A Fantastic Day of Teaching

This week, as a shock to no one, I worked more on building out the ecological model. The final steps of building this model are the longest, in my opinion, because we are often working with species that are data-limited. Therefore, to generate the ecological response curves I previously talked about, I need to find any available information on the species, and hope that the raw data or publication includes information about the response variables that require my attention.

However, this week I was able to supplement my time in the office with some time in the classroom, as the students in Dr. de Mutsert's diversity of fishes course came to the lab to work on activities at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory's museum. This is not a public museum, but a collection of well-documented and preserved specimens. If I heard the staff correctly, the museum includes over 3,000 species of organisms, which is quite robust for a museum of its size (see the snapshot of the day). Today the students got to put names to faces, as they built out the evolutionary history of fishes by completing a scavenger hunt--finding fish and depositing them on the massive cladogram chart. They had to tell their classmates a little about the fishes and then they had the opportunity to look at some of the unique specimens in the collection, some of the really interesting specimens (like the Mola mola larvae), and learn about the collection and maintenance processes.

Additionally, the students completed shark identifications with the assistant director of the Center for Fisheries Research and Development, and got to learn about elasmobranch ecology, working with some beautiful preserved specimens. They had a great time working throughout the day and connecting their lecture material to the hands-on nature of both activities.

While I'm not sure of my plan for next week's blog, there will definitely be one, so stay tuned! Also, please feel free to reach out with questions if you have one you'd like me to answer. 

---