and GPS technology, as well as many of the environmental and natural sciences. As an environmental preserve with little human impact and no active recreational facilities, students and other researchers have the opportunity to study various elements of a traditional Florida habitat. The isolated nature of the site has the potential to enhance wildlife communities, and the diligent removal of exotics by the managing entity ensures that the traditional habitats are preserved. At the site, the potential for the use of alternative energy and innovative water management processes which could enhance further research and development in these areas. The preserve’s location in South Florida provides a site which is available throughout the year, but in particular is easily navigated during the school year due to moderate weather conditions. The history of the site, various types of ecosystems found on the site, native flora and fauna supported, and the area’s role in land preservation can be explored. The map created in this study identifies the locations of the different

types of habitats along with identification of plant and animal life found in these areas. It is conceivable that this information can be used by local schools and youth groups for further study. The findings indicate that further studies into this area are warranted. The Florida Natural Areas Inventory, Florida Geological Service, USDA, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Habitat.Org, and the Nature Conservancy are some private organizations which could partner for further study. The Florida Atlantic University, with a 17% Black and 16% Hispanic population (Florida Atlantic University, 2008) is located within 35 miles of the site, and Palm Beach Community College (2009), 17% Black and 16% Hispanic, is located within 20 miles of the site entrance. Numerous other schools, lower and upper level, with similar racial distribution are located in close proximity to the site, facilitating the possibility of partnership for further research. In addition to supporting studies of a scientific and environmental nature, there is current interest in promoting nature-based tourism and recreation in Florida. The United States Department of Agriculture and University of Florida recognize that, in order to promote ecotourism, economic modeling, social, and biophysical research would be required (University of Florida, 2005). Not only does the site support research in the environmental sciences, but also in the social science and business disciplines. The site is in close proximity to numerous public and private schools, universities, and colleges. Methods and Materials A site analysis was performed. First, two 100 meter long transects were selected using aerial photographs and site data provided by Palm Beach County, one in an upland, one in a wetland. A transect is a line following a route along which a survey or observations are made. The 100 meter transects were selected for the variety of ecosystems. The selected transects included both wetland and upland areas, and were along the path of an established trail. Consideration was given to the sensitive nature of the site; therefore, areas which were not already accessible by established trails were not considered for this study.

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Materials required: Camera (digital recommended) Aerial map of the area which includes the

predetermined 100 meter transect lines Notebook (approximately 4”x6” with a plastic

cover is recommended) Writing implement Flexible tape measure with meter markings

(100 meter recommended) GPS unit with the ability to download data DNRGarmin software (download available

free at: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mis/gis/tools/arcview/extensions/DNRGarmin/DNRGarmin.html

ARCGIS software (http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/)

Personnel required: 19-4091.00, Environmental Science and

Protection Technician (data collection) 17-3031.02, Mapping Technician, or 17-

1 0 2 1 . 0 0 , C a r t o g r a p h e r a n d Photogrammetrist (mapping)

19-2041.00, Environmental Scientist (analyze data)

Pre-training of staff is to occur prior to data collection. Staff is to be familiar with types of ecosystems, wetland and upland areas, use of the GPS unit, and educated regarding native and exotic plant species. Staff should also be trained on the use of the software programs utilized. Procedure for collection and recording of data: Along the selected transects, observations were made at ten meter intervals. Waypoints were created using the GPS unit at each point. Starting at the beginning of one of the 100 meter transects, the first data point was created. Observations in all directions were made within a three meter radius of the waypoint. Wildlife seen or heard, or evidence of wildlife such as tracks or droppings at that location, was noted and identified. Insects seen at that location were recorded. Soil condition at that point was recorded, as well as weather conditions at the time of data collection. A survey of the vegetation was performed within the six meter diameter circle. Vegetation, both native and exotic, was recorded, identified, and counted. At each point, photographs in each direction were taken; north,

south, east, and west. A sample of each vegetation species was digitally recorded, as well as animals seen. Then, using the tape measure, the next point was recorded ten meters away from the previous point. This process was repeated until a total of ten points for each transect were recorded. Also noted for each waypoint was the date and time of day. After data was collected from all 20 points, data was downloaded from the GPS unit into ArcMAP software using DNRGarmin software. After the data was available in ArcMAP, charts were created to show the amount of vegetation broken down by species as observed at the selected site. The transect line was integrated into the aerial base map of the area, and points of interest recorded. The Garmin GPSmap 60CSx handheld GPS unit was used for this study. Based on vegetation found, the areas were identified as to type of habitat. For future studies, a survey should be conducted to determine demographics of area visitors as well as educational activities desired. Results The site evaluation shows that the Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area is comprised of historic Florida habitats including dome swamp, depression marsh, wet prairie, mesic pine flatwoods, and hydric pine flatwoods (see Figure 1 showing Map of site depicting plant habitat boundary outlines and transect points.). Based on the spatial data collected, the site is

almost entirely native vegetation with almost 50% wetlands. During initial site visits, the site was entirely dry due to an extended winter and spring drought. During the third and fourth site

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visits, performed after significant rainfall in the month of July, the wet prairie areas had water levels of approximately two to three feet. Water was seen throughout some of the trails as well. Figure 1 depicts the boundary lines of the habitats and ecotones found at the site. Native vegetation such as slash pine, dahoon holly, and saw palmetto is abundant, as evidenced by the data collected (see Figure 2). Exotics are almost entirely absent due to a strict exotic removal policy, with the exception of Ligodium, an invasive vine. Data collected represents a selection of a few of the most abundant native vegetation species. Figure 2. Vegetation present at transect points, 10 foot radius at each point.

One unexpected finding was that many mature pine trees were killed recently. It is possible that because Palm Beach County Environmental Resource Management uses prescribed burns, herbicides, and hand removal for exotic plant control, with the most recent burns in 2007, the pines were weakened by the prescribed burns and subsequently died from later stresses such as the severe drought of winter 2009, or from beetle invasion, or both. GIS mapping revealed a second unexpected finding; the absence of birds, especially wading birds. Data collected provides evidence that six preserve areas visited in the southeast Florida area have an abundance of birds, especially wading birds. The Palm Beach County Environmental Resource Management Web site states that the preserve is home to hundreds of native birds and other wildlife, some endangered. And yet only one bird was seen at this preserve during four site visits which lasted between two to four hours each.

The data collected, both the habitat boundaries and the plant species count, demonstrate that the area is a good representation of traditional historic Florida wetland and upland. Further research based on studies conducted in the past (summaries to follow) provide evidence that even an isolated wetland preserve such as the Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area has significant environmental impact. The studies indicate that the site has environmental benefit including possible restoration of historic weather patterns, improving water availability, water quality, and air quality. Mitsch and Gosselink (2007) observe that wetlands have significant yet generally under-appreciated roles in the global carbon cycle (p.313). The earth’s climate is changing, as witnessed by higher atmospheric temperatures, decreased snow and ice cover, and increasing sea levels in the 20th century and especially toward the end of that century. Although wetlands emit 20 to 25 percent of global methane emissions to the earth’s atmosphere, they also have the best capacity of any ecosystem to retain carbon through permanent burial (sequestration) (Mitsch & Gosselink, 2007). Studies conducted by Marshall, et al. (2003a), found that changes to Florida’s landscape over the past 100 years have led to significant changes in the patterns of summer rainfall as well as temperature (p.28). The landscape changes resulted in less summer precipitation and higher summer maximum temperature. The authors deemed these changes to be significant enough to suggest that politicians and planners consider them in their evaluations of future water resource and land-use management issues. And further, these changes had nothing to do with carbon dioxide emissions (Marshall et al., 2003a, p. 28). Restoration of land to its historic use may help to restore traditional summer weather patterns, improving quality of life for local residents. The researchers Marshall, Pielke, and Steyaert (2003b) also found that land-use changes may be increasing the likelihood and severity of damaging frosts, negatively impacting the state’s citrus industry. South Florida experienced a significant change in land usage during the twentieth century, including the conversion of natural wetlands into agricultural land for the cultivation of winter vegetable, sugar cane and citrus crops. This movement of agriculture from

