Poor Skelly . . .
The Art of Possibility
I had the opportunity to attend a couple of fantastic events this week sponsored by ieSonoma (Innovate, Educate, Sonoma).
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:
Read moreStudent Artwork
As the semester winds to an end, I thought I’d share some artwork . . . a couple of things I drew for my students during finals week:
Concept Art
Before there was a Teacup Rex blog, there was concept artwork. At the time, I never intended to use this as a blog of my own . . . I was just squatting on the URL so I could sell it for millions of dollars someday, when some genetic genuis finally engineers a tiny T. rex. (And yeah, I’d still sell it for the right price haha), but I’m glad to have an actual blog here now. And also some cute artwork (drawn by me).
Intro Bio Student Comments
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:
“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
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:
Animals of Our Creeks, Rivers, and Marshes
Had an amazing evening with some of the folks at the Sonoma Land Trust – They graciously invited me to speak as part of their 40th anniversary speaker’s series, and I gave a talk on wildlife in freshwater habitats in Sonoma County. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!
What a great audience . . . they were engaged, and they laughed at my stupid jokes (hahaha), and then they asked me nearly an hour’s worth of questions after I finished my presentation. Really grateful for this opportunity to talk about some of the cool critters we have living in our local waters! (And I learned loads of stuff from them, as well . . . it was a wonderfully well-informed bunch of people). The SLT folks were all really wonderful, too. *hugs* SO MUCH FUN!!!!
Whoa.
Just sent off both my final exams to be printed by the campus copy shop, and I’m totally caught up on grading (as much as I can be before a bunch of new stuff arrives on my desk next week). But as of right now, I am completely caught up. For the first time in several months. Feels good, but I’m not sure what to do with myself, really. (Except that it’s almost 3 a.m., so probably going to bed would be an A+++ plan). 
😀
Sheepdogs Protect Penguins on Australian Island
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
I’ve been invited to speak . . .
. . . as part of the Sonoma Land Trust’s 40th Anniversary Speaker’s Series. I’m super excited about this opportunity – any chance to talk about cool local wildlife sounds amazing to me! Information from their website reproduced below.
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