by Anat Belasen, herpetologist, evolutionary ecologist, Smith Conservation Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Cornell University, U-M EEB Ph.D. alumnus 2019 From Anat M. Belasen, Ph.D. Blog Tis the season to send those anxiety-producing emails out to your science heroes! I’ve gotten a lot of questions recently about the best way to reach out to potential advisors,…
Category: graduate school
EEB volunteers at Feria de Ciencias
by Gail Kuhnlein, communications specialist, University of Michigan, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology As in past years, members of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology volunteered their time and talents to the third Feria de Ciencias, a science fair held completely in Spanish for bilingual school children. The Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics…
UM’s inaugural Biology Week celebration
by the Biology Week Organizing Committee* (names below) The pipette box stacking competition was neck and neck. Biology Week, which was originally started by the Royal Society of Biology in England, is an international celebration of the biosciences. However when Sarah VanDiepenbos, an undergraduate student at UM at the time, saw #BiologyWeek trending on Twitter…
Why teaching Intro Bio makes me think we need to radically change qualifying exams
From Dynamic Ecology by Meghan Duffy, a University of Michigan ecologist and professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology When I first arrived at Michigan and began teaching Intro Bio, the course had four exams. In that first semester, I added in clicker questions. Since then, we have added in frequent quizzing, so…
Cohort-based mentoring for graduate students: a “bright spot” worth emulating?
From Dynamic Ecology by Meghan Duffy, a University of Michigan ecologist and professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology I recently learned about an approach to mentoring that I think has a lot of potential. My initial conversations with others suggests they think it has promise, too. The goal of this post is…
Why I told a room of 300 people that I see a therapist
From Dynamic Ecology by Meghan Duffy, a University of Michigan ecologist and professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Last week, I had the honor of being a plenary speaker at the biology19 conference in Zurich. This is an annual meeting of Swiss organismal biologists, where most of the attendees are Swiss graduate…
More on what colleges must do to promote mental health for graduate students
From Dynamic Ecology by Meghan Duffy, a University of Michigan ecologist and professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Recently, a piece I wrote with my colleagues Carly Thanhouser and Daniel Eisenberg appeared at The Conversation. The piece focuses on things that can be done to promote graduate student mental health. Our aim…
Call for mentors and mentees for #EEBMentorMatch: linking students from underrepresented groups with grad school and fellowship application mentors
From Dynamic Ecology by Meghan Duffy, a University of Michigan ecologist and professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Graduate programs still have a long way to go before they reflect the diversity of society more generally. This is a problem both because it is inherently unjust, and because science is done better…
Four easy tips for preparing a field experiment (Part I)
by Sara Colom, graduate student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan Preparing a successful field project can be boiled down into two major themes, a good experimental design and organization of time and materials. To keep things short and sweet I will go over the experimental design here…
Rain dance for science
By Sara Colom, a University of Michigan graduate student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology The summer of 2017 was a tough year for plants, it was very hot and very dry. Plants not adapted to hot and dry conditions suffered stunted growth, low fertility and premature death, assuming that they managed to…
The detour that led me to a bright future
by Xorla S. Ocloo, a University of Michigan graduate student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology I can’t remember the first time I participated in a STEM outreach as a kid. Maybe it was because I wasn’t exposed to those opportunities or maybe because they weren’t as prevalent or maybe just because I…