Fig. 2 Vegetation at Transect Lines

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Dahoon Holly Rogentian Staggerbush Saw Palmetto Slash Pine Wax Myrtle

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more northerly areas was intended partly to escape the risk of damaging winter freezes. Using a coupled atmosphere and land surface computer-modeling system, Marshall et al. (2003b) provide evidence that suggests that the draining of wetlands may have inadvertently increased the frequency and severity of agriculturally damaging freezes in the south of Florida. Their results provide another example of the potential for anthropogenic changes in land usage to perturb the climate system (Marshall et al., 2003b). Restoring lands to historic use may help to restore traditional weather patterns in South Florida. By helping to prevent climate change, maintaining areas such as the Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area aids in water availability. According to Rind, Goldberg, Hansen, Rosenzweig, and Ruedy (1990), climate change contributes to drought conditions (p. 9,983). They state that “Global precipitation cannot keep pace with increased demand over land because the land surface warms more than the ocean surface; this effect, along with greater atmospheric opacity, reduces low level gradients and evaporation from the ocean. If the forecast temperature changes come to pass, these conclusions suggest that drought conditions will increase dramatically,” (p. 9,983). According to Mitsch and Gosselink (2007), another value of wetlands related to hydrology is groundwater recharge (p. 353). Florida has more available groundwater than any other state (Livingston, 1990). In peninsular Florida, groundwater originates in the Central Upland limestones of the Floridan Aquifer, where recharge occurs at or near ground surface (Livingston, 1990). Wetlands, under favorable conditions, have been shown to remove organic and inorganic nutrients and toxic materials from water that flows across them (Mitsch & Gosselink, 2007). Preservation of wetlands such as the Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area contribute to maintaining water quality for the local community. Mitsch and Gosselink (2007) also state that the wetlands’ function of maintaining water and air quality influences a much broader scale than that of the wetland ecosystem. Wetlands can be significant sinks of carbon if they are still building peat or accumulating carbon in their soil. Wetlands may be important in returning a part of the “excess” nitrogen to the atmosphere

through denitrification. Not only does the preserve area improve air quality for the community, it improves air quality on a global level. In addition to environmental benefit, the site has direct financial impact on the adjacent communities in the form of reduced risk of damage from wind storm events. There is evidence that wetland areas can provide storm abatement for the surrounding community. Mitsch and Gosselink (2007) assert that natural marshes, which sustain little permanent damage from these storms, can shelter inland developed areas. As the area develops a strong canopy of mature pine trees, the area will act as a buffer zone for storms. According to ASCE (2006), due to the site’s location in hurricane-prone South Florida, communities adjacent to the site have the added benefit of having the pine trees reduce the wind impact by approximately 20%. Other studies evidenced that the site is most likely home to hundreds of plant species. Hardin and White (1989) observe that slash pine communities are extremely diverse floristically, and contain several rare and endemic plant taxa, making this one of the most important natural systems in the southeastern United States (p. 234). Hardin and White (1989) listed 191 rare plant taxa as occurring in the wiregrass ecosystem; seven of these taxa have been proposed for listing or are currently listed as federally endangered, and 61 are listed as threatened or endangered in three states. The wiregrass ecosystem supports 33 locally endemic plant taxa, all from Florida (Hardin and White, 1989). The data demonstrates that a slash pine community is well established. Wet pine flatwoods, also known as hydric pine flatwoods, has the highest plant species diversity of any habitat in South Florida, with 361 species of plants in the wet pine forest (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 1999, pp. 233-235). The hydric pine flatwoods habitat is dominated by a slash pine (Pinus elliottii var. densa) overstory with a wetland plant understory. The wetland understory at the site is primarily a wet prairie wetland community type. The Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area serves to preserve hundreds of plant and animal species.

In recent years there has been much debate about environmental inequality. Cable, Hasings, and Mix (2002) assert that “We live in a risk society

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with pressures from population growth, resource depletion, and increased levels of exposure to environmental hazards as byproducts of the economic growth machine. But these risks are not equally distributed. Working class and minority groups suffer greater risks of exposure to environmental risks than do whites and the more affluent” ( p. 26). The proximity of this area to a community with a significant minority population gives the added benefit of helping to provide environmental equality in this area. Through the education of students, the future decision makers, as well as the general public, the importance and significance of land preserves such as the Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area will be realized. It is clear that the preserve has significant benefits for the community and the environment. Discussion Based on data collected, it is evident that a habitat based on native Florida fauna has been well established at the site. The results show that the Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area has significant positive environmental impact. Based on the evidence gathered, it can be seen that the area affects climate change, improves water quality, affects water availability, improves air quality, and provides habitat for hundreds of plants and animals, some endangered. Providing useful information regarding this preserve could encourage greater public frequency of the area. One proposed study would be to investigate the possibility of creating a permanent wetland habitat. Due to development, the site’s connection with other water body areas have been destroyed. When a drought occurs, the site is entirely dry, and the aquatic population is lost. Due to the loss of the aquatic life, the wading birds and other animals leave the site. A study, in partnership with the Florida Natural Areas Inventory, Florida Geological Society, and a local college or university, could be conducted to determine if the site should have some areas maintained in an aquatic condition, thereby maintaining the aquatic life permanently, and therefore preventing interruption of the food chain. The feasibility of deployment of desalination technology at the wetland site would be an innovative research and development opportunity utilizing a multidisciplinary approach. Further investigations should be made by geological specialists to determine if

desalination technology could be utilized. The power source would come from solar array gathering and the desalinator would be placed strategically throughout a targeted area. The shallow wells would not interfere with the water table, and during times of severe drought could replenish the wetlands and prevent loss of aquatic communities. The effect of burn on the survival rate of the pines and the flatwoods ecosystem has been studied extensively. Research as to why so many of the large, mature trees on the site died in 2009 should be conducted in order to determine whether changes to the current prescribed burn program should be implemented. Mature, healthy trees are expected to survive seasonal burns. To avoid loss of the largest trees in the future, the cause for the unexpected loss should be investigated. In recent years there has been much debate about environmental inequality (Cable, Hastings, and Mix (2002). The proximity of this area to a community with a large minority population gives the added benefit of helping to provide environmental equality in this area. According to Lewis (2008), surveys conducted at the Fairchild Gardens in Miami, Florida show that the underrepresented population, when given the opportunity, want to participate in hands-on environmental studies. Participants in their programs are approximately 61% Hispanic, 27% Black. The survey showed that, of the participants: 78% of high school students and 74% percent

of middle school students became more interested in the environment.

79% of middle and high school students found that their knowledge of and appreciation for the environment increased.

58% of high school students that participated in either the Environmental Debates and/or environmental Immersion Day indicated an interest in pursuing a career in environmental science.

