Latest Posts

  • Educational data are in…and they look good

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    We are in annual report time for the grant. Having a hard deadline to look at accomplishments and shortcomings once per year does wonders for a better understanding of where we are. But this year I was not looking forward it. Last year we had lots of material to show, from developing curriculum to the…

  • Is Recycling a Myth?

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    As educators of science in a world of viral headlines and information overload, it is sometimes hard to separate the process of science from scientists and people in the orbit of science. My students especially, who are overwhelmingly working adults with real life experiences and concerns, will often bring bring valuable discussions to class. More…

  • More COVID-19 Impacts

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    We’ve mentioned the impacts of COVID-19 on our field trips, but the overall purpose of this project–determining the impact of plastic pollution on coastal microbes–is more urgent than ever. As reported by Scientific American, increased use of personal protective equipment and other single-use plastic products, such as takeout containers, has drastically increased the amount of…

  • Plastic wars

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    When we bring our students to the field trip they ALWAYS ask about recycling and ways to prevent ocean plastic pollution. One of the beauties of our project is that it touches everybody, not only science majors. Because, of course, plastic pollution of the ocean affects everybody. We always have great discussions about global solutions,…

  • Did you try to contact us? Please do it again…

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    Technology is our friend until it is not…We received notifications of contact forms submitted, but turns out we had to upgrade the form program in order to see the entries. And when it was upgraded, it erased the existing entries. Argh! So please, if you filled out the contact form before, could you do it…

  • Virtual Presentation for EB2020

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    Well, EB2020 (ASBMB 2020) did not happen in sunny San Diego as planned due to Covid-19. I was looking forward the conference both for myself, my students (one of them was going to the student poster competition), and my wonderful ASBMB Science Outreach Committee people and all the planned activities. But as many other conferences,…

  • Updates in Covid Times

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    This is a quick update of where we are at now with the Covid pandemic. Needless to say, pretty much everything is on standby now. Conferences we planned for presenting data were canceled (was really looking forward EB2020 being in San Diego), DNA to be sequenced is sitting in the freezer, and with no access…

  • 2020: New Year New Phase New Goals

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    As we enter the second year of our NSF grant, new opportunities and challenges are coming our way. With the logistics of regular SIO field trips and student assessments established, the focus is now on both deepening the science and disseminating the CURE model. With the latter, we have been juggling multiple hats from getting…

  • More conferences and workshops

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    It’s hard to believe January is well over half gone! Ana and I have been quite busy going to workshops and conferences to share our news and experiences. I attended a grantsmanship workshop January 9-10 hosted by the NSF STEM Hub at Miramar College in San Diego, where I had the privilege to share our…

  • Education Research Results and Presentations

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    Ana and I are “dividing and conquering” in terms of sharing results. I am at the American Society for Microbiology’s annual meeting presenting our preliminary results on student outcomes while Ana is at a Gordon Research Conference doing the same. Some cool findings: We also asked students a number of retrospective survey questions about their…