Taormina (Tara) Lepore

Hey all!

Thanks for including me in this discussion, I love this topic and I’m excited to see a sort of amalgamation of all sorts of open access journals!

Whenever I’m discussing an academic paper with my students, I’ll pull up the paper on my projector screen and walk through it, showing them that even I have to stop and make sure I understand a particular piece of jargon, or to interpret a graph. I think this kind of modeling is critical because it helps students understand that it’s really like learning another language, to sift through scientific terminology that’s relatively unfamiliar; they shouldn’t expect themselves to just dive in and understand every facet of the information!

That being said, I really love the methods you’ve shared, @llundgren and all, on breaking a paper down into manageable chunks.

I’m pretty sure I found this image through a thread on myFOSSIL, but here it is anyway (see attached) – Jennifer Raff has some great tips on how to begin deciphering an academic paper, and I’ve used this graphic with my students with some pretty good success, as a baseline.

As far as the anatomy goes – man, there’s the other language, and in this case it really is learning to decipher Latin and Greek, of course…so I’d start students with a diagram of a modern beaver skull, like this one: 

…So they can become familiar with the “map” of a skull, and I’d probably lead them through it by translating most of the words into something a bit clearer. Though, I’ve found with a lot of my ESL students, especially Spanish-speaking students, that the Latin terms often help them remember what each feature is.

Whew! Happy to chat more about this. (Also, if I may gush for a moment – what a freaking cool beaver paper! :D)

Best wishes, all.

Tara

Aw Jim, thank you so much for watching and for your kind feedback! I’m glad the talk was useful!

Gabe, aw man, you’re gonna make me all misty-eyed. I think it’s safe to say we inspire each other. I know that you inspire me every day!

@gsantos@jim-chandler

@michelle-barboza – your podcast episodes (and you!) are such an inspiration! I love how your work is so well referenced (super helpful!) and you’re just so engaging. I didn’t know a darn thing about Nettie Stevens.

Hi Bruce, we were just wondering earlier in November about whether there are any sanctions in place for folks who violate discrimination policies, as listed here: http://paleosoc.org/about/policy/nondiscrimination-policy-of-the-paleontological-society-and-paleontological-society-conduct-expectations/

@bmacfadden – thanks for your input!

Hi Bruce, we were just wondering earlier in November about whether there are any sanctions in place for folks who violate discrimination policies, as listed here: http://paleosoc.org/about/policy/nondiscrimination-policy-of-the-paleontological-society-and-paleontological-society-conduct-expectations/ @bmacfadden – thanks for your input!

Yes! Sorry for the late reply, @gsantos I’d love to help co-host a forum for SoCal paleo. @egardner, was this group already created? Playing late-to-the-game catch up. Thanks for the help!

@michelle-barboza@gsantos

As an addendum: fingers crossed on the submitted SVP workshop proposal on diversity in science!

And, with regard to PaleoSoc, I run their social media (took over from Phoebe Cohen recently) and can chat with Tony Martin (communications officer) to see whether the society should clarify sanctions for policy violations? Bruce might have some thoughts? @bmacfadden

@llundgren Heck yes – thanks for the shout out! I love the modern-fossil comparative anatomy ideas coming out of these discussions.

Yes @egardner (Eleanor)! I’m super excited to be a part of the webinar series.

Michelle, love the article about Elizabeth’s work, talk about inspiration 🙂 @michelle-barboza

@michelle-barboza Short but sweet answer: I really dig this idea, and I feel like there’s a real need. Perhaps it’s something we can discuss at SVP during the women in science social?

Come and find me at the “Increasing Engagement of Young Women and Girls” table – unfortunately due to teaching commitments it’ll be my only chance to chat at SVP besides the Mid-Mesozoic field trip. But I am happy to help discuss and get the ball rolling!

@gsantos: <3

Seconded! I love our SoCal community, and it’s great to stay connected no matter where we all are. I’d love to branch out to more paleontological consultants in California, too.

Paul Murphey and others have a neat paper that synthesizes a lot of current practices in paleo consulting (see attached) – hope it’s helpful!

Michelle, thanks SO much for the shout-out! 😀 It was a total pleasure writing about @sboessenecker‘s work!

And, thanks Lisa for looking the assessment over!

@llundgren@michelle-barboza

It sounds like an intersection between having a strong mentor, and discussing the disparity of women in STEM fields, is a pretty solid approach!

I’m surprised, too, that figurehead examples of women in STEM / mentors in STEM don’t pack more (statistical) punch. I guess calling attention to the challenges women face in STEM is all the more important, but then I’d like to toss this out there: how do we do this in a coed class, without alienating non-female-identifying / male students?

Of course it can be done, but I can imagine the snark from some of my male students in particular. Maybe a good way to frame a discussion is to emphasize the historical context for the challenges women in STEM have faced, and continue to face today? And naturally, keep the dialogue going between students so all feel involved and invited to share their opinions without fear of repercussion.

Now you guys make me want to try this with my environmental science juniors and seniors! We did have a discussion on “role models in science”, but I feel like it can be opened up so much more. Fellow teachers who would like to try this, we could give them a pre-assessment on their knowledge of women in STEM and their likelihood to pursue a STEM career (whether male or female), and a post-assessment after the discussion on the issues.

I mocked up a pre-assessment / post-assessment questionnaire, and I would totally love feedback from the group!

@llundgren@gsantos@jeanette-pirlo@bmacfadden@mhendrickson@rnarducci @egardner@llundgren