Joseph Felts

Currently I am a Full-Time Biology Instructor at Davidson-Davie Community College in Thomasville, N.C.  I teach courses in General Biology, Environmental Biology and occasionally non-majors Biology.  My background includes degrees from UNC-Wilmington (B.A) and Texas Tech University (M.S).  Broadly speaking, my past interests have fallen within the field of behavioral ecology focusing on small mammals (especially bats and rodents), heterospecific eavesdropping, and host-parasitoid interactions. More recently I have become interested in undergraduate biology education research.  I am interested in the implementation of the recommendations from Vision and Change regarding biology undergraduate education, especially regarding authentic research opportunities for students.   In the fall/winter of 2017, I completed an inquiry project and report that researched the potential of incorporating Undergraduate Research Experiences (UREs) at DCCC.  Currently I am using three CUREs in my General Biology courses at DCCC: 1) Antibiotic Resistance Genes Detection in Soil Samples, 2) DNA Barcoding Plants and Insects, and 3) the Bean Beetle-Essential Oil/Parasitoid Wasp CURE I developed.  I also oversee three undergraduate students who are conducting research projects into isolating endophytic fungi from local flora and testing them for the production of secondary metabolites with antimicrobial properties.