How to mentor
Yesterday I was asked about how I mentor in research. This is an area where I still have a lot to learn, however, there are at least four things that I think are really important: 1. Confidence**....
View ArticleTroubleshooting and iteration in science
The scientific method is taught as far back as elementary school. But students almost never get to experience what I think is the best part: what you do when something goes wrong. That’s too bad...
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Peacock Day
Saturday, March 25 was Peacock Day at the Los Angeles Arboretum. I was looking forward to giving a talk at this event for months because it was a chance to return to my stomping grounds at the best...
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Flight school
Our research on hummingbird flight is featured in the July 2017 National Geographic!...
View ArticleHow do babies learn words?
My 10-month old daughter just proved that she understands some words. Now, when we tell her to “clap your hands”, or even just talk about clapping, we get a round of applause. Pretty cute! This wasn’t...
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The Hummingbird Festival in Sedona
I just got back from the Hummingbird Festival in Sedona, Arizona. It was an honour to be invited there to present our work on flight. Photo by Maria Mahar at www.hummingbirdpictures.net The audience at...
View ArticleReproducible analyses and peer review
I just reviewed my first manuscript where the authors provided a reproducible analysis (i.e., they shared their data and analysis script with the reviewers). This is something my coauthors and I have...
View ArticleDoes biology explain the sex ratio in tech?
Here’s what bugs me about James Damore’s recent anti-Google screed: it’s a terrible misuse of biology. The question he addresses is: Why are there so few women in tech and tech leadership? In his memo...
View ArticleWhy study behaviour?
Behavioural ecology has long focused on “the evolutionary basis for animal behaviour due to ecological pressures”. With decades of work now showing that foraging, aggression, mating, and cooperation...
View ArticleHow to learn to code
I just read a great post by Jessica Duarte on teaching beginners to code. It is all so true. Especially #5, making mistakes: You [the instructor] have to ride out the mistakes. Make them often. Let the...
View ArticleLearning to science
From Alison Gopnik’s The Gardener and the Carpenter: Imagine if we taught baseball the way we teach science. Until they were twelve, children would read about baseball technique and history, and...
View ArticleKeeping students in STEM
Last week, I posted a quote by Alison Gopnik about the strange state of science education, here. It may seem obvious in hindsight, but there is data to back this up: students benefit from actually...
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A murder and a mutant
I woke up the other day to see this: A little closer: Those aren’t leaves covering the trees – they’re crows! There must have been a few thousand of them (the picture only shows part of the flock,...
View ArticleNational Learn to Code Day
On Saturday, I took part as a mentor in National Learn to Code Day with Ladies Learning Code. There were about 50 learners of all ages. The topic was “Using Data to Solve Problems: An Introduction to...
View ArticleWhat to Read for new graduate students
Ilias and I have been talking about papers each week. Most recently, we read Platt’s Strong Inference paper about the scientific method and Doug Fudge’s engaging 50-year anniversary essay about it....
View ArticleBioinspiration
Our very own Ilias Berberi just published his first popular science article about bird flight and bioinspiration — read it here. Way to go Ilias!
View ArticleAnimal Behavior Society 2020 virtual meeting
The Animal Behavior Society conference was this week, and we were thrilled to take part in this virtual meeting with talks by Ilias, Erin, Paisley, Roz and Sam! Here’s Ilias on the question of what...
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