Category: Shared

Sonoma State University hosts largest youth campus tour ever

- Wendy Leave a comment

Here’s an article in the Press Democrat about the outreach I took part in last week at SSU:

Photo from Press Democrat
ELOÍSA RUANO GONZÁLEZ

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | July 13, 2017, 9:13PM

It was a campus takeover.

Hundreds of elementary and middle school children swarmed the cafeteria, dorms, quads and halls of Sonoma State University Thursday for what’s becoming an annual tradition.

It’s the second year the Rohnert Park campus has hosted “I Am the Future Day” for the Sacramento nonprofit Roberts Family Development Center, which provides academic and other services to hundreds of economically disadvantaged children and their families. The event is intended to give children a “taste of college” to encourage them to pursue higher education.

 

You can read the entire article here: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/7185718-181/sonoma-state-gives-kids-taste?artslide=0

The Art of Possibility

- Wendy St. John Leave a comment

I had the opportunity to attend a couple of fantastic events this week sponsored by ieSonoma (Innovate, Educate, Sonoma).

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On Tuesday night, I attended the keynote address: “The Art of Possibility” by Benjamin Zander. He is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, and he’s also an inspirational speaker who encourages a great deal of participation from his audience. Right from the start, he got us involved by inviting anyone who chose to do so to come up and sit on the stage with him. It seemed like a good idea, so my friend, Kandis, and I both decided to take him up on his offer. (You’ll see me in some of the photos below . . . I’m wearing a purple shirt). These photos were grabbed from the SSU Department of Education’s Flickr:

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Intro Bio Student Comments

- Wendy St. John Leave a comment

This semester, one of the questions I asked on the final exam (to give them a freebie) was to ask them their favorite organism that we looked at during the course. I’m posting a few of my favorite responses here.

I found this one particularly touching:

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“Thank You. You’ve actually caught my interests in science, which I never felt smart enough for. You’re also one of the most understanding and empathetic professors I’ve had, which helped with my severe anxiety disorder.” 

This is so important to me. Being able to touch people’s lives in a positive way . . . well, that’s why I’m doing this. It feels really good to know that, at least some of the time, I’m hitting the mark.

Asexual Plant

- Wendy St. John Leave a comment

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I received this gift on the last day of class from one of my biology students. She’d grown it from a cutting . . . not only is the plant adorable, but it came with this (scientifically accurate!) caption:

“Asexual plants: only 1 parent required. Parent passes all its genes to offspring. Identical offspring, splits the contents of one cell into two.”

This makes me so happy. 🙂

 

 

Later, I found this comment at the bottom of her final exam:

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Sheepdogs Protect Penguins on Australian Island

- Wendy St. John Leave a comment

I used this story to end the semester in Conservation Biology (it seemed appropriate – I started the semester with penguins, so I thought I’d end that way, too). I’m really just posting it here, though, for the gratuitous cuteness of the dog and the baby penguin. It is a presh story, and worth reading, though.

“The Maremma sheepdog is a livestock guardian dog breed from Italy that has protected sheep from wolves for centuries. These dogs are also the devoted guardians of a colony of Little penguins, the smallest penguin species, on a small Australian island called Middle Island. Why do these penguins need guard dogs? Check out this amazing story.”

Read the entire article here: https://www.animalhearted.com/blogs/animal-blog/69457347-sheepdogs-protect-penguins-on-australian-island

Dragon Genetics Student Artwork

- Wendy St. John Leave a comment

Screen Shot 2017-03-22 at 12.29.59 AM.pngOne of the assignments I give my intro biology students is called “Dragon Genetics,” in which they determine the alleles (versions of genes) that a baby dragon will inherit from its parents. Then, I ask them to create an accurate image of the dragon, based on the inherited traits. Most of the students use a dollmaker (from this site). Here’s one I created as an example:

I love to see their dollmaker dragons, but occasionally, I’ll have a few students who do the artwork entirely by hand. Here are some examples from this semester:

Pretty spectacular, eh?

SAFE Western Pond Turtle Video

- Wendy St. John 2 Comments

I might be biased, but this is a fantastic video about western pond turtles . . . the segment starting at 5:00 features the field site where I did my thesis research. The fellow being interviewed is my advisor, Nick Geist. And that’s your’s truly measuring the turtles in preparation to release them back into the lake. SO FAMOUS! 🙂