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Video Games, The Metaverse and the Future of Science Education

with Dane Lancaster of XRMarin and the Marin County Office of Education

Wednesday, September 28, 2022; 7:30-8:30 pm; Terra Linda HS Innovation Hub

Science Education at XRMarin

What is the Science MetaVerse? The new paradigm for STEM education…. Learning in 3D through movement, experience, and discovery.  Check out how high school and college students around the world are using Virtual and Augmented Reality to enhance STEM learning. You will get to demo some advanced educational VR content in Math, Chemistry and Biology.

Community Night at XRMarin

Dane Lancaster is the Director of XRMarin, a program of the Marin County Office of Education. Dane’s current efforts are directed towards the application of XR ML and AI for learning, data visualization, design, and collaboration in education and the enterprise. XRMarin is a regional training center for students, educators and the community interested in immersive education and innovation in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. XRMarin offers a variety of student academies, classes, art programs and community workshops that advance the application of these emerging technologies that are certain to impact the way we learn, work, and play. In his previous role as Marin County Office of Education CTO he was responsible technology and information systems supporting Marin County school districts. He has BS in Chemistry from the University of Akron. Earlier in his career he founded the Biofeedback Institute of Marin and taught psychology and computer science at the College of Marin.

Dane Lancaster of XMarin
Dane Lancaster of XRMarin

Links:

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Cutting Edge Research on Elephant Seals at Año Nuevo Reserve

With Allison Payne, PhD student at UC Santa Cruz

Wednesday, September 21, 2022, 7:30 – 8:30 pm at Terra Linda HS’s Innovation Hub

The wonderful Allison Payne returns to Marin Science Seminar with a fun, informed natural history of elephant seals and of the long-term monitoring program at Año Nuevo. Along the way she will reveal the marvels of the biologging and tracking research being done on these magnificent creatures. Here’s a link to some maps so you can see where the seals are right now: https://roxannebeltran.weebly.com/research.html

Join us and Learn! (Masks required of all visitors to MSS.)

Allison Payne

Allison’s previous MSS presentation: 9/25/20 CSI Humpbacks: Decoding Whale Scars

WhaleGirl website: www.whalegirl.org

Allison Payne at the Oceanic Society: https://www.oceanicsociety.org/person/allison-payne/

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CSI Humpbacks: Decoding Whale Scars

Title: “CSI Humpbacks: Decoding Whale Scars“ with Allison Payne of San Francisco State’s Estuary and Ocean Science Center

Date: Wed. March 4th, 2020; 7:30 – 8:30 pm at Terra Linda HS in San Rafael, Room 207

Description: Coming soon

Bio: Allison Payne is a graduate student researcher with the Hines Lab at San Francisco State’s Estuary and Ocean Science Center, where she is working on her M.S. in Marine and Estuarine Science. Her thesis is looking at the scars on humpback whales in the Gulf of the Farallones to assess their interactions with fisheries, small vessels, natural predators, and more. She is also a researcher with the Marine Mammal Center Cetacean Field Research team, where she studies harbor porpoises, humpback whales, gray whales, and bottlenose dolphins. She collects much of the data for these projects while working as a naturalist for San Francisco Whale Tours.

Allison received her undergraduate degree in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley and has worked in labs around the world studying everything from squirrels to ancient whale fossils.

Links:

Facebook event: RSVP here

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Do you Know How to Fix a Broken Heart? Medical Education Simulation Workshop

“Do you Know How to Fix a Broken Heart? Medical Education Simulation Workshop” with Rich Fidler PhD  and the VAMC SF Medical Simulation Team

Date, Time, Location: Wednesday, April 1st, 2020; 7:30 – 8:30 pm at Terra Linda HS in San Rafael, Room 207

Back by popular demand! Join us for an introduction to medical education via simulation, including the educational requirements and job opportunities. There will be a hands-on break out session. Join us and learn!.

Links:

Facebook event: RSVP

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Biologics and Me: A Career in the Biotech Industry

Title: “Biologics and Me: A Career in the Biotech Industry” with Terry Hermiston Ph.D. of Coagulant Therapeutics and GLAdiator Biosciences 

Date: Wed. February 26th, 2020; 7:30 – 8:30 pm at Terra Linda HS in San Rafael, Room 207

“Biologics” are substances made from a living organism or its products which are used in the prevention, diagnosis, or treatment of cancer and other diseases. Biologic drugs include antibodies, interleukins, replacement factors and vaccines. Dr. Hermiston will discuss his training and career in biologics and the Biotech industry.

Bio: Dr. Hermiston has over 20 years of industrial experience in research and drug development. His experience includes drug development focused on idea conception and concept validation, as well as Scientific Advisory Board and Board of Directors service for biotechnology companies. Dr. Hermiston is currently CEO of Coagulant Therapeutics and GLAdiator Biosciences developing assets acquired from his time working at Bayer. Dr. Hermiston holds a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology from University of Iowa.

Dr. Terry Hemiston

Links:

Facebook event: RSVP here

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Engineering Rivers and Wetlands for Climate Resiliency

Title: “Engineering Rivers and Wetlands for Climate Resiliency” with Rachel Kamman PE of Kamman Hydrology & Engineering

Date: Wed. February 5th, 2020; 7:30 – 8:30 pm at Terra Linda HS in San Rafael, Room 207

Kamman Hydrology & Engineering’s mission is to provide hydrologic, engineering and geomorphology support in the restoration, enhancement and protection of watershed, river, wetland and coastal systems. Rachel Kamman will demonstrate and discuss how this can be done to help rivers and wetlands adjust to changes brought on by climate change.