Through the education of students, the future decision makers, as well as the general public, the importance and significance of land preserves such as the Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area will be realized. It is clear that the preserve has significant benefits for the community and the environment. Evidencing the importance and significance of the preserve is intended to inspire

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others to further explore the area. Given the proximity of the site to schools with a high underrepresented population, the site provides countless educational opportunities. One limitation of this study were the time constraints. The study was conducted in less than eight weeks. Another limitation was the isolation of the site. Due to the dry conditions and the fact that the site was cut off from other water sources, the ecosystem at the site was interrupted. During usual conditions, according to Palm Beach County, there are normally hundreds of animals at the site, providing other research opportunities. The effect of drought on the site is another area that should be studied. The history of the site, various types of ecosystems found on the site, native flora and fauna supported, and the area’s role in land preservation can be explored further. The map created can be further expanded. The map has identified the locations of the different types of habitats, but further research is needed to provide identification of plant and animal life found in these areas. It is conceivable that this information can be used by local schools and youth groups as well as other researchers and environmental hobbyists. The Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area has, through this study, been evidenced to have significant social, environmental, and even possibly economic benefit to the local community. Many research opportunities exist for further study, and the site’s potential to attract underrepresented minorities into the STEM disciplines is at this time relatively untapped. References ASCE. (2006). ASCE/SEI 7-05: minimum design

loads for buildings and other structures (p. 291). New York: American Society of Civil Engineers.

Cable, S., Hastings, D. W., & Mix, T. L. (2002).

Different voices, different venues: environmental racism claims by activists, researchers, and lawyers. Human Ecology Review, 9, (1), 26-42.

Florida Atlantic University (2008). Diversity

Report. Retrieved July 29, 2009. http://www.fau.edu/president/files/diversity_report06.pdf.

Gunderson, L. H., Light, S.S. & Holling, C.S.

(1995). Lessons from the Everglades: learning in a turbulent system. BioScience Supplement, 45, 566-573. Retrieved July 15, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.

Hardin, E. D., & D. L. White. (1989). Rare

vascular plant taxa associated with wiregrass (Aristida stricta) in the Southeastern United States. Natural Areas Journal, 9, 234-245.

Lewis, C. (2008). An environmental education

program that works in Miami and around the world. education.com (electronic magazine). Retrieved July 31, 2009 from http://www.education.com/reference/article/environmental-education-program-works/

Livingston, R. J. (1990). Ecosystems of Florida (R.

L. Myers & J. J. Ewel, Eds.). Gainesville, FL: University Presses of Florida.

Marshall, C. H., Pielke, R. A., Sr., Steyaert, L. T.,

& Willard, D. A. (2003a). The impact of anthropogenic land-cover change on the Florida Peninsula sea breezes and warm season sensible weather. Monthly Weather Review, 132, 28-52.

Marshall, C. H., Pielke, R. A., Sr., & Steyaert, L. T. Crop freezes and land-use change in Florida. Nature, 426, 29-30.

Mitsch, William J. and Gosselink, James G.

(2007). Wetlands, 4th ed. (pp. 349-354). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

(2007). Task force on minority participation in the environmental community. Annapolis, MD: Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved from http://dnr.maryland.gov/education/download/MinorityParticipationTask ForceReport.pdf

Palm Beach Community College. (2009).

Institutional Research and Statistics. Retrieved July 31, 2009 from http://www.pbcc.edu/x3915.xml

Palm Beach County Environmental Resource

Management. (2009). Royal Palm Beach Pines History. Retrieved July 3, 2007 from http://www.pbcgov.com/erm/natural/natural-areas/royal-palm-beach-pines/.

Palm Beach County School District of Florida.

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(2009). The Gold Report. Retrieved July 25, 2009 from: http://www.palmbeach.k12.fl.us/9045/goldrpt/gold.asp.

Rind, D., Goldberg, R., Hansen, J., Rosenzweig,

C., & Ruedy, R. (1990). Potential evapotranspiration and the likelihood of future drought, Journal of Geophysical Research, 95, 9983–10,004.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (n.d.). South

Florida Multi-Species Recovery Plan. Retrieved July 4, 2009 from http://www.fws.gov/verobeach/index.cfm?Method=programs&Nav ProgramCategoryID=3&programID=107&ProgramCategoryID=3

University of Florida, Gainesville, & U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2005). Understanding the Benefits of Nature-based Tourism and Recreation in Florida. Retrieved July 1, 2009 from the USDA Research, Education, and Economics Information System Web site: http://www.reeis.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/182555.html

Village of Royal Palm Beach. (2008). About the Village. Retrieved July 30, 2009 from http://www.royalpalmbeach.com/Pages/RoyalPalmBeachFL_WebDocs/about

Walker, S. L. & Majorin, M. P. (1992).

Everglades: wondrous river of life (p.63). Scottsdale, AZ: Camelback Design Group, Inc.

Acknowledgements Thanks to: Palm Beach County Environmental Resource

Management Palm Beach County GIS Lee Leitzke, Site Manager & Environmental

Analyst, Palm Beach County Environmental Resource Management

Professor Eric Householder, Palm Beach Community College

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Geospatial Technologies for the Okeeheelee Nature Trail Analysis

Authored by

Manuela Garcia Palm Beach Community College

Math & Science Institute

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida

July 2009

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Introduction Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is an advanced computer software technology developed in Canada in the 1960s. Before GIS was created, all data acquired was analyzed on a flat paper map. All processes were done by hand, so there were many limitations. GIS proved to be a great advancement for cartographers, geographers, and scientists. In addition to having digital data stored in a disk instead of ink for a paper map, GIS provided a simple way to edit data, reducing the likelihood of data loss (Berry, 2006, p. 16). The following are some tools that can be used alongside GIS: GPS (Global Positioning System) to take latitude/longitude coordinates; remote sensing, defined as the act of obtaining information by using electromagnetic energy (i.e. no contact is made between the source and target); ArcGIS and ArcCatalog, two computer software programs that aid the map maker in the creation of the map and also the editing of data; and DNR Garmin used for downloading information from a GPS onto a computer. With these tools, many studies can be carried out, such as: urban development, endangered species, declining wetland populations, and even crime patterns (Craglia, Haining, & Wiles, 2000). Purpose The primary objectives of the study were to survey an area and create a GIS map with several layers (different sets of data, such as the base map, the transects, or the coordinates). This data was used to show the differences between the wetlands and uplands regarding soil type and flora and fauna distribution. For example, a species of exotic flora will be found in one group, just like saw palmetto or cabbage palm will be found in another. The data also gave insight onto the effect of the exotic species on the natives (species originating in Florida). After analyzing the spatial pattern of the exotic plants, it could be

determined whether the management they provided (prescribed burns, see Figure 1) was sufficient for controlling exotics or if a new one should be created. GIS has the potential to protect and help restore the delicate natural ecosystems left in the world. By merging data in computers, GIS allows e n v i r o n m e n t a l scientists to describe different ecosystems, to identify problems and find solutions.

Intellectual Merit Current review of the literature shows novel uses of GIS for study of teaching and learning in informal educational settings. For example, the ITEST Resource Learning Center Coastlines Project (2008) selected a number of coastal environments in different areas of the United States and used GIS and GPS systems to learn about the coastal environments and to encourage young people to become interested in geospatial technologies. GIS has the ability of involving underrepresented groups in projects that are beneficial for both the environment and community. The Paleo Exploration Project (performed by the ITEST Learning Resource Center), gathered a group of

Geospatial Technologies for the Okeeheelee Nature Trail Analysis Manuela Garcia

Abstract GIS allows users to take any geographical data and compress it into a map or table that are easy to read and analyze. This project surveyed the water quality, flora and fauna, overall health, and characteristics of a 90 acre area. The final map of this project provides a view from a larger perspective and the spatial patterns of the vegetation that could be used to determine the efficacy of the current actions taken by the park to control exotics. If further studies were carried out, the observer could examine change over time, make predictions, or answer any environmental concerns.

Figure 1. Prescribed burns eliminate competition and prevent future wildfires by reducing the plant fuel at the forest floor. This figure shows the burnt trunk of a cabbage palm.

