JBSA-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Ten sixth-grade students from River City Believers Academy visited the Preventive Medicine Specialist Program, or PMSP at the Medical Education and Training Campus at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston Sept. 30.
Over the course of their visit, the students learned about entomology – the study of insects – with hands-on activities and demonstrations.
This is the second straight year River City Believers Academy students were able to visit and learn from the PMSP Army and Navy instructors. The school is a private high school in San Antonio.
The students arrived in Anderson Hall and spent their time in the PMSP entomology lab. As part of the program, the students were required to catch their own insects prior to the visit so they would have specimens to work with during the lab activity.
Following a brief overview of the many different types of insects in the surrounding area, the students pinned and mounted the insects they brought with them. They also had the opportunity to handle and observe the entomology lab’s live animals such as the Madagascar hissing cockroaches, Chilean rose tarantula and leopard gecko.
At the conclusion of the visit, each student was presented with a certificate of training by the PMSP instructors for their insect collections and participation in training. As the students are about to begin their classroom instruction on insects, this hands-on event prepared the amateur entomologists for their future coursework.