Of Mites and Men

Some things just make you say "wow"

2009-01-11T12:32:00.004-07:00

Today's image of the day from NASA is of Saturn, looking back sunward and taken by the Cassini probe. It's exaggerated color, sure, but it's just stunning.

You can see Earth pretty well just above the main ring system and to the left, and I think the small red dot to the bottom right is Mars. It's a pretty amazing photo, and really makes you think about how really insignificant all our fighting and wars are in the grand scheme of things.

We really dodged a bullet...

2009-01-09T12:55:00.002-07:00

Apparently McCain doesn't understand why anyone would want to conduct basic research.

I'm no expert, but it seems like two organisms that have important economic impact in their respective regions of the country would be worth throwing some money at to understand. Olive fruit flies are apparently quite the pest in California, so it makes sense to do research on them where they're native (the mediterranean), and why pick on poor lobsters?

Now obviously I can't see the future, so I can't guarantee that Obama is going to be light-years ahead of McCain on science policy, but judging from his appointments to scientific advisory positions he's on the right track. Perhaps in the future we'll get to see a nice article about McCain shaking his fist and yelling for "them durned kids to get off my lawn".

A belated farewell to 2008

2009-01-08T13:37:00.004-07:00

2008 was a pretty good year, overall. Despite finding out how awful working nights really is, especially when there's little or no work to stay occupied with, I did manage to meet some interesting people and enjoy my time there. And then the fall brought the start of my doctorate, and my move to Colorado.

Part of the trouble with academia thus far has been the reality that the friends you make are going to move away, or you are going to move away, and then you see them only occasionally at conferences or when you can schedule time to travel. The benefit is that people are always coming in and out of a given university, so there's always an opportunity to meet new people as new students start. In this sense I've been fortunate to meet a host of individuals that I'm happy to consider friends.

My first teaching experience went quite well--my students were all pretty attentive and I never had any major disruptions from any of them. I enjoyed getting to know them all and did my best to try and introduce them to the wide host of topics we had to cover, while not being too terrible when it came time for quizzes and practicals. I'd like to think they learned something from me, especially as they were very helpful in letting me know what did and didn't work as I tried to figure out the whole teaching thing.

On the coursework side of things, I did quite well--I'm pleased with my performance. A's in my Foundations of Ecology and Pedology courses, and an A- in statistics. I learned quite a bit about the different subfields of ecology that I haven't really been exposed to (I'm mostly familiar with community ecology), and it was extremely helpful to have a good overview of soils, since that's kind of what I do now. Plus it didn't hurt to come away with a 3.87ish GPA for the first semester--especially since I'm not used to having ever seen numbers like that on my transcript before.

My new labgroup is great, as is my advisor. The people in the department as a whole, and the cohort we operate within for ecological work are vibrant and engaging, and it's great to see what everyone does and how it all fits together. Moving to Colorado may have made certain things more difficult than they otherwise would have been, but nothing that can't be solved, and there's no doubt in my mind that it was the right thing to do.

With any luck, 2009 will be as good as 2008 was! If I can stick to my intentions, I'll also update much more regularly, possibly even with more diverse topics!

Ending the term

2008-12-11T02:35:00.001-07:00

So far, one final done (pedology--should have an A in the course), and both of my practicals administered. Now I just have to grade them and get the laboratory marks taken care of, and then it's just a paper for Foundations and the dreaded Stat-511 final.

Home on the 20th!

What were they thinking?

2008-10-15T14:42:00.002-06:00

Who decided I'd be a good mentor figure, and what made them think that would be a good idea?

What it all boils down to (so far)

2008-10-12T18:00:00.000-06:00

It seems like the #1 skill to learn during this whole ordeal isn't anything to do with ecology or research (necessarily). It's an elaborate game to teach you how to manage time effectively. I'm not losing, per se, but I'm certainly not at the front of the pack. Yet.

Semester 1 mid-term update!

2008-10-09T21:53:00.000-06:00

So I've got half of my exams back (one) and my teaching evaluation done for the term so far.

So to recap, I'm taking Pedology (soil science), Foundations of ecology (discussion-based course, no exams) and Statistics for Researchers. I think I'm doing pretty well in all of my classes--no troubles in any of them, really. Discussion questions of mine are fairly regularly picked to get put up on the powerpoint presentation to be discussed (we email questions ahead of time, so that he can choose ones that will be good for discussion), and my stats average is around a 96 or so for my homework.

So today we got our first midterm back for stats, and I managed to pull a 92. I think the average was an 82 (I'm not sure, I cut out after the exams were handed back--I don't really attend my stats lecture normally), and only 25 of ~80 students got above a 90, so I'm feeling pretty good. I get my pedology exam back tomorrow, but it was pretty easy, so I'm not too worried.

The big one for me, I think, was my teaching evaluation. I've never taught before, as McGill had very few TA positions available within my department, and they gave precedence to Canadian citizens first. So when I got this Teaching Assistantship position for this term (with the ability to be re-appointed next term, depending on my marks and my evaluation), I was pretty happy. First, it gives me teaching experience, which is good since I want to remain in academia after I get my degree. But it also comes with a nice stipend ($1,400 or so net, for ~20 hours of work) and the biology department pays my tuition (barring student fees) and half of my health insurance premium.

