Grad student Stepfanie Aguillon and her collaborators presented a poster this week at the national Teaching as Research Conference. Their study used undergraduates on our Introductory Evolutionary Biology course to explore gender-based differences in student participation. Among the main take-aways: male and female students interact differently in the classroom, with…
We had a great semester of engagement with lots of Cornell undergraduates this Spring! In addition to the many less formal forms of instruction and mentoring to which everybody contributes, people from our group who were involved in official teaching and advising this semester included: Stepfanie Aguillion: Stepfanie led the…
Congratulations to Nick Mason for being recognized as a recipient of the Stephen and Margaret Russell Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences. This award celebrates those “who have demonstrated their devotion to teaching, where teaching is understood to include classroom presence, preparation and administration, student counseling…
This semester a bunch of us are involved in the 5th offering of the Galapagos curriculum for Cornell undergraduates, including a really wonderful voyage through the archipelago over Spring Break. Course leaders include Stepfanie Aguillon who is teaching the associated Freshman Writing Seminar, Natalie Hoffmeister who is teaching the Evolutionary…
We are back from two exciting weeks in Patagonia where Irby and Leo have led for the second consecutive year the field-course portion of “BioEE2525/BioEE2526 Ecology and Conservation of Wildlife in the Neotropics”. Together with co-leaders Roxanne Razavi, David Toews, Natalia García and a group of 12 Cornell students, we…
Probably only at Cornell would you find a regular weekly audience of so many undergrads, grad students, postdocs, and others (71 people total, at yesterday’s first meeting) for a weekly research seminar on bird-related topics! The most recent version of this semester’s full schedule is included below: Ornithology…
Cornell article on our Patagonia field course: http://spring2016.periodicals.cals.cornell.edu/students/new-ecology-course-takes-students-patagonia
Art, Science, and Writing in and about the Galapagos: we just returned from the field component of our three-class curriculum for freshmen that uses the Galapagos Islands as a linked framework for training in writing, evolutionary biology, and artistic expression. My thanks to the course leaders — Liz, Nick, Scott,…
Congratulations to course organizers/leaders Ben Freeman and Alexa Class Freeman, and to the student co-authors, for the first of several scientific papers arising out of their Spring 2015 Advanced Tropical Ornithology course. Back at the curriculum review stage there was some healthy push-back when peer-reviewed student publications were suggested as…
Video highlights from our January 2016 field course in Patagonia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9jGu7ErMsE
Leo Campagna and I are finishing up our trip to Patagonia, where we are setting up logistics for our forthcoming field course and generally having a great time with both wildlife and Leo’s friends and family here in his home town of Puerto Madryn. Right whales, elephant seals, guanacos, grisson,…
Travelogue video from our Spring 2015 Galapagos courses for freshmen — these include a trip through the archipelago as well as intensive coverage of evolutionary biology (BioEE1780, 5 credits) and the humanities (through a writing course centered on the perspectives of different travelers on Galapagos, WRIT1430, 3 credits). Courses and…
Two members of our group–Postdoc Leo Campagna and PhD student Nick Mason–just returned from leading a special multi-day genomics course at the Universidad Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City. Their course, taught in Spanish to a large and enthusiastic cadre of students and researchers, was an “Introducción a los…
Irby just returned from the Galapagos after helping to lead the 2015 ‘Galapagos Curriculum’ for 12 Cornell freshmen, in partnership with grad students Nick Mason and Lina Arcila. As the students returned to campus, Irby stayed on to lead two very fun voyages around the archipelago for Lab of Ornithology…
Grad student Ben Freeman and postdoc Alexa Class are in the final week of teaching Cornell’s first-ever Advanced Tropical Ornithology course this semester to a group of juniors and seniors, including a very successful expedition to Costa Rica over Spring Break where the students conducted a series of robust independent…
Nick is back from Galapagos along with the 12 freshmen in our “Galapagos curriculum,” an 8-credit series of Humanities and Science courses that includes the Spring Break trip to the Galapagos. Irby carries on in Galapagos leading two back-to-back trips for Lab of Ornithology members.
Irby and Nick are spending the first week of April (i.e., Spring Break) in Galapagos along with the 12 Cornell freshmen enrolled in our two-course Galapagos curriculum. Boobies, tortoises, finches, penguins, iguanas, and much more await!
Irby and Leo will co-lead a new undergraduate seminar and field course entitled “Ecology and Conservation of Wildlife in the Neotropics” in Fall 2015. The course will meet throughout the Fall semester, and then have a two-week field learning component in wildlife-rich coastal Patagonia in January 2016. Students who want…
Thanks to Nick for helping coordinate the Center for Teaching Excellence UWide Teaching Conference, in which he also led a workshop on Experiential Learning that featured our field courses in Kenya & the Galapagos.
Irby Lovette, Becca Brunner, and Nick Mason are in Galapagos over Spring Break with the 12 freshmen enrolled in their semester-long Galapagos curriculum: a 5-credit version of the Introductory Evolution course and a 3-credit Freshman Writing Seminar.