Schmitt Fellow Blogs

One of my big pet-peeves is when people use the term global warming as an excuse for why they don’t believe in global climate change.  Global warming is a loaded term, as warming brings up ideas of everyday weather as opposed to long-term climatic trends.  At least that’s how I’ve always felt, but I don’t have any proof or science to back up my opinion.

That is, until now.  A forthcoming article in the quarterly Journal of Public Opinion shows that more people state they believe in climate change than in global warming.  For a brief review of the journal article, check:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110308173242.htm

AJ

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Hello!

My name is Sheri Sanders and I am a first year Ph.D. student at the University of Notre Dame, and I am a herpetological phylogeneticist.  Ever since I was a small child, it was my dream to be a herpetological phylogeneticist, much to the dismay of my parents…

That’s a lie.  I actually didn’t even know what “phylogenetics” was until I was about 21 years old.  I knew that I liked reptiles (“herpetology” is the study of reptiles) and that I really liked naming and placing things within an easily understandable maps of relationships (“phylogentics” is the study of evolutionary relationships and, basically, the making of species trees).  However, I also loved pretty much anything remotely related to biology and ended up wandering around in the field for a while before I found my home.  I have been a tiger keeper, biology/anatomy teacher, elephant behaviorist, hyena poop researcher, monkey brain mapper, veterinary student, and amature computer programmer.  I had very little idea of what real research was and how various fields differed and interacted when I started college, and I was always hesitant to give up on any of my passions.

wandering the field… I wonder if these Zebra have the answers…

A pretty divergence into monkey brains

Field work with Sabine Map Turtles

This is where this blog comes in.  I have managed to navigate my career into a intersection between numerous fields, namely computer science, evolution, and ecology sprinkled with a pinch of mathematical modeling, composition, and now educational outreach.  This happened partly by luck, partly by persistence, and partly by sheer stubbornness.  It is my hope that you will join me in learning the ins and outs of what I have gotten myself into and how to straddle the line of disciplines.

Basically, I want to break down the walls between the lab and the classroom as well as the boundaries between subjects, exposing pre-college students and teachers to options I would have loved to know about before college.  I hope we can work together to accomplish this lofty, but attainable, goal!

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On last Tuesday (Feb 22, 2011), Dr. Jason McLachlan, an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Notre Dame talked about Conservation and Climate Change at our monthly Science Cafe.  It was the biggest crowd I’ve seen at a Science Cafe (I’ve been co-organizing the Cafe since September of 2010), with approximately 90% of the audience being first time attendees.  The Science Cafe organizers were really excited about this turnout and the level of interest in the audience – Jason wasn’t able to get through all of his slides because the discussion between the speaker and the audience was so stimulating.

In case you haven’t been able to attend some Cafe’s due to scheduling conflicts, don’t worry – you can watch every Science Cafe from the comfort of your living room.  On NDiTunes, there is a Science Cafe podcast which allows you to download audio-vizual files of previous science cafes.  I just posted the podcast from Dr. McLachlan’s cafe (apologies for the audio, there was some distortion in the microphone so the quality isn’t the best) and I also posted a podcast from Dr. Ed Bensman’s talk about modelling climate change that he presented in October (we thought that this had been posted a long time ago, but it is now finally available!)

If you’re hoping to watch a podcast, you can do so by following this guide:

0.  Install iTunes

1.  Access the iTunes store (don’t worry, the podcasts are free)

2.  Click on the tab for iTunes U at the top of the iTunes store

3.  Click on the Universities & Colleges iTunes U quicklink at the top right of iTunes

4.  Click on the University of Notre Dame link

5.  Click on the Science Link under the Categories tab (approximately 1/4 of the way down the page)

6.  Click the Science Cafe thumbnail

7.  Select which podcast you want to watch and click play (or you can subscribe to the podcast to automatically receive updates).

Please let me know (areisin1@nd.edu) if you have any questions or concerns regarding the podcasts or the Science Cafe in general.

Also, I am going to be starting a personal blog with a different username (ajreisinger) but am still having some difficulties posting on multiple blogs with this username, so keep an eye out for my other blog.

Have a great weekend.

AJ

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Here’s an interesting article about genetically modified (GM) foods from a NY times food blog:

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/why-arent-g-m-o-foods-labeled/?smid=tw-bittman&seid=auto

I’m interested in this issue because my lab has done a lot of work on how GM corn enters streams and may negatively effect stream invertebrates.  Additionally, there’s a decent amount of research going on in my lab studying Pacific salmon effects on stream ecosystems.  The articles my advisor has written about GM corn have drawn a lot of press and there was quite a bit of backlash from the agricultural community.  Just an interesting issue to keep in mind.

AJ

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Hey everyone,

My name is AJ Reisinger.  I am a first year Ph.D. student in the Biological Sciences Department at Notre Dame.  I study stream biogeochemistry and ecosystem ecology in the lab of Dr. Jennifer Tank. You can see our website at http://nd.edu/~tanklab/Index.htm/Home.html.  I am very interested in interacting with K-12 educators to form a collaboration between graduate research and K12 education.  I am hoping to hear from some teachers as to what types of interactions would be most beneficial to them from a graduate student.  Some ideas were for me to blog about my research in terms of how I am using the scientific method to design my experiment and draw conclusions.  I’m really looking forward to becoming involved in the Michiana STEM network; any ideas anyone might have to facilitate collaborations are appreciated.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Showing off my bruised hand after a day of sampling on the Henry's Fork

AJ Reisinger

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This blog will be a place for any current or former Schmitt Fellow to update the community on exciting research projects, outreach activities, or anything else that’s on their mind.  The organizers of this blog are AJ Reisinger (areisin1@nd.edu) and Kerri Citterbart (kcitterb@nd.edu).  We are hoping to develop an extensive network that allows Schmitt fellows to interact with each other and the greater ND extended research community.  There are multiple projects that we’re interested in initiating, more on that to come later.  I just wanted to let everyone know the purpose of this blog; hopefully it will greatly improve the interaction between the Schmitt fellows and the ND/South Bend Community.

-AJ

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