We all have to give presentations during our grad school careers, from lab meeting to committee meetings, posters and talks for conferences, and hopefully someday job talks. The difference between a good presentation and a bad one could have a big impact on your career, or at least impress your PI.
Five years’ worth of Biol 200 quarters has gotten Wiggins thinking about what makes a good teacher, especially what makes a good science teacher. And he’s got some ideas about how we can all be better science communicators.
Three quick pieces of advice to TAs from Ben Wiggins, who chatted with us about teaching and talking about science:
1. Come in humble. If you do, you can serve a lot of people. If you come in demanding respect for your position, you will lose people.
2. Be as efficient as you can. The coolest things about teaching won’t happen until the other prep (like planning, grading, etc.) is done.
3. You will make mistakes. Don’t be afraid of them. By making mistakes and accepting it, …
We want to see your best/worst contamination photos!
Understanding why the faculty gender imbalance persists and how it impacts the experiences of women at MCB affiliated institutions.
Many MCB students apply for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, but it is not necessarily the best option for everyone. What if your project is disease based, and therefore likely to be rejected by the NSF? Or you are an international student? Or you simply do not receive the NSF fellowship? There are a variety of other funding sources available, which are summarized here.
Long for this World is an interesting book about aging for a general audience.
The Hubble telescope celebrated its 21st anniversary on Easter Sunday with an image of a galactic rose.
Part of compromise to pass US budget results in reduction in science funding, read more in the most comprehensive description in Nature. Exactly how these budgetary changes will work their way down remains to be seen.
It turns out that solar power may not be the environmental answer we had hoped for, as detailed in this recent article in Miller and McCune.
Apparently whales have songs that are picked up by pods in other places, effectively …
Among graduate students, at least in the biosciences, the numbers of females is equal, if not greater than, the number of males. Yet no one can deny that there are still proportionally fewer female faculty members.
Many of us in science like to do outreach on the side, when we’re able to find the time. Dr. Chudler has built a career out of devoting time equally to both.
Science is tough. It should be. Nature sometimes doesn’t give up the answers without a fight. And if you work on something that doesn’t challenge you, that doesn’t REALLY make you think of a way around a difficult problem, you should find an area that does.
Although I avoided nightmares prior to the exam, I did have a few daytime premonitions of babbling like an idiot in front of my committee, leading the chair to check the “you suck and need to leave the program immediately” box on the exam warrant.
You’ve come to the end of your first year, and have experienced rotations, grad school classes, as well as making new friends and getting settled into Seattle. At this point, you probably feel much more comfortable as a grad student than you did a few short months ago, but there is one hurdle left before you can fully settle in… Choosing a permanent lab.
As per MCB tradition, a group of second year students organized a welcome bbq for the incoming first years early in September at Gas Works park. Students from all class years, program directors and adminstrative staff met and mingled with the new students, enjoying some outside time and some summertime barbeque food.
A group of undergraduates – mentored in part by MCB student Matt Smith – won first place in the Best Health and Medicine category in an international competition. Each year, a group of undergraduates at the University of Washington compete in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM). A team of students works together on a synthetic biology project for the better part of a year, then presents their work at an international conference before other teams and judges.
This year, the team focused on developing two “Twenty-first century antibiotics”. Half …
The newest addition to the Microbiology faculty, Jason Smith comes to Seattle from a postdoc at Scripps Institute in southern California. Surprisingly, he prefers the Seattle climate to San Diego’s, finding changing seasons refreshing after several years of constant sunshine. Having recently become a faculty member, Jason is still becoming accustomed to more time in his office away from the bench.
“The best thing about being a PI is that you have the freedom to do whatever you want,” he says, but adds quickly that it is also the scariest aspect …
Find out about this year’s prize winners, new technology, or some wacky science.
Hard work has paid off, literally, for third year MCB student Xiaoji Chen. At the Small Nucleic Acid Symposium held in October at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Xiaoji was awarded $20,000 for her poster presentation “Functional Genetic Approach to Map Regulatory Networks Governing the Lineage Commitment of Human Hematopoietic Stem Cells.” Competing against post-docs, PIs and other students, Xiaoji was one of eight people chosen for awards by Hutch faculty judges and symposium attendees.
The awards are funded by a pilot …
This is the first installment from our columnist, Nate Peters, who will be writing about outdoors activities in and around Seattle. Check back for information about local hikes or day trips in the Seattle area!
By Nate Peters
Having just visited the Olympic Peninsula after two years of living in Seattle, there are two thoughts in my mind: I can’t believe that I didn’t make the trip sooner and I can’t wait to return. I do love exploring the Cascades and they are much closer to Seattle, but …
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