Randy Puckett the person behind randy135 on iNaturalist
As a child I loved being outside and roaming the rural farm of 5 acres I grew up on as well as the adjacent farm woods just across the fence. Early fond memories of childhood were numerous camping trips in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park which is only about 15 miles from my childhood home. Cub Scout insect and leaf collections started my path to become a Naturalist later in life. As a kid I always wanted to be a scientist and after taking Biology my sophomore year of high school I was hooked.

After HS, I entered Tennessee Wesleyan College (TWC). My Freshman year during the interim term in January 1974 I took a Field Ecology Course for a one month Ecology immersion in the Pearl River swamp lands in Mississippi. We lived in a small cabin and conducted research and collected Natural History specimens for the Zoology lab at TWC for three weeks. Before returning to TWC we visited a Gulf of Mexico coastal research facility ran by Mississippi State University. TWC being a smaller college allowed the students in Science to get experiences in the field and laboratory with research and hand’s on training in many science areas. I graduated from TWC with a BS in Biology in 1978.

I later studied at Tennessee Tech University (TTU) in the Graduate Program of Environmental Biology with a minor in the Environmental areas of Civil Engineering. While at TTU, I assisted with field research in the North River drainage in the Cherokee National Forest which was impacted by road construction pollution with low pH , heavy metals, sedimentation, and other negative water quality issues. I did pH profiles of effected tributaries, chemical water quality tests, benthic aquatic insects bio-indicator studies, and in-stream fish bio-assay’s in this watershed. Although I finished all my graduate classes with a 4.0 average, as well as my Thesis research, I never received my Masters, which is another story.

I am more of General Ecologist with Environmental Issues interests but I also know the value of Biodiversity studies which require accurate species Taxonomic identifications . iNaturalist is a great tool in order to acquire these identifications and generate research quality data of species range and population numbers.

After 25 years of founding and owning a fastener, hardware, and industrial supply small business I had some life changing events and entered a new career. While talking to a good friend while running on the local Greenbelt trail as I was struggling to decide on my new career direction, he asked me “Randy what did you want to grow up and do as a kid?” I knew I always wanted to be a scientist that was involved in Nature studies.

I entered the University of Tennessee in Knoxville (UTK) into the graduate Science Education program and finally got my Master’s degree in 2005 that I had missed long ago. My Action Research for this MS was in scientific “writing to learn” summative writing from science content articles. I graduated with a MS in Science Education with a speciality in Biology.

I taught High School Biology, Environmental Science, and Pre-Chemistry for 17 years. Over the last 6 years of teaching, I developed and taught one of the first Advanced STEM Applications Programs of Study in the state of Tennessee at William Blount HS. I served on the Tennessee Department of Education STEM Leadership Council from 2016 to 2018 developing processes for teachers to implement STEM into their courses. I retired from full time teaching in 2021 and have traveled and camped in wonderful natural areas while hiking and using the iNaturalist programs to document and learn about these different ecosystems biodiversity.

Nature photography has been a hobby of mine for over 30 years. I especially love taking close up or macro photographs of flowers and insects. I am developing ways to utilize digital photography technology tools to improve the nature images I record for my iNaturalist observations for easier identification as well as creating stunning photographs with artistic value. I am finding these images are great creative writing prompts for poetry and scientific based Natural Journals (NJ's) in digital formats. As I get more involved in photography I have plans to upgrade my camera(s) to really be a "Photo Nerd." Over the summer I started getting into bird photography and I bought a newer digital camera with a 300mm zoom lens. I have learned so much about bird biodiversity this fall as the migrating species are starting to appear here in East Tennessee.

I started doing volunteer work in September 2022 in the Smokies on identifications for the Discover Life in American (dlia.org) ATBI program.

In June 2023 I started volunteering to assist Champions for Wildlife that is a western NC Non-profit that uses Art to engage students in school and classroom lessons. They also work in afterschool programs. My role was to mentor their newly hired teacher (who did a great job in her first year) as well as help design a Native Pollinator unit . I also provided Pollinator video clips I made as well as photography.

https://championsforwildlife.org/about/

In June 2024 I started as a volunteer with the Tremont Institute that is the Non-Profit Educational Partner of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Townsend Tennessee. One of my volunteer roles is to Citizen Science catalogue using iNaturalist as much of the biodiversity that I photograph on their Second Campus.

Second Campus Information and Video Links from the Tremont Institute https://tremontfuture.org/land/

Feel free to contact me

Posted by Randy Puckett Randy Puckett as iNaturalist randy135 October 19, 2022

Closer to Nature....Blog link
Please view for ideas to use iNat observations , pictures, and locations for creative written Digital Nature Journals
https://randypuckett-nature-journals.blogspot.com/