Ticks, Biodiversity, and Climate


Life Sciences Learning Center (LSLC)

One Health Education

Virtual Field Trip Series

Watch the video below to start your virtual field trip!

Jada's Internship

Jada’s high school required twenty hours of community service in order to graduate. Jada was interested in a career as a veterinary technician (“vet tech”). As a vet tech, Jada would assist the veterinarian in diagnosing and treating animals. To learn what is involved in the job of a vet tech, Jada decided that she would volunteer at her local veterinarian’s office. Dr. Louis, the veterinarian, encouraged Jada to join her during most pet examinations.

The first patient of the morning was Max, a large sheepdog mix. As Dr. Louis examined Max’s ears, she noticed a small white “bump”. Dr. Louis showed Jada and explained that this bump was actually a tick. Ticks are tiny animals that embed their pointy mouth parts in their host’s skin to feed on blood. Dr. Louis immediately removed the tick from Max’s ear and placed it in a petri dish. Dr. Louis said that the tick could be carrying diseases that could harm Max. In order to find out if the tick was dangerous, they would first need to identify what kind of tick was on Max.