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people of American Indian/ Alaskan Native decent to look for fossils in the mountains of rural Montana. This project provided a great opportunity for these people to have fun and learn about GIS technologies at the same time. Students can apply the knowledge and creativity gained from some of these projects when putting together a GIS map. GIS can also encourage students to think critically and identify trends when analyzing the map and its data. This project would be a great addition to an environmental class because it would allow students to investigate and study the environment hands-on. Impact Benefits Ever since it was created, GIS has left a positive impact on the environment and the community. As an example: in the case of the Turkish vicinity of Yaka, environmental scientists determined through study of seismic activity and geologic survey, the big threat landslides posed to the community. As reported by Ozdemir (2008), “Landslide hazard or susceptibility maps would be beneficial in interpreting known landslides, making emergency decisions and avoiding or mitigating the impact of future landslide hazards” (p. 1). In another case study, GIS was used to determine the likely grazing spots for cattle. Using the published guidelines of Heady (1994) and Holechek (1998) of the study of slope and water, two maps were combined to find the ideal grazing spot. The final product maps showed that cattle preferred a 6% to 60% slope and less than two miles of distance from a water source. With this map, cattle workers could predict the cattle’s grazing habits, resulting in less need to plan or do tedious field work (K. Guenther, E. Guenther, & Redick, 2000, p. 18). GIS has a wide field of uses, from designing construction surveys, to mapping sea turtle nests. In the past, the United States and other numerous countries have used GIS for environmental management (for example, California in understanding its underwater kelp forests, and Madagascar in conserving its diverse species). One advantage of GIS maps that make these projects so successful is that they are very efficient at showing change over long periods of time. As a result, trends are easily spotted. Also, because GIS has a wide field of uses and is easy

to use, a great variety of people can participate in a diversity of jobs or projects that utilize GIS. Today there are numerous companies and individuals that integrate GIS into their daily lives, whether this be for recreational purposes such as geocaching (the modern day scavenger hunt made easier with GPS), commercial (planning construction sites), educational, or just environmental (protecting an endangered species). By providing a bigger perspective and showing changes and patterns over time, it is possible that GIS can help conserve the environment by making predictions and warning the public of the damage that is being caused to the earth. On a local level, GIS can provide information crucial to understanding the history of the peninsula of Florida. This way, it can help residents make the right choices regarding the future so as not to further damage the environment. Methods and Materials Two requirements of the project site are wetlands and uplands and a variety of flora and fauna, both native and exotic. Okeeheelee Park had both ponds and marshes, pine tree trails, and a variety of plant and animal species (see Table 1). The area should also be minimally controlled, as was Okeeheelee Park, meaning the flora and fauna occur naturally. Methods In order to survey the area and create the final map: 1. The location was photographed (trails,

wetlands, and flora and fauna) 2. An aerial photograph obtained from Palm

Beach County was used as base map (using ArcGIS software)

3. The location was revisited and GPS coordinates were taken at random (to become familiar with the GPS)

4. Water was tested for temperature, turbidity, amount of absorbed oxygen, and pH using special water quality kits

5. Two transects for the wetland and upland areas were created, each 200 meters in length. Every 10 meters, GPS coordinates and photographs were taken, within a 10-foot radius. This was done to see the overall pattern of the vegetation. Wetland transects were used to approximate 3 equidistant

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points to carry out the water quality testing 6. DNR Garmin software was used to download

GPS data onto a computer, then that data was placed on top of the base map

7. Any other additional data was integrated onto the map (photographs, attribute data, or digitized pictures)

Materials Some materials used in this project were: a GPS instrument to record waypoints and make tracks, a digital camera to photograph the location, a measuring tape to conduct the transects, a notepad and writing utensil to record conditions and other data, a water quality kit to test the water in the wetlands, and a computer with the DNR Garmin, ArcGIS, and ArcCatalog softwares to download data, create the map, and analyze the results. If this project were to be carried out a second time, some personnel that could make the project easier would be selected: a cartographer to aid in the map making, an environmental scientist to help survey the location and analyze and correlate the final results, a geographer to gather the statistics and an aerial photograph of the location, a scientist working with infrared remote sensing to observe animals during nighttime, and possibly an ESRI ArcGIS spatial analyst to help with the GIS software and analyzing of the results. (O*NET OnLine) The results were analyzed by utilizing the following instruments and tools: the transect photographs or the aerial photograph (or satellite imagery); the results of the water quality samples; the statistics and other notes; and the final product map and its attribute table(s) created with ArcGIS and ArcCatalog. The optimal procedure for analysis of data was to look at all these individually and then to form conclusions about each. For example, in the display layout of the map in ArcGIS, specific layers can be hidden so only specific details are shown. When all the layers are shown, the data can be correlated and analyzed as a whole. For this study, ArcGIS and ArcCatalog were the two main tools used to report the results. With ArcCatalog, features (the transect lines or ponds) were digitized (transformed from just a picture to a map icon with an attribute table). ArcGIS was used to put the map together, edit and trim features (clean up the tracks), change the color, and add the title and map legend, among other things.

Results

After careful analysis of the map and its data, a pattern in the spatial organization of the vegetation was seen. Different plants and animals were observed at the wetlands and uplands (see Figure 2 and Figure 3 and Table 1). For example, baldcypress and cattails are common at the wetlands, while the uplands are predominated by saw palmetto and cabbage palm (these usually cluster together). The upland and wetland ecosystems also had different soil pH and color. The turbidity of the water, 0 JTU, meant the water was clear, the pH was near neutral (neutral being 7), and the amount of dissolved oxygen was 4 ppm (parts per million; 0 ppm is the minimum and 8 ppm is the maximum) (see Table

Figure 2 Transect picture of the wetland (Above)

shows baldcypress and cattail.

Figure 3 Transect picture of the upland (Below)

shows how saw palmetto and cabbage palm are

predominant in the area.

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2). These results were not surprising because baldcypress trees and cattail plants are known for controlling oxygen levels in wetland areas. The results were compressed into the final map

(Figure 4). The map shows the trails walked in red, the transect lines in aqua, and the main wetland, next to the transect line, in blue. Each transect point has an attribute table with specific characteristics such as soil type and flora and fauna species.

Discussion The results represent the trend in the spatial organization of the various types of plants found at the Okeeheelee Nature Center (slash pine, saw

palmetto, cabbage palm, cypress trees, poison ivy, strangler fig, Caesar’s weed). This spatial organization is more than likely based on a number of factors such as soil pH, water

distribution, and sunlight availability. For example, fauna such as squirrels and owls may prefer uplands because of the coverage trees provide, but amphibians and reptiles may prefer wetlands for the water. In regards to the exotic flora, the results demonstrate the overwhelming effect of the exotic plant species on the natives (how they cluster around natives); this emphasizes the need for environmentalists to create more programs to control exotics. It was not observed, but there is a potential that exotic species may “potentially alter the ecosystem properties of geomorphology, hydrology, biogeochemistry, and

disturbance”, according to Gordon (1998, pp. 975-989). Many cattail plants were seen in the wetlands, this may be due to the high amounts of rain Florida received over the summer or the increase in phosphorus levels in the water (Aquatic Botany, 1993, pp. 203-223; ProQuest-CSA, 1993). Either way, as noted by UF (2008), cattails (native, but invasive) are actually found to be beneficial because they provide shelter for many aquatic animals and birds. Therefore, they pose no threat and do not require control. In addition, they also clear the water of excess phosphorous. According to Gould & Peragallo, soil pH for uplands and wetlands is normally neutral, although it is not uncommon for it to be slightly acidic in uplands (due to excess sulfur or lime)(2009). As seen by the results, exotic species are not completely detrimental to the ecosystem at Okeeheelee Park, but they are still a potential threat. As a result, Florida residents and businesses should become aware of the negative effects that exotic species have and be prompted to refrain from planting or caring for these exotic species. Special precautions and actions should be taken to prevent/control exotic species and help natives thrive once again. This project can help the community become familiar with the flora and fauna that occur naturally in Florida’s wetland and upland ecosystems. For example, the water quality tests can give Florida residents an

Figure 4 The final map shows the tracks in red and the

transect points in aqua. The yellow line is the vegetation

buffer for Okeeheelee Nature Trail. Aerial photograph

courtesy of Eric Householder.

