Teaching

Interactive & Hands-On Experiences

Electric Ecosystems: Grow your own glowing mushrooms

The mushroom that glows in the dark! Panellus stipticus is a bioluminescent fungi that is
easily cultivated and displays reliable glowing properties. Our goal in this workshop is to make log cultures you can take home to grow into your own glowing mushrooms!

GLOWSTICK REINCARNATION: Making art from trash

A lot of music & art festivals tend to have pretty messy attendants. For whatever reason, people seem to litter when they party outdoors. This workshop intends to help reduce the waste associated with festival events by encouraging attendees to reuse glowsticks they find on the ground. By installing a few "glowstick recycling centers" (decorated trashcans) around the festival during the weekend, we can crowdsource free materials for sculpture making. The workshop starts by cleaning dirty glowsticks, then collaborating on building a large design by linking as many glowsticks as possible into one large sculpture.

Hitch hikers guide to the scientific literature

A series of slides, moderated Q&A sessions and group exercises developed for the UCSB Graduate Biology Mentorship Association. Target audience is sophomore biology majors or anyone interested in gaining the skills to read peer-reviewed journal articles.