Every November and December, the news fills with reports about the United Nations climate change talks. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC, is one of two main international platforms where climate climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation are addressed, the other being the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Kyoto Protocol and […]
Higher Education
The Awesome Applied Plant Ecology Students of Fall Term 2016
My 24th and final 2016 blog post is a shout-out to the amazing students who took my 4th year Applied Plant Ecology course (BIOL 4095), in Fall Term, from September 2016 to a couple of weeks ago. Many of you are pictured above in the last class in early December. Not only did you embrace blogging, tweeting […]
The Canadian Expert Women Database: why it's worth plodding through online forms
My secret vice is reading Clive Cussler adventure paperbacks. I enjoy the way that they weave science, travel, and history together with ludicrous James Bond style heroes and villains. I recently came across the statistic in a Cussler novel, which is very probably rooted in research, that only about 10% of the information in the world's libraries has been digitized, and […]
August 15 post: Biodiversity & Watershed Management Field Course
The 2016 Biodiversity and Watershed Management field course that ran in the first half of July was awesome! This exclusive course is tailored for YorkU students who can't get away from their weekend summer jobs to go on pricey field courses in distant locations. Read the student blog: Urban Watershed Management & Biodiversity I made the posters for […]
#WomenInSTEM Resources for the Symposium for Women Entering Ecology & Evolution Today (SWEEET)
Nearly 100 early career ecologists and evolutionary biologists, plus a helping of mid to late career folks, many of us with jet-lag, made it to a lecture hall in Memorial University's Education Building for SWEEET 2016's 09:00 start on Thursday July 7th 2016 . Participant ages ranged from a few months old to mid-70s! We were fortunate that the Canadian […]
Resources for understanding implicit bias & other barriers to #WomenInSTEM
Also published at YorkU Women In STEM blog. In the last few years, we have seen a new wave of awareness and data about the ongoing challenges faced by Women in STEM. Many of the insights about their subtle nature come from peer-reviewed research by colleagues in the social sciences. They deal with diverse topics, ranging from implicit or unconscious bias, […]
@YorkuScientists project wants you!
Project Page -- Check Availability of Dates -- Sign Up Form Many STEM researchers and teachers have found found Twitter to be an efficient and effective way of communicating about their work with each other, and a broader audience. In addition to individuals tweeting, the institutional account is also a thing. But, as many institutions discover, creating and […]
#ProfChat: Male undergrads think that the smartest Biology student in the class is unlikely to be female
One of the reasons for the renewed interest in addressing systemic barriers to women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is a plethora of recent social sciences peer-reviewed research into implicit or unconscious bias, stereotype threat, and the Dunning Kruger Effect. I think that Ben Schmidt has created the most compelling data visualization tool for illustrating […]
Why academics should regularly attend conferences where we don't present our work. Pt 1
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics), one always presents new research at every conference one attends. (Or at the very least, one must be a co-author on a talk or poster). Growing up as an ecological researcher, I've observed that there are two main reason for this ALWAYS […]
Prof. Marc Spooner's next course should be "Best practices in conference organizing"
I fell behind with my blogs at the end of June, when my back pain flared up. I'd probably gone a bit overboard with driving and sitting/standing, and I spent Canada Day flat on my back, groaning. I'm again doing well with moving around and having the energy to stand and work. so I'm dealing with my 2 missing July posts, by (1) updating the […]
