Good education requires student experiences that deliver lessons about practice as well as theory and that encourage students to work for the public good—especially in the operation of democratic institutions (Dewey 1923; Dewy 1938). We report on an evaluation of the pedagogical value of a research project involving 23 colleges and universities across the country. Faculty trained and supervised students who observed polling places in the 2016 General Election. Our findings indicate that this was a valuable learning experience in both the short and long terms. Students found their experiences to be valuable and reported learning generally and specifically related to course material. Postelection, they also felt more knowledgeable about election science topics, voting behavior, and research methods. Students reported interest in participating in similar research in the future, would recommend other students to do so, and expressed interest in more learning and research about the topics central to their experience. Our results suggest that participants appreciated the importance of elections and their study. Collectively, the participating students are engaged and efficacious—essential qualities of citizens in a democracy.

On western North Island, New Zealand, a record of climatic change during the last glaciation is preserved in a terrestrial coverbed sequence of dominantly andesitic provenance. Here, a succession of five loess-like Andisol units postdates the global high sea-level stand of oxygen isotope substage 5e (<125,000 yr). Tephra erupted from western and central North Island allow precise chronological correlation of the loess-like units. Aerosolic quartz additions determined by quantitative X-ray diffraction (XRD) record two major peaks that correlate with oxygen isotope stages 2 and 4. The most likely source of quartz-rich dust at these times is the surrounding continental shelf, then exposed by low sea level; however, quartz of Australian provenance may also be represented. This study provides the first confirmation from the terrestrial New Zealand record that rates of atmospherically transported particles increase during glacial stages.

Bats are important but understudied pollinators in the Palaeotropics, and much about their interactions with night-blooming, bat-pollinated plant species is still unknown. We compared visitation times to flowering and fruiting plant resources by nectarivorous bat species (obligate pollinators) and frugi-nectarivorous bat species (facultative pollinators) throughout the night to examine the temporal variability that occurs within Pteropodidae foraging. Timing of pollination is an important determinant of plant reproductive success and more temporally restrictive than fruit dispersal. We netted 179 nectarivorous bats and 209 frugi-nectarivorous bats across 367 total mist-net h at five plant species providing floral resources and six plant species providing fruit resources. We found that all three nectarivorous bat species in southern Thailand forage significantly earlier in the evening (20h30 versus 22h00), and over a significantly shorter time interval (1.73 h versus 3.33 h), than do the five most commonly netted frugi-nectarivorous species. These results indicate that the two feeding guilds may be imposing different selective pressures on bat-pollinated plant species and may comprise different functional groups. We propose that the observed differences in bat foraging times are due to temporal constraints imposed by the rewards of the plant species that they visit.

The naturally occurring weevil (Curculionidae) fauna of Dade and Monroe counties in southern Florida is composed of 100 genera and 222 species. Another 20 species are adventive; their presence is due to the unintentional action of humans. Twenty-eight species occur only on the islands of the Florida Keys, 118 species occur only on mainland south Florida, and 76 species are shared by the mainland and the islands. Greater habitat diversity on the mainland accounts for its higher species diversity. The species distributions and faunal affinities are 60% Nearctic and 40% Neotropical or West Indian. Thirty-five species are known to occur only in southern Florida. This probably reflects poor knowledge of their distribution in the Caribbean rather than southern Florida as an important site for species origin. Most of the weevil species (133; 60%) are habitat specific and few species (22; 10%) are found in three or more habitat types. Wetland-inhabiting species are predominant (76; 34%), followed by hardwood hammock species (47; 21%). Flightlessness in adults is uncommon (35 species; 16%), but more prevalent in the species endemic to southern Florida (12 species; 34%). Extrapolation from data on weevil diversity yields a conservative estimate of over 5000 species of insects in southern Florida.