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insight onto the important role of wetland vegetation (such as cattail and baldcypress trees) of keeping water clean. An area where this role of plants is evident is the Everglades Agricultural Area. This area was specially constructed with special plants that remove excess phosphorus from the water. The plants, their consumers, and the water all benefit from this process (Redfield , 2009). One major weakness of the project came from reliability and validity of the data collected due to the small area selected for study. If a larger area had been surveyed, more plant and animal species would be encountered, leading to more accurate results. In addition, the project did not focus on one specific animal or plant species. In depth surveying of a specific species (whether exotic or native) would provide a great deal of insight that could be helpful to discovering a better way to either care for or control this species. Another problem was the heat, it not only made collecting data more uncomfortable, but it made it difficult for animal species to be seen. The amount of time given also proved to be a problem because it was difficult to perform the surveying, organizing of data, and result analysis in only 5 weeks. Likewise, if the park had been visited more times, the results for this project most likely would have been more reliable. GIS has the potential to protect and help restore the delicate natural ecosystems left in the world. By merging data in computers, GIS allows environmental scientists to describe different ecosystems, to identify problems, and find solutions. As long as GIS is kept in use by a wide field of people, it will continue to grow and become more advanced, keeping its products available to anyone who wishes to make use of them. References Berry, J. (2006, October). Early GIS technology

and its expressions. (BEYONDMAPPING). GEO World. 16 (2).

Craglia, M., Haining, R., & Wiles, P. A

Comparative Evaluation of Approaches to Urban Crime Pattern Analysis. Urban Studies, 1360-063X, Volume 37, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 711 – 729.

Gordon, R. D. (1998). Effects of Invasive, Non-

indigenous Plant Species on Ecosystem

Processes: Lessons from Florida. Ecological Applications, 8(4), 975-989.

Gould ,T. J., & Peragallo, T. (n.d.). NHANRS Fact

Sheet: Soils for Constructed Wetlands. http://www.agresourceinc.com/article_wetland_facts.htm

Guenther, G. E., Guenther, S. K., & Redick, S. P.

(2000). Expected-Use GIS maps [Electronic version]. Rangelands, 22(2), 18.

ESRI. (n.d.). ESRI Products Overview. http://

www.esri.com/products/index.html. ITEST Resource Learning Center. (n.d.).

Coastlines. http://itestlrc.edc.org/coastlines. ITEST Resource Learning Center. (n.d.). Paleo

Exploration Project: Spatial Analysis of Fossil Finds in the Northern Plains. http://itestlrc.edc.org/paleo-exploration-project-spatial-analysis-fossil-finds-northern-plains.

O*NET OnLine. (n.d.). Tools and Technology

Search. http://online.onetcenter.org/search/t2/.

Ozdemir, A. (2008). Landslide susceptibility

mapping of vicinity of Yaka Landsl (Gelendost, Turkey) using conditional probability approach in GIS. Environmental Geology, 1. http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=98025r7k00w38360&size=largest.

ProQuest-CSA. (1993). Fluctuations in sawgrass

and cattail densities in Everglades Water Conservation Area 2A under varying nutrient, hydrologic and fire regimes [Electronic version]. Aquatic Botany, 46(3-4), 203-223.

Redfield, G. (2009). South Florida Environmental

Report. South Florida Water Management District, 1, 16-17.

University of Florida (UF), IFAS. (2008). Center

for Aquatic and Invasive Plants, Cat-tails. http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/node/459.

Acknowledgements Without a few sources, this project, or paper, would not be possible. I would like to give special thanks to the Okeeheelee Nature Center for

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providing my partner and me with an informative park filled with friendly and knowledgeable staff. I would also like to thank Professor Householder and his assistant, Diane for patiently teaching us the basic concepts of GIS and for also providing the equipment necessary for this project. In addition, a special thanks to the mentors from MAAP for giving me great advice and sources for writing this paper. This is truly a great opportunity that I am grateful for being in. I also would like to thank alias19, my partner for this project, for being cooperative and helping this project to get finished. A special thanks also to PBCC for providing me with special research seminars, great professors, and a fabulous online library with multiple databases (the source of 90 percent of my sources). I would like to thank Google for providing the other 10 percent of my sources. Most importantly, I would like to thank Susan Setterlund for overseeing this MAAP project and for always giving us great information.

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Appendix A:

MAAP Fundamentals

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Grant Award Announcement Volume 16, No. 6 April 15, 2009 http://www.pbcc.edu/perspectives.xml Math & Science Institute receives Governor’s Summer Program grant Palm Beach Community College was awarded $28,255 from the prestigious Governor’s Summer Program grant from the Florida Department of Education, K-12 Education Bureau of Curriculum and Instruction in March to support gifted and high achieving learners. Responding to the school district, industry, and emerging workforce trends, the College is offering a unique learning experience to connect students to the growing fields within physics, biotechnology and environmental science studies through its Math and Science Summer Institute. This year’s Math and Science Summer Institute program will offer 45 high school and college students a rigorous honors-level college credit program in emerging industries such as biofuels and ethanol production from vegetation, as well as hands-on, field-based experiences that will serve as a model for interdisciplinary studies. Finally, students will participate in scholarly writing through the Mentor Academic Author Project with faculty and other PBCC students. “This is the next logical progression,” said Dr. Dana Zorovich, director for Resource and Grant Development. “Students will extend to the next level of academia by learning the art and science of producing and publishing scientific works.” “America is lagging behind most countries in the production of graduates with the kind of math and science skills to compete in a technological world,” said Scott MacLachlan, interim provost and dean of student services at PBCC Palm Beach Gardens. “The Math and Science Summer Institute is one indicator of PBCC’s commitment to help produce more graduates with math and science skills that will place them among the world’s finest.” The program will run for eight weeks, from June 9 – Aug. 4, 2009, Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Real-world learning experiences within authentic environments are planned, including visits to Scripps Research Institute, South Florida Water Management District, Everglades National Park, Gumbo Limbo Park, Advanced Water Technology, Cytonics Corporation, Ocean Ridge Biosciences, Pratt and Whitney, NASA and TransDermal Technologies. For more information please visit the Math and Science Summer Institute web site: www.pbcc.edu/msi.xml.

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Young Scholars’ Challenge Award: The Mentor Academic Authors Project

Scientists and scholars get their work known and recognized through publication. You have an opportunity to become a published author—recognized by your peers as the one to watch, a developing scholar of notoriety on the way up the ladder to academic success. You can achieve this early recognition by accepting the challenge of the Mentor Academic Authors Project (MAAP), which is part of the Text and Academic Authors Foundation’s (TAAF; www.taafonline.net) commitment to achieving excellence and diversity in higher education.

What is the MAAP Challenge?

The Math & Science Institute of Palm Beach Community College has partnered with the Text and Academic Authors Foundation to provide the Governor’s Summer Program (GSP) students with expert training in writing and publishing academic works (papers, journal articles, and monographs). The goal: learning to translate and describe in an expressive writing style what you have learned in the classroom and in-the-field in the manner expected of accomplished scientific academic authors.

