Print edition: 
A fashionable teen, Ashtoyn Hayward, was surprised to be wearing a new kind of accessory.
A three-inch green dragonfly, wings softly buzzing, rested on her hand.
"He's kind of cool," said the Coffeyville student. "I'm usually afraid of (insects)."
Hayward was one of about 100 people prowling the Wichita State University biological field station along the Ninnescah River on Saturday morning.
It was the fourth time the university has hosted students, staff and volunteers for a "bio-blitz" on the 330-acre property.
Throughout the day the crew scoured the area looking for insects, reptiles, plants, fish and about any other part of the natural world.
"One reason we do it is to give kids an opportunity to see what scientist do and let them try some of our techniques, like seining," said Leland Russell, Wichita State biology professor, as he watched teens drag nets through the river. "A lot of these kids probably haven't done this before."
The program also offers biologists an army of hands and eyes to help explore the area's mixture of prairie, woodlands and streams.
Mary Liz Jameson, also a biology professor, said most blitzs turn up species never found in the area. Saturday morning, she wasn't too sure how much would be found at this year's event.
"The diversity this summer has been so low because of the weather being so hot and dry. We never saw much of anything," Jameson said. "It's really been tough."
Saturday's cool mist and wind took her hopes even lower as she led a group afield armed with butterfly nets.
Fortunately, a nearby hedgerow held an active monarch butterfly roost.
Most rested on leaves or flew too high to be caught, but enough were netted for some field lessons. A few dragonflies were also netted.
Jameson's next method of collection didn't draw nearly as much enthusiasm.
Faces wrinkled when she said, "Dung is a hot commodity in the middle of the desert. It has a lot of nutrients. There's an entire insect community that specializes in this stuff."
For the next hour the group unearthed plastic cups that had been baited with pet feces or rotten meat, looking for critters that eat dung and critters that eat dung eaters.
Out on the prairie, Russell helped visitors dissect square meters of vegetation.
Working within well-marked areas, they clipped plants, looked at them and bagged them for further examination.
"I first thought this was going to be boring but it isn't," said Delaisha McCay, 18, of Coffeyville. "It's been kind of fun."
She was one of about 15 teens brought to the event by an educational program at Neosho County Community College in Chanute.
Marie Moore, director of the school's educational talent search program, said they brought kids from about six local high schools.
Most planned on going to college. Not all had outdoors experience.
"Some came because they have an interest in biology and some came because they wanted to try something new."
Early in the morning it was easy to see which students were which.
Some charged through grass, brush and muck while others tip-toed around thin mud puddles.
But by mid-afternoon Russell had many of the latter splashing in the Ninnescah, pulling nets and seines.
Reema Krichati and four classmates from Wichita's Northeast Magnet High School had the technique down within a few minutes.
Dredging the knee-deep holes time after time, they briskly lifted the seine and found it sparkling with assorted silver minnows that flipped about.
Krichati and Rachel Deckard's jobs was to pick the minnows from the sagging seine and toss them into a bucket for later identification.
Once hesitant, Krichati was soon scooping minnows like a seasoned biologist.
Amid it all, she paused and looked up as a thought popped into her mind.
"Hey," she said, water dripping to her elbows while knee-deep in current. "This is the first time I've ever caught fish."
