Page 17 - Armed Forces Directory - Aberdeen Proving Ground

Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD

they’re 100% engaged,” said McDowell. “That’s the kind of science and the
kind of exposure we want students to have.”

Military-civilian collaboration

The program brought together expertise from multiple military installations,
demonstrating the interconnected nature of military science careers. U.S. Army
Reserve Maj. Ted Snyder, an entomology officer at Public Health Command
East who also works as a high school science teacher, co-taught a session on
urban cockroach adaptation.

“This is such a great opportunity for kids to interact with insects and develop
their ecological literacy,” said Snyder, who plans to incorporate the Bug Camp
lesson into his own classroom. “They get to work with actual scientists doing
inquiry-level work.”

Students appreciated the building inspection activities that Snyder helped lead.

“I really enjoyed doing all of the field work outside and doing the building pest
inspections we did today. That was really fun,” said Shestiuk.

James Butler, chief of the entomological sciences division at Public Health
Command East, praised the program’s comprehensive scope.

“It provides the students a complete overview of what entomology is; the
different avenues within it and then be able to have that applied science they’ve
seen over the past few days. It gives these students an opportunity to see what
real-world science is like.”

Expert panel and competition
The camp concluded Friday with an expert panel featuring four entomologists
who answered student questions, followed by the first Bug Camp “Ento Games”
challenge—a college bowl-style quiz competition complete with buzzers—
moderated by Dr. Ashley Kennedy, a state entomologist representative and
former ORISE intern at DCPH-A.

The expert panel included Dr. Kennedy, James Butler from Fort George G.
Meade, U.S. Army Col. Hee Kim (currently director for Occupational Health

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