How do I win a MAAP award?

As a requirement of your course of study in either the Bio-tech or Environmental tracks, you are expected to produce an Honors Project. Using your project as the subject-matter, you will work with an MAAP Mentor (a published academic author) who will help mold and shape your paper to achieve “Promising Young Academic Author” status. To direct this process, you will follow an “Academic Authors Rubric” that provides specific guidelines for writing your paper. Those GSP students who successfully follow the rubric and who are judged to be a “Promising Young Academic Author” by a panel of TAAF judges will have their papers included in a book published by the Text and Academic Authors Association (TAA; www.taaonline.net). Promising Young Academic Authors will receive a copy of book of paper winners for their professional library, a free one-year membership to TAA, and a letter of recognition from the TAA Council representing

over 1800 college and university faculty nationwide. This recognition will surely booster your credentials when you apply to college.

One Promising Young Academic Author will win the grand prize award of “TAA Most Promising Young Academic Author.” The winner will have the opportunity to talk about his or her experiences in the MAAP at TAA’s 2010 Annual Conference. The award is prestigious. A young scholar presenting at a conference attended by a highly influential audience of the professoriate is of great import in building credibility as a scholar and academic author seeking university faculty status, tenure, and career promotion. TAA’s 2010 Annual Conference will be held in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota). As a part of the prize, cost of travel, hotel, per diem expenses, and conference fee are included, and the Most Promising TAA Academic Author will be invited to participate in all conference activities. The Text and Academic Authors Association has for 21 years provided expert training in academic and textbook authorship to college and university faculty nationwide. Designated TAA workshop presenters are distinguished professors with extensive bibliographies of published scholarly works.

What is the process involved in becoming a Promising Young Academic Author?

The guidelines for writing a Promising Young Academic Author paper are outlined in the Academic Authors Rubric. You will receive personal assistance in following the rubric from your Mentor. Mentors are made up of educational leaders and professors from associations, colleges, and universities across the country. They are accomplished academic authors tasked to assist you in writing your paper. In turn, you are knowledgeable about your project and will teach your mentor about it. Thus, MAAP is a collaborative partnership between you and your mentor. To further assist you in achieving the goal of becoming a Promising Young Academic Author you will receive expert instruction in the use of the rubric and tips on writing during a workshop presented by a TAAF published academic author.

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Mentor Academic Authors Project (MAAP)

Criteria for Evaluation of “Most Promising Young Scholar Award”

MAAP Rubric: Assignment 4(a) & (b) Award Rating

Categories

Criteria for Assessment

Style & Formatting

The protégé followed instructions with no errors; that is, Style is Normal + New Times Roman, Font size 12, dou-ble line spacing; margins 1” x 1” x 1” x 1”; page numbers positioned “Bottom of Page (Footer)” with center align-ment and no first page box checked (i.e., no page number on first page); length of paper not to exceed 20 pages

Organization & Structure

The protégé followed instructions with no errors; that is, the Eight Elements making up the sections of the scholar’s paper are clearly labeled and addresses questions to be answered and keys to winning as described in Assignment 2: Preliminary Draft of Scholar’s Paper

Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

The protégé showed good use of grammar and syntax (e.g., word usage was correct throughout the paper with no or minimal evidence of subject-verb disagreements, misplaced modifiers, and/or incorrect use of colons and semi-colons).

Coherence

The protégé communicated in a clear and concise manner using language of the scholar to express ideas and describe and/or explain the scholar’s proposed work.

The protégé tied together paragraphs and sentences within a section in a logical and sequential manner, had no run-on or incomplete sentences, used correct verb tense (e.g., past tense when reporting results).

The protégé provided supporting evidence and details and examples appropriate to the central theme of the scholar’s paper.

The protégé described and/or expressed the intellectual merit of the project in a clear and concise manner. The protégé identified the impact benefits of the proposed work that connected the scholar’s statement of purpose

with methods, results, and discussion. The protégé constructed an original chart, table, graph or data set to report the results of the proposed work. The protégé interpreted the results using clear and concise language. The protégé drew justified conclusions consistent with the purpose, methods, and results of the proposed work. The protégé wrote in an expressive manner that could be understood by others. The protégé wrote without sex bias.

Compliance to Scholarly Rules

The protégé conformed to rules for referencing citations from peer-reviewed journals as indicated by no errors including: Citing a minimum of three references from peer-reviewed journals that supported the protégé’s introduction and

discussion Entering citations within the text and reference section in accordance with APA guidelines; for reference see:

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.) Acknowledgement & Permis-sions

The protégé included statements acknowledging support and assistance from all those who contributed to prepa-ration, construction, and final submission of the paper.

The protégé included statements from scholars, colleagues, and/or publishers granting permission for use of materials to be reprinted in their proposed work, where feasible given the time constraints in writing the paper.

Proofreading & Confirmation of Receipt

The protégé reviewed his or her finished product as indicated by no typographical or formatting errors, The protégé sent an email to her or his mentor requesting confirmation of receipt of the final paper.

Appendix B: MAAP Mentors and Protégés Bios

Statement of Recognition from Foundation Board

Dedication to President Gallon

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MAAP Mentors’ Bios

Dr. Dannielle Joy Davis is a tenure-track, Assistant Professor at the

University of Texas at Arlington. As an international scholar, she has studied and conducted research in Ghana, South Africa, Egypt, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Her interdisciplinary research examines the

experiences of marginalized groups in educational settings, K-20. She has published over 20 refereed journal articles, book chapters, academic

commentaries, and reviews.

Dr. Davis earned her Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies with an emphasis in policy analysis at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include access and retention of underrepresented students and faculty, campus climate, as well as social stratification and outcomes.

The research of Dr. Davis is complemented by her comparative study of and work within the higher education systems of Ghana and South Africa. Graduate courses she has instructed include Qualitative Research; Educational Policy; Organizational Power, Politics, and Policy Formation; Educational

Administration; and Race and Culture. She is recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the American College Personnel Association’s Roberta Christie Paper Award given to exceptional work on

diversity (published in College and University, 2007) and the 2007 College Teaching and Learning Conference Best Paper Award (published in the Urban Review, 2009).

She is professionally affiliated with the American Educational Research Association, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, the Text and Academic Authors Association, and Sisters of the

Academy.

Dr. Sandra M. Harris is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Troy

University in Montgomery, Alabama. She is currently the Interim Chair of the Psychology Department. I hold a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Educational

Psychology as well as a Master’s of Education in School Psychometry from Auburn University in Alabama. She obtained Master of Arts and Bachelor Arts Degrees in Psychology from California State University.

Her professional background includes 20 years of active duty service in the

United States Air Force. During those 20 years she gained experience avionics communication, aircraft maintenance, leadership, management, supervision, supply functions, and career counseling. In terms of education, she gained experience in curriculum design and development,

lesson plan development and preparation, test construction, and formalized classroom instruction. I also served as manager of distance education programs, manager for paper-based career development

courses, as well as manager of developing interactive, computer, delivered instructional media. She has been a full-time faculty member at Troy University for 10 years. She teaches a number of

subjects in psychology. She is married, has four adult children, and two grand children. Her hobbies included sewing, photography, cake decorating, scrapbooking, and gardening (just to name a few).

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Dr. Richard Hull was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to a former newspaper reporter and an executive assistant to the local Chamber of Commerce. His

undergraduate degree in philosophy is from Austin College, Sherman, Texas, and his PhD in philosophy from Indiana University.

