I had the incredible honor of spending a week at UC Santa Cruz, teaching engineering to 8th-grade girls from the area during an inspiring week of STEAM learning, creating, and sharing. Campers experienced college life with all its challenges and joys—6:00 am showers, racing to the dining hall for meals, and pushing through the fatigue for that last workshop, only to leave with countless new ideas. They encouraged each other and took pride in all they had accomplished. And that was just the first day! The week culminated in an exciting engineering build night. For six wonderful days, the campers set aside their phones to immerse themselves in core classes, workshops, and collaborative activities. We traded likes and comments for laughter and hugs, and in the end, tears of joy.

Super blooms, hay fever, and lots of beautiful colors!

Jim “The Dude” Pire is a genius in a digital lab, cooking up AI images to suit my scientist/teacher personality. I like this one in particular!

7TH GRADE: This is how we learn, and have fun! I have students that are seniors in High School and still remember the lyrics, which means they know the organelles.

I was astounded to meet one of my idols and a relentless source of inspiration to me as a biologist, the living proof that one person can make such a profound difference in the world. I have included  the full discussion which I attended last Friday. I felt such pride presenting her with a jar of honey from my bees for her 80th birthday! I’m happy to share this experience with you. I hope it means half as much to you as it does to me.

I was honored to receive recognition at last year’s gala for The Parent Friendliest Teacher in Oakland. If you are interested in attending or sponsoring – click below the announcement for the registration form!

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Graphing is a valuable high school and college skill – the easiest way to talk about science is to visualize your data! Thanks, Paul for making it easier for my students.