Geology and geophysics department hosts reunion conference
Almost 200 people, including 70 alumni along with current students and faculty of the geology and geophysics department, assembled for a weekend’s reunion and conference in November. The conference, “Future Challenges for the Earth Sciences,” featured panels on the Earth’s origin and interior; resources and energy; geological evidence on past climates; recent studies concerning climatic change; and biogeochemistry and the evolution of terrestrial and marine life. Speakers included alumni of four decades who represented distinguished institutions of research and higher education as well as private industry. Current students presented their research in a poster session.
Neurobiology students have brains, will travel
Once a month, a group of Yale graduate students take their brains on the road. Equipped with brain models, brain cell slides and microscopes, and other brain-related items, they visit middle- and high-school science classes to share some of what they know about the workings of the human brain. The outreach program, led by third-year neurobiology student Amanda Foust and second-year interdepartmental neuroscience program student Seth Taylor, aims to instill enthusiasm for the scientific process while disseminating information. It also provides an opportunity for graduate students to “practice communicating science to the broader community—a valuable survival skill that prepares us for the challenges of writing grant proposals and explaining scientific findings to the media and other community audiences,” says Foust. Each classroom session involves a brief introductory lecture, a game that reinforces the basic principles of brain cell function, and interactive exhibits. The initiative began several years ago with classroom visits by Yale neurobiology and INP students during Brain Awareness Week, a Dana Foundation campaign held in March to increase public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research.
Celebrating great teaching
All doctoral students serve as teaching fellows (TFs) for Yale College discussion sections, language classes, or laboratories in the course of their graduate studies, to help them prepare to be academicians and leaders in their fields. Every year, undergraduates and supervising faculty members are invited to single out truly exceptional TFs by nominating them for Prize Teaching Fellowships. Twelve Prize Teaching Fellows (PTFs) were honored at a dinner hosted jointly by the deans of Yale College and the Graduate School in November. This year’s PTFs spanned all academic areas, from philosophy to physics, and from history to engineering.
Asked to describe their approach to teaching, the honorees mentioned the “delight of working with young adults,” the thrill when students “have an ‘ah-hah!’ moment,” and using class “not as a place where students would absorb information, but as a forum for investigating problems.” One after another, they described teaching as “fun” and “exciting.” No wonder their students nominated them for Prize Teaching Fellowships!
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