As part of the Spring 2015 Herpetology Course (BIOL 4083) taught by Dr. Cameron Siler at the University of Oklahoma, students took part in a semester long, small group writing assignment that formed a large basis of their final course grade. The class was broken up into three groups of seven or eight students, and each group was assigned a distinct lineage of...

The Siler Lab participated in the annual Oklahoma Biological Survey‘s BioBlitz!  This year the event was held in Osage Hills State Park, near Bartlesville in northeast Oklahoma.  Our lab was joined by previous students from the spring Herpetology course taught by Cameron Siler as well as colleague John Phillips from the University of Tulsa. We had a great time, with 31 total...

Science in Action and Object ID Day is an annual event sponsored by the Sam Noble Museum.  One Sunday a year, the museum is FREE to the public and all museum departments/collections, plus a wide variety of other OU or Oklahoma-based science entities have booths to educate people on their research or other items of importance. This year the Herpetology Department featured...

Siler Lab members (Jessa Watters, Nick Huron and Rachel Flanagan) were joined in the field in April 2015 by local  journalist Dan Bewley, creator of the blog Science is OK, through which he shares insights into scientific research occurring around Oklahoma.  While it was a little odd to be doing field work with a microphone stuck down the front of our waders...

The Siler Lab and the Herpetology Department of the Sam Noble Museum are once again sponsoring a school outreach program entitled Fantastic Frogs to educate Oklahoma students and teachers about local amphibians, through classroom activities that recreate frog calls (Grades K-5) or discoveries of amphibian adaptations and identifications (Grades 6-12).  All activities also include live animals! Save the Frogs Day (April 25, 2015) is...

Check out the latest edition of Tracks, the Sam Noble Museum Newsletter. This addition of Tracks features articles on endangered species and includes information on the museum’s current endangered species exhibit entitled RARE: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species by Joel Sartore (on display Sept. 13, 2014 through January 19, 2015). An interview with Herpetology Curator Dr. Cameron Siler and Collection Manager Jessa...

Five members of the Siler Lab (Elyse Freitas, Greg Jongsma, Alyssa Anwar, Tucker Walton, and Rachel Flanagan) attended Oklahoma’s BioBlitz! 2014 at Washita Battlefield National Historic Site, Black Kettle National Grasslands, and the City of Cheyenne Park.  They were joined by a few hundred other members of OU, other universities, and the general public.  Check out more info here. Read a first-hand...

Last Sunday, Sept. 28, the Siler lab participated in the Sam Noble Museum’s annual Science in Action and Object ID Day event.  Over 700 members of the public came by to learn about the museum’s galleries, collections, and additional University of Oklahoma participants, such as the Sooner Lunar and OU Botany Club. The Siler lab shared 9 historical and recent specimens collected...

Biodiversity Research and Education Outreach – Philippines (PhilBREO) is an international education outreach program I am developing to bring biodiversity information and educational tools to the public using a multi-language and multi-disciplinary approach. This project will develop and implement the PhilBREO website to integrate studies of biodiversity, biogeography, education, and conservation. In addition to biodiversity information focused on species of amphibians and...