So last night the lab coordinator for the biology department snuck into my lab and observed me teaching, and then watched me interact with my students for a bit and then would ask them what they thought of me while I was on the other side of the room from them and pre-occupied. I've got two labs, and my wednesday evening lab is my larger one, so there were more students for her to pull from, which also lends to having a wider range of how those students felt about me.

So in her estimation, I'm doing a pretty good job. I know the material, I explain what they have to do well, and I help them out and answer questions very well, and allow them to ask them. All I have to work on is varying my tone a bit more, and slowing down my speech, as well as getting more class involvement going. So I have to get them to answer more questions during the lecture part of my lab, and make it interactive. I can handle that.

My students (who I have no idea who she ended up speaking to) all gave pretty glowing reviews. The only negative thing they had to say was that I need to vary my tone a bit. One girl apparently thinks I'm the best TA she's got this term. Considering most of my students are freshmen and not really all that familiar with university yet, and that I'm one of the first instructors they really have to deal with, I'm going to take that as a pretty big compliment. They all seemed to think that I do a good job of not acting like I'm above them and that I'm extremely helpful and engaging during the lab.

So all in all, I'm feeling pretty good. I love where I am, and what I'm doing, and I honestly do wake up every day grateful that I get to do this. Getting grades back from a fairly difficult class, and then having a pretty good overall evaluation of my teaching skills has definitely re-affirmed my belief that I've found something I'm pretty good at.

Now to get my manuscripts out and published....

The state of the semester

2008-09-29T17:13:00.002-06:00

This is my first term here at CSU, and so I will include all the details of what classes I'm taking, and what else occupies my time here.

I'm enrolled in:
Stat-511, which is basically SAS (a statistical software package) 101
Pedology, an intro into soil science
Foundations of Ecology, where we have lecture over how ecology is done and the ideas tossed around in it, and then discuss journal papers dealing with those topics on the other day of class.

In addition to this, I'm TAing two lab sections of the introductory biology class that covers plant and animal organismal biology. I've got evening labs, so they're fairly small, which is nice.

In the free time I do have, I'm attempting to get my two manuscripts from my masters sorted out and ready for publication. I also try and do little things to help my advisor when she requests assistance, such as finding articles to meet a certain topic for a talk she's going to give, or looking over a grant proposal.

I've also taken up cycling. I figure, there's a lot of open land here, and I'd rather not end up sedentary like I did during my masters, and biking for an hour or so a few times a week is pretty decent cardio. So I bought a bike two weeks ago.

It's also nice to be around graduate students again, and have that sort of culture of people who are similarly driven and interested in topics close to those that pique my curiosity. There's just something about the atmosphere of a college town that's invigorating, as well. It's especially amusing given it's an election year, and so both factions are fighting it out to get their viewpoints heard. Regardless of how it ends up, it will be nice to be voting in a state that's actually on the fence, for once.

The beginning of our story

2008-09-28T20:07:00.002-06:00

My intent with this blog is to document my pursuit of a doctoral degree in soil ecology. In part I suppose it's a bit hubristic to assume anyone would want to read this sort of thing, but on the other hand it's also a document for myself. As I look back at my life, and consider where I was and what my goals were upon completing my bachelor's degree in 2004, and look at where I am now and what my goals are, I find that the image I get isn't necessarily flattering, however I suppose looking at one's past rarely is.

I would define my masters study as "the right thing for the wrong reasons". That is to say, I'm terribly glad I did it, I had an awful lot of fun in the process, and I met a great number of exceptional people. It has helped shape me into who I am today. But I was naive in my reasons for getting the degree, and in a way it pains me to think that it really may have boiled down primarily to "I don't want to go into the 'real world' because it's a scary place". I loved the research aspect of it early on, to be sure, and I've long wanted to be a scientist, but I can't help but wonder how things would have turned out had I gotten a job for a year or two prior to returning to academia.

So this blog will be for me to recount how my PhD progresses; the ups and downs, my relationship with my advisor, committee members and peers in graduate study. I also hope to use it to put down some of my thoughts on matters scientific, social and especially on ecology. I suspect that while I may have some claim to expertise on the latter (and by some association, of course, the former), the middle one there will be where I'm most vulnerable to criticism. Such is life.

As I mentioned, I am a soil ecologist. Of a sort. My masters thesis examined the community ecology of oribatid mites, tiny arachnids that inhabit the soil and leaf litter of nearly every ecosystem on earth. They help promote nutrient cycling and play an active role in decomposer communities, although to what extent that role is remains unclear. I have looked at how tree-species identity in aboveground systems influences the species richness, abundance and composition of these little creatures, and how these aspects of their communities are affected by the depth of the litter layer that makes up their habitat.

For my PhD work, I am hoping to investigate what role the biodiversity of oribatids has in regulating or contributing to nutrient cycling processes, and if biodiversity does matter, whether it is due to species identities (i.e. what species are present) or merely to species number (i.e. how many are present). I'm also hoping to add in a component involving nematodes, which are omnipresent within all soils, and fortunately my advisor specializes in this field. If I'm really lucky, I may even get to do some work on such "controversial" subjects as global climate change.

So in short, for anyone reading this, I thank you. I can't promise that every moment will be interesting, but hopefully if someone who is looking to follow a similar course as I stumbles upon this, it should prove useful.