Outreach and Service
Outreach
From making videos to inform the world to participating in SciComm Outreach at local venues, I enjoy all types of outreach. One of my favorite activities for outreach is scraping off the fouling community from a dock and showing folks all the wonderful critters that live there. Watching parents and their children be amazed at the diversity of sea life is truly wonderful. I have had the privilege of displaying these animals to elementary schools, colleges, and local community events in Florida, Texas, and North Carolina. Recently, I have also developed two activities (~45 min each) for students (ages 12-18) to learn about deep-sea animal morphology and ecology.
Posterior end of a phyllodocid annelid from Galveston Island, Texas.
These worms use their large paddle-like parapodia for locomotion.
Readjusting a dish under a microscope to show a nereid worm on the screen.
Nereid worms are common members of fouling communities along the Gulf Coast.
Spionid annelid of Galveston Island, Texas.
These worms leave most of their body inside a tube and use long palps for feeding.
Service
While at Texas A&M University in Galveston, I had the privilege of sharing my passion for marine invertebrates with undergraduates by instructing the Introductory Biology (I & II) and Invertebrate Zoology laboratory sections. I also acted as a consultant for revamping the Introductory Biology labs after I had taught them. Whenever, I have the chance, I have a tendency to show people worms and teach them about their anatomy. During my M.Sc. studies at Nova Southeastern University, I also taught invertebrate and juvenile fish anatomy to volunteers for the USGS. In the past two years, I have written press releases and science journalism stories to attempt to better my science communication skills.
A group of undergraduates in the Marine Invertebrate Zoology Course sifting through sediment looking for macrofauna.
Here I am aboard the RVIB Nathaniel B. Palmer holding a very large marine scaleworm in the Southern Ocean.