By the time the York University leadership cancelled in-person classes on Friday March 13, 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, I already knew that in-person April exams would inevitably be cancelled, along with in-person Summer Semester courses: the novel virus SARS-CoV-2 was entering its exponential growth phase by the time the pandemic was […]
Invasives
Envirothon is a team-based environmental science high school contest
The Toronto Envirothon Workshop at #YorkUniversity on April 13, 2017. Envirothons are team-based #HighSchool science competitions that have been around for decades in Canada & the USA. Students form clubs supervised by dedicated teachers, and learn about #Forestry, #Wildlife, #AquaticBiology & #soilscience. A one day, intensive workshop runs ahead of the local, regional competition. The […]
Gardening for biodiversity & local food in Carolinian Canada
Two excellent Canadian documentaries, The End of Suburbia (2004) and Escape from Suburbia (2007), discuss the enormous implications of our unsustainable North American car culture, which has spawned sprawling suburbs and gridlock in southwestern Ontario, and the Greater Toronto Area. These films include fascinating conversations with "futurists" about how people will convert their (sub)urban lawns into vegetable patches to grow local […]
More public science: appearing on the ZDF series, Infestation!
I doubted that much could top discovering that my 2013 Skype chat about plant defences got me a movie credit in a science fiction feature film! But, you never can tell where science outreach and engagement will take you. Just a few weeks after hearing about my Botanical Consultant film credit, some of my other Public Science led to just as unexpected an […]
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 […]
Where do professors go every 7 years? Professor Shibani Chaudhury's sabbatical
The biggest perk of being a tenured professor has got to be the sabbatical. Every 7 years, we have the chance to finish research, including writing papers and books, learn new things, meet new colleagues and find new collaborators. Often, given the hours that many academics work, their sabbatical is also a chance to breathe, and catch up […]
Restoring the globally rare black oak savanna ecosystem in High Park Toronto
Getting back to field work at #BioBlitz2015 in the Don River Watershed
I took up field work for the 2nd time this season at the Ontario Bioblitz flagship event on the Don Watershed. The Ontario Science Centre was the HQ. I was joined by Vithuja Vijayakanthan, one of my remaining 2 graduate students from my IRIS director days. Her research, looks at the inherent tensions between the Bioblitz as a research vehicle, and […]
Lab Alumnus: Dr. Andrew Tanentzap
The sub-title for this post is: Andrew's main Hobby is doing science all the time! Dr. Tanentzap, who is a Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, has been very busy in the last couple of weeks, since his latest paper, with Mark Vicari & myself was published in Biology Letters. It's all about how moose […]
The ecological benefits of backyard chickens
Visiting central Massachusetts is always fun. There are loads of higher education institutions, such Harvard Forest (Harvard University), where I spent 6 months during my last sabbatical, University of Massachusetts Amherst campus, Smith College, Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, and Hampshire College, all located near each other, with lots of interactions and collaborations. Last weekend, I […]
