AERO-STEM Illinois College

In the summer of 2022, Bella Aguirre conducted research alongside Illinois College Biology professor Miranda Karban. For this research project, Bella collected measurements from human growth study x-rays to study the development and sex-related differences in the shape of the eye orbit. She has presented the findings of her research project at a national conference, the annual meeting of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists, as well as at local and regional conferences. Her presentation was honored with a first-place poster presentation award in the Division of Anthropology & Archaeology at the annual meeting of the Illinois State Academy of Science. Bella will soon graduate with a bachelor's degree in Biology with a concentration in Physiology, and plans to attend graduate school next year.

In the summer of 2022, Ainslee conducted research with Dr. Bryan Arnold examining the use of automated recorders to study social behavior and communication in free-flying insect eating bats in Siloam Springs State Park. As part of this project, Ainslee analyzed thousands of recordings using computer software and identified different types of social calls produced by different species of bats. By documenting the types of calls, the number of calls, and the context of the recording (e.g. whether the recorder was placed in an area that was open vs. a closed tree canopy, the time of night the recording was made, the period of the summer the recording was made etc.) she was able to make inferences about the function of the calls produced by the bats as well as look at differences in call types among different species of bats. As part of her summer research experience, Ainslee also helped capture bats using mist-nets to help document the presence of endangered and threatened bat species. Ainslee presented the preliminary results of her research at the annual North American Society for Bat Research meeting in Winnipeg Canada in October 2023. This summer she will begin a full-time job as a bat technician at the Missouri Dept. of Conservation.