We did a super cool lab this week – and a relatively photogenic one, at that – so I thought I’d post a few photos! We had a bunch of live specimens (mostly marine inverts from Bodega Bay), and we did our first dissection of the semester – a squid. SUPER COOL!
(more…)
Field trip to the Fairfield Osborn Preserve, with A Watershed Year freshman experience class. I hiked up to Kelly Pond with a group of students so they could collect field data for a research project. It’s quite a hike up to the pond, which is near the northern end of the preserve. Covered with Azolla, the pond is a peaceful and lovely place to visit.
(more…)
I have a little great horned owl buddy who’s been calling most nights for the past few weeks close enough to my bedroom window that I can hear her* while I’m in bed. Usually, she calls really late at night/early morning (between 2 and 4 a.m.). But last night, I Read more
Today’s diversity biology lab was AWESOME! I knew it would be fun – we looked at Echinoderms, which are just super cool, and we had a bunch of live starfish and sea urchins for them to examine under the scopes. So, that part was expectedly great – we fed the Read more
It’s my turn to teach a lesson next week for the stats class I’m taking this semester (everyone has to do one; my topic is analyzing spatial data). This class was supposed to focus on SAS, but so far we’ve done almost nothing in SAS (which is fine with me Read more
When I arrived in class today to proctor an exam for my Evolution students, I found this on the whiteboard: It legit made me so happy. Also, I told them I would be happy to give them all extra points on their exams … except I wasn’t the one who Read more
Another nice thing happened at school today when I ran into one of my former students. When he was in my class, he’d asked me to write a letter of recommendation for him, to accompany his application for a reasonably prestigious scholarship. I was more than happy to do so; he Read more
So, sometimes I realize that I just really enjoy teaching. Today was one of those days. It was an easy lab, from the teaching standpoint. They worked in small groups to discuss questions from readings about influenza and prion diseases; mostly, all I had to do was wander around and Read more
Few things feel better than a hot shower after three days in the field. It was a good three days, though. Found a total of eight turtles, and the most adorable baby king snake ever. I have never seen a king snake this small before; it was SO TINY AND SO PRECIOUS and really chill about being handled. So beautiful. I’m going to keep checking this location every time I go by; hopefully I’ll be able to see this precious baby again. Photos taken in Lake County, California.
(more…)