The Mathematics and Science Education Center's Science Seminar series returns for 2019-2020.
This year's theme is: Methods of Science
Please join us for seven seminars related to the above topic.
- All seminars are FREE and open to the public.
- 0.2 CEUs per seminar for teachers.
- Refreshments provided from 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm
- Parking on campus is free after 5:00 p.m. with the most convenient parking for the seminars being in the Library Parking Deck near the RCOE Building.
Questions? Please contact Leah McManus (mcmanusld@appstate.edu or 828-262-3185) with any questions.
Fall 2019 Series Schedule
Predicting the Past in Paleontology with Andy Heckert (Geological & Environmental Sciences)
Who finds dinosaurs (or other fossils)? How do they know where to look? How do they know how old the fossils are? How paleontologists know where to look for fossils and the types of evolutionary questions they can address by knowing where on the planet to look for fossils.
Date: September 12, 2019
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: RCOE 124C
Methods in Neuroscience and Genetics: How Fruit Flies Provide Insight into the Human Brain with Andy Bellemer (Biology)
Chronic pain and other disorders of the nervous system have proven very difficult to treat effectively. Part of the reason for this is the massive complexity of the human nervous system, which contains roughly 86 billion neurons and hundreds of trillions of synapses between neurons. Simple model organisms such as fruit flies and nematode worms have provided key insights into the organization of the brain on a cellular and molecular level. We will discuss how these simple organisms have been used in research labs to further our understanding of the nervous system during development and dysfunction.
Date: September 19, 2019
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: RCOE 124C
Snails of North Carolina with Amy Van Devender (Citizen Scientist)
Parks from the local to state to national level are charged with protecting the native wildlife, to preserve the biodiversity within their boundaries. But what if the parks have no idea what plants and animals live within their boundaries? What groups of organisms should be highlighted – only the mammals and the birds? How do you find out what you have? What resources can you assign for information gathering and protection? Our work with land snails in cooperation with parks will help find answers to these questions.
Date: September 26, 2019
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: RCOE 124C
The Critical Zone: The Key(s) to Unlocking Earth's Climate History with Cindy Liukus-Pierce (Geological & Environmental Sciences)
The Earth is a complex system of components, which synergistically operate within the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Because of the interconnectedness of these components, a change in one sphere can create perturbations in the other spheres, and these changes are often recorded in Earth's geologic record. By examining the Critical Zone (which extends from the top of the atmosphere to the groundwater interface) through Earth history (in other words, through deep time), paleoclimate scientists can reconstruct changes in Earth's systems and infer cause-and-effect relationships to help explain past fluctuations (and predict future fluxes).
Date: October 3, 2019
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: RCOE 124C
The Astronomer Who Came in from the Cold with Dan Caton (Physics & Astronomy)
The history of observing the stars, from the days of working out in the cold to the modern era of remote and automatic observing.
Date: October 10, 2019
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: RCOE 124C
Why Dietary Advice So Confusing? with Marty Root (Nutrition and Health Care Management)
Dietary advice seems to be constantly shifting. Eggs are OK one day and not OK the next. Keto diets are in, then they are out. What are we to believe and why can't experts agree? Why is nutritional and dietary research so hard to understand? These topics will be discussed and some advice on how to read dietary news will be offered.
Date: October 17, 2019
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: RCOE 124C
Using Multimodal Representations to Teach Science with Leslie Bradbury and Rachel Wilson (Curriculum & Instruction)
Researchers have noted the critical role that being able to interpret and construct representations of science knowledge plays in students' science literacy development (Prain & Waldrip, 2010). We will discuss current research that supports the use of multiple representations.
Date: November 21, 2019
Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: RCOE 124C