After spending thirty years in the SUNY at Buffalo Department of Philosophy, with leaves to serve variously as a personnel consultant in Houston and a private school

headmaster in Buffalo, he took early retirement in 1997 to take the position of Executive Director of the Texas Council for the Humanities in Austin, Texas. He spent

portions of the 1999-2000 academic year teaching philosophy at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, and returned to the Buffalo area when his wife, a behavioral neuroscientist, obtained two grants from

the National Institutes for Mental Health and elected to stay at SUNY at Buffalo. In the ensuing years 2000-2004, he worked as a fundraiser for nonprofit organizations and spent a semester as a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of Montana’s Institute of Medicine and Humanities.

A second edition of his Ethical Issues in the New Reproductive Technologies has recently been released by Prometheus Books; the first edition was published by Wadsworth. His current research centers chiefly on the biographies and publications of the presidents of the American Philosophical Association from its inception in 1900 to the present day. To date, he has published six volumes, with a seventh volume in press and three more

in initial proofreading stages, all being initially published by Kluwer and now bought out by Prometheus. In addition, he edits two special series of the Value Inquiry Book Series: Lived Values and Valued Lives, and

Histories and Addresses of Philosophical Societies, all for Editions Rodopi. He publishes several book chapters,

articles, and reviews each year: the most recent are chapters in Sex, from Plato to Paglia (Alan Soble, ed.) and in The Encyclopedia of Unbelief (Tom Flynn, ed.), both on topics in bioethics, and several chapters on various

American Philosophers in Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers, edited by John Shook and published by Thoemmes Press in four volumes.

Richard moved recently to Tallahassee, Florida where his wife has taken a position with Florida State

University’s department of psychology and its interdisciplinary neuroscience group. He is employed as Executive Director of the Text and Academic Authors Association, and is Organizer of the newly-formed Tallahassee Community of the Center for Inquiry – Florida.

Dr. Jay Matteson is the Executive Director of the Text and Academic Authors Foundation (TAAF) and Director of the Institute for Energy & Environmental

Sustainability at Palm Beach State College. Born in Miami, Florida to a family who cherished the ideals of equality, fairness, compassion and loving kindness, he learned early on that the pursuit of knowledge and willingness to share knowledge

in a collaborative manner are cornerstones to quality of life for all peaceful beings.

Jay received his Ph.D in Motor Learning Sciences from Florida State University with concentration in the applied study of pain & stress in athletic performance.

Building on this research, he and his wife as “partnerpreneurs” founded and operated over 20 years a

Biomedical technology corporation dedicated to non-pharmaceutical approaches to treatment of pain & dysfunction. His research and that of other medical & allied healthcare practitioners and manufacturers

worldwide led to the establishment of a new FDA classification for pain modalities & procedures labeled as “micro-current” therapeutics.

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At the turn of the 21st century Dr. Matteson turned his attention to the study of Energy & Environmental Sciences. This redirection in thinking is directly attributable to his findings that the greater cause of pain and

illness was linked to environmental safety and health issues. Recognizing this, his professional dedication is to unite academicians and business & industry leaders in solving the great issue of our time: how to become a

global family of knowledgeable and awakened partners committed to a sustainable energy and environmental future. Achieving this end will be dependent upon understanding the unbroken relationship between equity in learning and Diversity in higher education. As the old saying goes, “if you want to go fast then go alone, but if

you want to go far then go together”.

Susan Setterlund is an Associate Professor and Science/Health Science Librarian at Palm Beach State College. She received her Master’s Degree in Library and Information

Science from the University of South Florida, and completed a coveted internship with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has published various journal articles and reviews and has been a speaker at national and regional conferences and workshops. She

is a senior member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals.

Dr. Michael D. Spiegler is a Professor of Psychology at Providence College. He has been

a successful textbook and academic author for more than 35 years with several leading psychology textbooks, including Contemporary Behavior Therapy, Personality: Strategies

and Issues, and Contemporary Psychotherapies for a Diverse World. He has presented workshops on textbook writing for the past 10 years, regularly reviews manuscripts for textbook publishers, and serves as a consultant/mentor to college textbook authors in

diverse disciplines. He is currently writing a comprehensive Handbook for College Textbook Writing.

Dr. Virginia Cook Tickles was born December 28, 1961 in New Orleans, Louisiana

into a family whose descendents, while enslaved, resided on a plantation that demanded all slaves to be educated. She is the fourth of nine children, born to Brooks

Sr. and Marilyn Collins Cook. She has always been a high achiever, educated through the New Orleans Public School System where she graduated from McDonogh 35 Senior

High School. She attended Clark College in Atlanta Georgia, as a Dual Degree Mathematics/Engineering student for three years and Tuskegee University for two years where she obtained a BS Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1985.

Virginia’s first employment opportunity came as a summer technical intern with Magnavox Government and

Industrial Electronics Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In April of 1989, Virginia continued her career with the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA), Marshall Space Flight Center.

Virginia received her MS Degree in Systems Management from Florida Institute of Technology, Redstone Alabama Campus in 1999 and a PhD in Urban Higher Education at Jackson State University (JSU), in

Jackson, Mississippi in 2006. With a keen interest in African American women in STEM, her dissertation, “The Career Success of African American Women with Doctorates in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics” documents and frames the attitudes and behaviors needed for successful STEM achievement.

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Dr. Tickles is currently a visiting professor at Jackson State University, College of Science, Engineering and

Technology and also spent a year as a visiting professor at Tennessee State University (TSU), College of Engineering, Technology and Computer Science in Nashville Tennessee.

Virginia was featured on the front cover of the “Black Ph. D, Ed. D. Magazine, 2008 Special Edition as a Trailblazer, is a member of Sisters of the Academy, and is currently a mentor with the Text and Academic Authors Foundation and Palm Beach Community College in Florida. She is the founding president of the

National Alliance for Improvement in Higher Education (NAIHE) and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Dr. Tickles continues to spread her enthusiasm in STEM education. The most impressive legacy Dr. Tickles has cultivated, with the support of her spouse, is the strength she exhibits encouraging the growth and

development of her six (6) daughters to become educated and engaged African American female trailblazers in their own areas of expertise.

Dr. Rihana S. Williams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at

Georgia State University. Dr. Williams is the director of T.E.V.A. Lab, a research laboratory that conducts studies related to the vocabulary and reading development of individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds utilizing eye movement monitoring. She

holds appointments with several interdisciplinary research centers including, the Center for Research on Atypical Development and Learning (CRADL), the Partnership for

Urban Health Research (PUHR), and the Language and Literacy Initiative (L&L).

Dr. Williams received her B.A. degree in Psychology (Magna Cum Laude) from Spelman College and her M.A.

and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. As an experimental psychologist, Dr. Williams has published several articles and book chapters on the time course of incidental

vocabulary acquisition, the assessment of vocabulary and reading in children and adults from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the influence of cognitive factors like working memory on sentence comprehension. Dr. Williams is the principal investigator and or co-investigator on several interdisciplinary research awards

totaling over $200,000 in internal and external funding.

Dr. Williams’ scholarship has been published or is scheduled to be published in the following journals: Journal of Educational Psychology, Journal of Research in Reading, Journal of Memory & Language, European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, and Human Brain Mapping. Dr. Williams has made over 40 scholarly

research presentations at national and international venues such as the Annual Meeting of the Scientific Studies of Reading (SSSR), the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and the European

Conference on Eye Movements (ECEM). In addition, Dr. Williams has mentored over 20 student research presentations which have received recognition by Psi Chi and the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABCRMS). Dr. Williams has received the following honors: Nomination for Outstanding

Faculty Award (2009), Nomination for Faculty Award for Undergraduate Research (2007, 2008) and National Institutes of Mental Health Careers and Opportunities in Research (NIMH-COR) Star (2007), Dr. Williams is

a former Ford Foundation Minority Predoctoral Fellow (2001-2004), NIH Intramural Training Award, Voice, Speech, and Language Branch of NIDCD (1999), and NIMH-COR scholar (1997-1999).

