Students from Fayetteville State University (FSU) joined today the Environmental Health Immersive Experience prepared by ECU Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) Program.

The first part of this immersive experience involved showing the students the insectary in Dr. Stephanie Richard’s EHS laboratory at Carol Belk building and describing the mosquito rearing process wherein they will see all of the different mosquito life stages (e.g., egg, pupae, adult). FSU students had the opportunity to observe how mosquitoes were blood fed to keep the colonies going. The arbovirus lab, where experiments on dengue and Zika viruses were conducted, was briefly shown the the students. Dr. Richards and Ms. Avian White facilitated these activities.

The second part of the immersive experience involved a short walk to the site of an ongoing stormwater management project by Dr. Charles Humphrey and Dr. Guy Iverson. The students walked over to the hybridized dry detention basin/ stormwater wetland and learned from Dr. Iverson about the functionality of wetland, its pollutant removal efficiency and future plans for such practice, and from MS Environmental Health (MSEH) student, Melissa Nolan, about her related thesis project. MSEH student, Samson Strickland, also accompanied the group to the wetland site.