2019 Keynote Speakers
For information on sessions, please click on the links below.
| Keynote Speakers | Field Trips |
| Short Presentations | Networking Sessions |
| Hands-on Workshops | Education Share Fair Roundtables |
Room: Century A
Friday, March 22, 2019, 8:00 AM
Dr. Lisa D. White—University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology
Dr. Lisa D. White is Director of Education at the University of California Museum of Paleontology. In this role she develops teaching and learning materials on evolution, the nature and process of science, and global change. A micropaleontologist by training, she is active in efforts to increase diversity and inclusion in the Earth and environmental sciences.
Friday March 22, 2019, 12:00 PM
Dr. Rob Guralnick, University of Florida
Dr. Rob Guralnick is Associate Curator of Biodiversity Informatics at the University of Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural History. His interdisciplinary research focuses on what causes spatiotemporal changes in genetic and species diversity and he works across a broad spectrum of organisms. His lab is involved in building web-based tools so all may access, visualize and analyze legacy and current biodiversity distribution and environmental data.
Saturday March 23, 2019, 8:00 AM Panel
Dr. Jennifer Bauer, University of Florida
Dr. Jennifer Bauer is a Postdoctoral Associate with the Thompson Institute for Earth Systems and Florida Museum at the University of Florida where she researches the evolution, morphology and functionality of extinct echinoderms.
Randy Singer, University of Florida
Randy Singer is a Ph.D. student under Dr. Lawrence Page funded by the NSF iDigBio Program. He is working on natural history collections communications with regards to collection uses in research, education, and outreach, specifically in fish collections. He will also work on Southeast Asian Cypriniformes and deep-sea fishes.
Ana Paula dos Santos de Carvalho, University of Florida
Ana Paula dos Santos de Carvalho is a Ph.D Candidate at the University of Florida Department of Entomology and Nematology where she is researching the evolution of sexual traits and male-female interaction in butterflies.
Saturday March 23, 2019, 12:15 PM
Dr. Jennifer H. Doherty, University of Washington
Dr. Jennifer H. Doherty is Senior Lecturer at the University of Washington and teaches Introductory Biology, including ecology and physiology. Her research focuses on how 6th grade through college students develop principle-based reasoning. She uses a learning progressions approach that coherently links students’ naïve conceptions, data from learning assessments, and instructional tools and approaches.
Dr. Lisa D. White, University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology
Bringing the field and the fossils to your classrooms: using visualization tools to increase data literacy and teach biodiversity in deep time.
The extensive fossil holdings and significant online resources at the University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) are accessible through educational websites, databases, specimen photographs, and digital archival materials. Two award-winning UCMP websites, Understanding Evolution and Understanding Science, provide novel ways to engage the K-16 education community in how evolution and science works. As the UCMP continues to expand online resources, virtual field experiences (VFEs) of unique fossil sites combine digitally integrated gigapixel resolution images, high quality panoramas, photographs and video clips with explanatory text. As users navigate along virtual exposures, an analysis of fossil specimens invites a better understanding biodiversity changes in deep time. The newest UCMP web resource, Understanding Global Change, provides rich visualizations and informational graphics to teach and assess student understanding of the causes and measurable impacts of global change. The development of this resource is especially timely given the NGSS emphasis on cross-cutting concepts, model building, and Earth system science.
Dr. Jennifer H. Doherty, University of Washington
Is the ability to identify organisms a prerequisite for understanding biodiversity, ecology and the patterns of evolution?
Is a students’ ability to engage in the scientific practices of naming and grouping organisms crucial to their learning of biodiversity, ecology and evolutionary relatedness? Dr. Doherty will present two studies investigating this question. Using the learning progression framework, Dr. Doherty and her colleagues looked at three dimensional learning of the patterns of evolution. This framework describes how students’ progress in naming and grouping organisms, explaining the length of change over time, and the role of common ancestry in evolutionary relatedness are intertwined. This framework can be used as a template for conceptual learning through scientific practice, the learning advocated by NGSS, Vision and Change and ESA’s new Four-Dimensional Ecology Education Framework. Dr. Doherty will also present evidence on the relationship between a students’ ability to name and group living organisms and their ability to reason about ecological systems and communities.
Dr. Rob Guralnick, University of Florida
Biodiversity unfolds: The most interesting questions are the integrative ones that require multiple lines of evidence.
What is the role of bioinformatics and big data in the study spatiotemporal changes in genetic and species diversity? Where do these data come from? Dr. Guralnick will share insights on the modern opportunities to incorporate biodiversity data and the opportunities that open access to such data can create for a modern Biology education around ideas of scale, space and time. Witness new dimensions unfolding in biodiversity science – and what educators can do to prepare the next generation of scientists for a fast changing biology. Dr. Guralnick will share the tools available to scientists and to educators including tools for georeferencing the world’s legacy biodiversity data, examining how species diversity changes over longer time scales, using evolutionary tools, and how current environmental changes are impacting species distributions, phenology (e.g. seasonal events) and phenotypes (e.g. body size).
Panel: Dr. Jennifer Bauer, Marcel Talla Kouete, and Ana Paula dos Santos de Carvalho
Natural history collections hold a wealth of biodiversity data that reaches across both space and time. Museums are also home to a diverse array of scientists that are using specimens and their data to answer a variety of questions about life on earth. This keynote session will feature lightning talks from three students and early career professionals from the Florida Museum to demonstrate the variety of uses for biodiversity data followed by a panel discussion where participants can ask questions about their research, and applications for the classroom.