D3050: (2nd Place) Educating and empowering University of Maryland students on the importance of insect biodiversity in sustainability

Insects are well known to the public as pollinators, but less recognized is their importance in degrading wood and other plant debris in forests and parkland, the decomposition of dead animals left on the ground, and their value in cleaning flowing water. They have been key to medical and biological research and have provided goods such as honey, silk, wax, dyes, and food to human culture. Additionally, they are critical components of our trophic structure: they feed on plants that might otherwise become weeds, they feed on insects that become our pests, and they support the desired vertebrates (e.g., birds, reptiles, mammals) as food. It was calculated that insects have at least an annual value of $70 billion for their ecosystem services (Losey and Vaughan, Bioscience 56 311-323, 2006). Here, we began an education program to familiarize the students, staff, and faculty at the University of Maryland about the value of insects towards sustainability of human interaction with the environment, and connect their value to the preservation of our society. To do this, we are creating visually appealing insect displays with pinned insects, informational posters, and resources to learn how insect biodiversity is relevant to everyone. To evaluate the effectiveness of the project and analyze community response, surveys are disseminated multiple times. We anticipate greater student awareness of insect biodiversity and ecosystem services due to these installations, which will be significant for the future of insect biodiversity.