Blogs

One of the goals of the IPEM program is to educate those outside of our field of study about the importance of evolution.  The study of evolution is not something that is only useful to biologists or anthropologists, but it is also an important area of study for many other disciplines, and can even be useful for understanding everyday life.  Medical doctors utilize evolutionary theory to understand how diseases, bacteria and viruses change over time so that a successful treatment can be found; those involved in agriculture need to understand evolution to

Hey, IPEM newbies. I've got an idea for an outreach project that you can work on during Evo & Society.

The Formative Years

I joined the IPEM program in 2007, when my academic niche had reach final stages of construction. Cooperation and cultural transmission, two of the core themes of the program, had been of interest to me from the start of my graduate career, but it was topics in life history theory that ended up most influencing my thinking. My anthropology MA thesis, which I wrote under the guidance of Rob Quinlan here at WSU, tested predictions of life history theory.

Photos from Mesa Verde, summer 2009

Mesa Verde

Photos from the 2009 Field Season!

As far as I know, all of the IPEM fellows are still required to participate in some sort of education outreach project.  I just read an interesting article in PLoS Biology about a Science buddies program.   This is very similar to what previous IPEMers have accomplished.  It certainly is worth checking out to see what is possible with limited time and funding.

Fink RD (2009) It's Elementary: Science Buddies Bring Biology to Life. PLoS Biol 7(8): e1000182. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000182

I absolutely second Devin's challenge to use this blog as a platform for cross-campus discussion of the speakers.  I have often heard professors and students say that the quick Q and A over the WHETS makes follow-up or clarification questions difficult, and, especially while at the remote campuses, I've noted the discussion usually abates quickly after the seminar when everyone goes home or back to work.  This blog is a perfect venue to bring up thoughts and questions provoked by the speaker series, allowing for responses from faculty and staff throughout the program, who may be a

 It seems odd to be defending the role of web based communication on a blog, but Adam’s last post struck a nerve. He quoted from Reddy’s editorial in Science that stresses the need to communicate beyond the ivory towers of our institutions. I think that is a great goal and a necessary component of doing science especially on a publically funded project. I believe that the greater use of science blogs and wikis is also a vital part of this communication. Making the science we do as public as we can i

Now that I've got your attention (all one or two of you), I won't be discussing chimps nor monkeys further...not directly anyway.  Rather, I'm curious about people's experiences with "science outreach," or "informing the public," or "teaching," whatever you'd like to call it.  I'm for it.  But I hear the complaints of busy grad students and professionals: "I don't have time for that!" "I hate students!"  Well, hopefully the latter isn't actually muttered that often.  Time and energy are legitimate concerns.  How

I had promised Devin that I'd contribute to this and I am now finally doing so.  I hope folks still read the blog!