Dr. Williams currently serves on the Faculty Advisory Board to the Ronald E. McNair Program at Georgia State University and mentors undergraduate students from the Georgia State University Ronald E. McNair,

Atlanta University Center NIMH-COR, and Spelman College RISE programs. Dr. Williams was recently awarded the Ronald E. McNair Program Faculty Appreciation Award (2008).

Melanie Carle is a junior at Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West

Palm Beach, Florida, where she receives an enriching education

through both academic and vocal music classes. Melanie has always been fascinated by the sciences and

hopes to pursue a college major in Biology, followed by veterinary medical school. This is

Melanie's first publication, and she is thrilled to have this opportunity through MAAP.

Rosalie del Valle is a full time RN student and enrolled in the Honors

College of Palm Beach State College, Florida. She also serves as

the Editor of PBCC Nursing Student Association Junior e-Board, a chapter of National

Student Nurses' Association. As part of the honors curriculum, she

investigated and wrote a research paper regarding physical activity in elderly women, and is currently working on another project highlighting the nurses' role in

health promotion and disease prevention as regards nutrition and weight management in the local community.

She aspires to be a Nurse Practitioner/Anesthetist and Educator/Researcher.

Manuela Garcia is currently a

senior at Seminole Ridge

Community High School. All

through her four years of high

school Manuela was part of the

Accipiter program, through which she took many honors and

advanced placement classes.

Although Manuela has always had an interest in

environmental science, she aspires to go to Palm Beach

Community College where she plans to major in crime scene technology.

Samantha Hill. This non t r a d i t i o n a l s t u d e n t h a s

experienced a non traditional career path throughout her

life. Samantha has been employed as a legal secretary, law office manager, market research

a n a l y s t , a n d d a t a b a s e programmer. She currently holds a position with a

municipality as a State of Florida licensed building inspector and plans examiner. During her employment

Samantha has had the opportunity to participate in the growth of the largest municipality in Palm Beach County, working on large projects such as high rise condos and

large industrial buildings as well as assisting in emergency operations and recovery efforts during and

after Hurricanes Frances, Jeanne, and Wilma. Other ventures in which she has been involved include business development for a gold backed internet based currency,

owning and managing a successful construction company, real estate investment, and equestrian training. With this

diverse background, Samantha would like to add “college graduate” to her resume. While this straight-A student continues to explore career options, she finds that she

particularly enjoys the challenges that science and math have to offer and is leaning towards an engineering

degree. The PBCC Math Science Institute Environmental Science program was very influential in helping Samantha select a future career path.

Stephanie Heung is currently a junior in the rigorous International

Baccalaureate Diploma Program at Atlantic Community High School. She hopes to double major in

molecular/cellular biology and biotechnology and minor in

Spanish or economics at one of her dream schools, Stanford and

Harvard. Eventually, she aspires to become a pharmacist

and thus serve her community while pursuing her passion for the life sciences.

MAAP Protégés’ Bios

Janae Tomlinson is a student at Palm Beach Community College in Lake Worth, Florida. She will graduate with her

Associates in Arts degree on December 18th, 2009. She will then attend Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida

in hopes of receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting. After receiving her Bachelor’s degree, she plans on completing coursework to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

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Dr. Molefi Kete Asante TAAF Board President Professor in Department of African American Studies Temple University African American Studies author

Michael Sullivan TAAF Board, Treasurer Professor Emeritus, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science Chicago State University Mathematics Textbook Author

Richard Hull TAAF Board, Secretary Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy SUNY at Buffalo Philosophical and Humanities author Pat McKeague TAAF Board Member College Instuctor National Speaker Mathematics Mathematics Textbook Author

Kären Matison Hess TAAF Board Member College Faculty/Writing (30 years) Textbook Author Career & Technical Education and Criminology Publishing Editor

Claudia Sanchez TAAF Board Member Associate Professor, Teacher Education Texas Women’s University Academic Author Principal Investigator/Teacher Preparation Stephen E. Gillen TAAF Board Member Authoring Attorney, Greenebaum Doll & McDonald College Instructor/Business, Media and Law; Electronic Media Freelance Writer, Published Author Jay Matteson TAAF Executive Director Director, Institute for Energy & Environmental Sustainability Palm Beach State College Academic Author

Special Recognition

The Board of Directors of the Text & Academic Authors Foundation (TAAF) recognizes Dr. Eric J. Smith, Commissioner of Education, The Florida Department of Education for his lifelong commitment to reducing disparity and increasing achievement among students of diversity. His efforts in establishing policy and giving direction for creating more rigorous and relevant coursework to prepare all students for college is reflective of the highest quality of educational leadership.

The MAAP Project is a direct result of this commitment. Designed as a high cognitive learning outcome to support the goals and objectives of The Governor’s Summer Program for Gifted & High-achieving students (GSP), the MAAP challenges students to learn and practice the art & science of academic authorship. Unquestionably, the GSP served as the perfect educational theater to provide students with authentic learning experiences as guided by expert mentors to teach and train them in what is expected to become academic authors. The commissioner and his Bureau of Curriculum & Instruction, Office of Humanities/Gifted Student Education, are to be commended for having the insight to provide novel educational experiences that tests our students’ capability to gain knowledge of “learning-by-doing”.

TAAF Board of Directors

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Dedication

The Mentor Academic Authors Project (MAAP) is

dedicated to Dr. Dennis P. Gallon, President, Palm Beach State College. President Gallon’s educational leadership

style is deeply grounded in a long career of continued commitment to student success, wherein the College’s

students, faculty, and staff work in partnership as active engaged learners to prepare students to contribute and

compete ethically and successfully in a diverse global community.

Dr. Gallon’s vision for Campus Sustainability in Higher Education is clearly

evidenced by his decision to establish the Math & Science Institute and the

Institute for Energy & Environmental Sustainability, as a college wide initiative to anticipate and respond to the urgent evolving community needs for

green emerging industries. His commitment to science, mathematics, technology, equity in education, and equality of opportunities for all students

fueled the MAAP project.

The resultant: MAAP students demonstrated expert competencies in reading, writing, and communicating across the curriculum. This was accomplished by

developing program learning outcomes that emphasized authentic learning experiences, highly-motivating to students requiring the repeated practice of

critical thinking and logical reasoning skills as guided by expert text and academic mentors.

The Text and Academic Authors Foundation salutes one of our nation’s Great Educational Leaders. The MAAP Project, the Math & Science Institute,

creation of the Honors College, his commitment to promote and practice sustainability in all areas of campus and community life is remarkable, and

predictably, will be recognized as an educational legacy of the highest purpose.

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Palm Beach State College

Palm Beach State College was Florida’s first public community college. Founded in 1933, the college has experienced remarkable growth, rising from a small junior college with 41 students to a comprehensive community college serving more than 49,000 students annually at four locations strategically located throughout Palm Beach county.

Recognizing that each student is unique with diverse needs and goals, the College strives to maintain small class sizes with a 1:23 teacher-to-student ratio; thereby allowing for optimal student engagement in a nurturing learning environment.

Integrally linked to the community through strong partnerships, the College provides associate and baccalaureate degrees, professional certificates, workforce development and lifelong learning programs to develop the whole student. These include: ethics, leadership and community service opportunities as well as courses offered via the Internet to provide students locally and from around the world with ready access to college programs.

Technology Education Center LEED Certified

Belle Glade Campus

BioScience Technology Complex Palm Beach Gardens Campus

Boca Raton Campus Global Education Center Lake Worth Campus