Students have a blast at Bug Bash
BY BARBARA NORDBY / Lincoln Journal Star
September 22, 2003

High school kids are into the weirdest fashions these days. Whitney Shaw, a senior at Lincoln's Zoo Schoolfocus program, got up Friday morning and put on a red T-shirt, a pair of trendy eyeglasses and two pairs of earrings in each ear, hoops and sparkly studs. Then, when she got to school, she accessorized the ensemble with a 7-inch long, black-plated African millipede crawling around her neck and a 3-inch Madagascar hissing cockroach perched above her right hand like an expensive jeweled wristwatch. It wasn't gross, she told fourth-grader Toria McCall. McCall wasn't so sure. She had come to Folsom Children's Zoo with her Randolph Elementary School classmates for the annual Bug Bash. But she wasn't in love with bugs. Yet. "It's too cold today for them to hiss very much,"Whitney said, encouraging the younger girl. Standing under a tent dedicated to communication, Toria stuck out a tentative index finger and stroked the roach's back.

"Whoa," she said. "That one's hard." "They're all hard,"Whitney explained. "They have an exoskeleton." Toria grabbed a friend. "Pet the cockroach," she demanded. "I dare you to." The girls were among dozens of fourth-graders who set out to learn about insects Friday. The program, which includes games and information about bug-borne diseases, eating habits, communication and habitat, is open to the public today.

University professors teach insect lessons to the high school students, who develop lessons for the fourth-graders. "Fourth-graders, to me, are the perfect age for this type of event," said Professor Marion Ellis, who helped develop the event and on Friday showed kids a honeycomb swarming with bees. "They're fascinated by the natural world." The more you learn about bugs, the nicer they seem, the kids said. "The first time I came here Ilearned how far fleas jump,"Riley fourth-grader Kara Guittar said. The next year, she watched a roach race.

"I learned that the louder you scream, the faster they go." This year, she had no problem holding a silkworm in her hand and staring it in the face. "I used to be grossed out by them, and now I'm not,"Kara said. "They're just tiny creatures."

Reach Barbara Nordby at 473-7242 or bnordby@journalstar.com.