Students in Lisa Ball’s ninth-grade biology class at Southwest Junior High School participate in a video conference with her on Wednesday. Ball was in Louisiana researching caterpillars.

Ninth-grade biology students at Southwest Junior High School headed into Lisa Ball’s classroom like usual last week, and she was there smiling down upon them from the front of the classroom.

Except she wasn’t there in person. Her image was being projected on a giant screen.

“I’m confused,” pronounced one her students. “Where exactly are you?”

Ball is one of seven teachers from across the country who were at the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area in Louisiana, 40 minutes northeast of New Orleans. After winning a fellowship from the Earthwatch Institute, the educators took to the Louisiana swamps to study caterpillars.

Ball’s been keeping a blog and hosting video conferences with her students back in Lawrence throughout the trip. She left for the fellowship on April 17 and will return to Lawrence today.

“For this project, the researchers have collected over 11,000 (caterpillars) over the years that the study’s been going,” Ball said during the question-and-answer part of her video conference with her students. “Just on our trip in the last few days, we’ve collected about 400 different caterpillars and probably about 30 species.”

Ball and her colleagues are looking at the effects of climate change on caterpillars and on the parasitic insects that attack them and host plants. Ball splits her duties between tending the caterpillar “zoo” and heading out to the field to collect species.

“Because the field site is so flooded this year, we’re having to get to our field site by way of kayaking through the swamp,” Ball said.

She took her students along on a virtual field trip.

“Having my teacher come and explain this to us live from the field, it offered a great experience for all of us,” said ninth-grader Meixi Wang.

Even though she was nearly 1,000 miles away, Ball still made her students work by posting questions on her blog.

“She has challenge questions. We have to figure out what kind of caterpillar it is and we have a picture,” said ninth-grader Jessica Mielke. “Sometimes we have questions, and we write responses. She’s a really good teacher. She’s taught us a lot.”

Students have been keeping up with her blog, but the video conference gave them a different perspective.

“When we actually see her on the video conference, we can actually see what she’s doing,” said ninth-grader Elena Auer.

While the fellowship was a big reward for Ball, the living situation wasn’t exactly ideal.

“We’re sharing a bathroom and there are about 10 of us,” Ball said, while her students in Lawrence groaned. “Most of my clothes smell a little bit like swamp right now.”

When Ball returns to Lawrence, she’ll have some funding for a conservation project of her own design. She’s already planning to use the money to enhance stream sampling field trips she already does with her students.

“My goal is to show students just how fascinating our local ecosystem is if you actually take time to go outside and explore,” Ball said.

The grant is funded by HSBC In the Community (USA) Inc.

Ball’s blog is posted at www.earthwatch2.org/LFF/ball.