Graduate Showcase

My presentation at today’s Graduate Showcase went really well! I’m posting the slides here, in case anyone is interested. It only hits on two of my research questions, and all the stats were removed, as this was geared toward a non-scientific audience. Still, it should give an idea about the focus of my research.

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Forensics Lab

I had such a good time teaching lab today. It was our “forensics” lab, where we talk about DNA fingerprinting techniques. (Specifically restriction fragment analysis and PCR). We do two activities – a “paternity test,” where students analyze a “gel” with the mother, child, and four possible fathers, to determine which father is most likely to be the biological dad. Then we try and solve a murder by comparing electrophoresis results for a whole bunch of suspects and comparing them to “blood” found at the crime scene that doesn’t match the victim. It’s the kind of lab that can be super fun or really dull, and today was super fun.

Also, I totally geeked out while teaching it. First, Taq DNA polymerase is just COOL! (It’s what allows us to take small samples of DNA and duplicate them enough to run tests. So much of the stuff we see on NCIS and every other crime show on the planet? POSSIBLE BECAUSE OF TAQ). It’s from a bacteria that lives in hotsprings like the ones at Yellowstone, and I sort of geeked out about how awesome biology is because of cool stuff like this. (There might have been some bouncing).

Then one of my students asked me how it was possible to get DNA from dried up tears, and that got us onto the topic of thousands of years old DNA extracted from frozen mammoths (AND FROM DINOSAUR BLOOD IN MOSQUITOS IN AMBER THAT IS REAL HUSH I BELIEVE IN IT AND I WILL HAVE A T. REX AS A PET SOMEDAY). So, we had a fun conversation about mammoths (and also about T. rex, because it’s possible I literally bounced up and down even more than I had before, and told them how much I really want a T. rex as a pet, even if it ended up eating me. And, I’m pretty sure they understood I WAS NOT JOKING). Then one of my students mentioned the possibility that T. rex had feathers, and I put that discussion off (because it was a bit off-topic) … but then the COOLEST thing happened.

After I dismissed the class, I brought up the subject of T. rex again with the student who had asked (and I won’t go into details here, but I’ll just say that the current “birds evolved from dinosaurs” theory has some GAPING holes, and should in no way be considered an absolute at this point in time) … ANYWAY … I started talking about this, and about a third of the class just STAYED TO LISTEN! They could have walked out, I expected them to walk out, but a bunch of them stopped, and stood around and they were totally interested in this little paleontology discussion we had and IT MADE ME SO HAPPY! Because I really did geek out at them quite a lot today, and they don’t seem to mind. If anything, I think it helps them get excited about the subject.

And I realized that THIS, really, is the best thing I can give them. Sure, they’ll learn some bits and pieces of biology from me in class, and hopefully remember at least some of it into the future. But if I can do something that helps THEM get as excited about science as I am, THAT is the real gift. And they probably won’t geek out about the same things I do, but that doesn’t matter, as long as they get the idea that it’s okay to geek out about SOMETHING. And holy crap, biology has an ENDLESS SPECTRUM of things that are geek-out worthy. Because biology is just F-ING COOL!

I think that might be my true calling. To help at least some of my students discover just how much they actually love biology, and see that it’s fine to express that. (Although I don’t expect all of them to bounce up and down about dinosaurs. But if they decide to do that, they will have my FULL SUPPORT).

So, yeah. Lab today was awesome. Oh, and I also told one of my students “I LOVE YOU,” because when I wrote “Thermus aquaticus” on the board, and asked them what I’d done wrong HE KNEW IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ITALICIZED OR UNDERLINED. I must be doing something right.

Student Artwork

In the labs I teach, we give weekly quizzes, and I encourage my students to do artwork for me (and I give a tiny bit of extra credit to any student who draws something for me on his or her quiz). I’m not picky about drawings; stick figures count the same as something more realistically drawn. Sometimes, however, I find that students have drawn tiny little masterpieces for me. This semester, one student in particular, whom I shall call Ms. B, drew the most amazing turtles for me, almost every week. Here are a few of them. AREN’T THESE THE MOST ADORABLE THINGS YOU HAVE EVER SEEN????? Oh yes. Encouraging my students to draw things for me was a very, very good idea.

Today was Kind of Bittersweet

I had a really good day today (which was nice, because the previous two kinda sucked). A REALLY good day in various different ways. I taught my last two labs of the semester (that was the bittersweet part), I went to hear some music performed in the snazzy new music center on campus, and I was offered a position TAing a brand new science course which sounds SO AMAZING. This will probably ramble a bit, so …

On the one hand, I am quite glad that this semester is nearing an end. It was a good semester, but I always like the idea of winter break. 😀 But, at the same time, I will miss my students! I loved both of my lab sections, and today saying goodbye was a little bit sad. Especially for the evening lab – a bunch of them wanted hugs on the way out the door (yes, these are COLLEGE students), and several of them hung out a while after class was done just to chat about movies and video games and whatnot. They are all so very precious, and I love them, and it’s a bit sad for the semester to be over. But I’m sure I’ll love my students next semester, too.

Which leads me into the other REALLY COOL thing – I’ve been asked to TA a brand new class that has not been offered at our school before. It’s an inter-department course for students in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math), and it will be project-based. Basically, I’ll help them do individual projects, mostly dealing with a local watershed, and helping them come up with their own original research ideas. A lot of one-on-one interaction and mentoring, which I LOVE. And the idea of helping to shape the lab for this new course is also REALLY REALLY exciting. It means I’m going to have a busy semester (since I’ll still be teaching one lab section of my current course as well), but I think I’m going to really enjoy it. <3 Plus, since I’m really thinking about going into teaching full time when I’m done, this will be FANTASTIC experience for that. WHOO HOO!

Biometry Presentation

Giving a short presentation tomorrow in my biometry class on my turtle research. So here, have some slides! It was actually REALLY cool to have a first stab at analyzing my preliminary data, from three field seasons. I still have one more field season before I’ll be finished with this project. But, it was COOL! I’m not yet able to answer my main question: do these turtles exhibit nest site fidelity? But I’m starting to tease apart the various factors that may influence how they decide where to nest. tumblr_mefk6lkYAQ1r5vtdno1_1280tumblr_mefk6lkYAQ1r5vtdno2_1280tumblr_mefk6lkYAQ1r5vtdno6_1280tumblr_mefk6lkYAQ1r5vtdno3_1280tumblr_mefk6lkYAQ1r5vtdno4_1280
 

Fostering Rodents

Here are some photos of a couple of my foster babies from a few years ago. Meet Gizmo, the vole, and Mortimer, the Deer Mouse. (There’s only one photo of Mortimer, when he was just SO tiny). Both of these babies were brought into the local wildlife rescue center (where I worked at the time as a feeder for all the rehab and ambassador animals), and I agreed to foster them. I don’t have a big enough place to foster larger mammals, like raccoons and squirrels, but tiny rodents? That I could do. I syringe-fed both of them several times a day (and during the night, at first), and they were both so incredibly precious. Gizmo was released by me into a local county park (Crane Creek; pictured below). Mortimer ended up self-releasing (in other words, he escaped. :D). I trust that both of them led happy, healthy lives. At least I hope that they did.

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