Bio: Rachel Z. Kamman PE is a consulting hydrologist whose work focuses on ecological habitat restoration. Her San Rafael based consulting practice focuses on projects that revolve around sensitive wetland, fishery, and/or riparian habitat issues and problems. Rachel specializes in the fields of hydraulic and hydrodynamic analysis and modeling, focusing on the protection and restoration of estuarine and wetland systems. Typically, Rachel Kamman works on multi-disciplined projects, collaborating closely with biologists/botanists, ecologists, planners, engineers, and/or regulatory and resource agency staff. She holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Lafayette College and an M. Eng., in Hydraulics, Coastal Engineering, Hydrology & Geomorphology from UC Berkeley.

Links:

Facebook event: RSVP here

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Geoengineering and Terraforming: the manipulation of climate on Earth and other planets

Title: “Geoengineering and Terraforming: the manipulation of climate on Earth and other planets” with Warren Wiscombe Ph.D. of NASA Goddard

Date: Wed. January 29th, 2020; 7:30 – 8:30 pm at Terra Linda HS in San Rafael, Room 207

Warren Wiscombe

In 2010 ‘geoengineering’ entered the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘the modification of the global environment or the climate in order to counter or ameliorate climate change’. Geoengineering must be intentional, not accidental (as in the current global warming). And geoengineering is only a stopgap measure on the way to a renewable energy economy.

The safest and most predictable method of moderating climate change is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, geoengineering may be useful to augment emission reductions. While some methods would incur gargantuan costs, notably the space-based ones, others are a relative bargain and technologically easy, notably putting aerosols into the stratosphere. While there are few technical showstoppers, geoengineering technology is nascent, and there are major uncertainties regarding its effectiveness, cost, and environmental impacts.

Terraforming, a much more radical version of geoengineering, is the technology to make an alien planet more suitable for Earth life forms. Edgar Rice Burroughs hypothesized terraforming in his book “Princess of Mars”. Kim Stanley Robinson fleshed out the idea in his trilogy “Red/Green/Blue Mars”. If humanity is to escape extinction, it will have to learn how to do terraforming. Possible methods will be noted, but the field is barely in its infancy.

Bio: Warren Wiscombe got a BS in Physics from MIT and a PhD in Applied Math from Caltech. Starting in 1971, he spent his career working on radiative transfer aspects of climate, notably the interaction of sunlight with clouds and aerosols. From 1983 till retiring in 2013, he worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. His core background is in e.m. radiation spanning wavelengths from UV to radio.

Links:

Facebook event: RSVP here

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Adventures of a Plant Ecophysiologist: Studying How Tropical Forests Survive Drought

Marin Science Seminar for Teens & Community presents a free science event:

“Adventures of a Plant Ecophysiologist: Studying How Tropical Forests Survive Drought”
with Roxy Cruz of UC Berkeley

Costa Rican rain forest

Wednesday, November 20th, 2019, 7:30 – 8:30 pm

Terra Linda High School, 320 Nova Albion, San Rafael, CA – ROOM 207

Roxy Cruz in action

Roxy Cruz is a Plant Ecophysiologist, tree climber, and Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Integrative Biology at UC Berkeley. Her research takes her to Costa Rica and Peru where she studies how tropical forests respond to drought. She measures thresholds for plant survival to try and predict the fate of our tropical forests in the face of rapid changing climate.

Links:

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“Star Clusters: Many-Body Gravitational Laboratories” with Nicholas Rui of UC Berkeley

Marin Science Seminar for Teens & Community presents a free science event:

“Star Clusters: Many-Body Gravitational Laboratories” with Nicholas Rui of UC Berkeley

Wednesday, November 13th, 2019

7:30 – 8:30 pm

Terra Linda High School, 320 Nova Albion, San Rafael, CA – ROOM 207

Nicholas Rui is fourth-year physics/astrophysics undergraduate and aspiring science person at the University of California, Berkeley. You can find out more about him at his website at https://nicholasrui.com/research/.

Astrophysics at UC Berkeley

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Join us & learn!

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Let’s Learn About Lysosomes! wth Dr. Gouri Yogalingam of Biomarin

Marin Science Seminar for Teens & Community presents another free science event:

“Let’s Learn About Lysosomes” with Gouri Yogalingam PhD of Biomarin Pharmaceuticals

Wednesday, November 8, 2019, Terra Linda High School, 320 Nova Albion, San Rafael, California, 94903, ROOM 207

Lysosomes were first identified by accident in the 1950’s by Christian de Duve, who described these sub-cellular organelles as “saclike structures surrounded by a membrane and filled with digestive enzymes”. De Duve won a Nobel prize for this discovery and since then a great deal has been learned about lysosomes. I will discuss how lysosomes can communicate with the rest of the cell to act as recycling centers of cellular waste material in good times. I will also talk about how lysosomes can act as overly-filled, toxic trash cans in bad times, contributing to cell death and the onset of disease.

Dr. Gouri Yogalingam

Dr. Yogalingam received her PhD from the University of Adelaide, South Australia, in the field of lysosomal storage diseases. Her work contributed to the successful development of enzyme replacement therapy for the rare genetic disease, mucopolysaccharidosis type VI. She then completed post-doctoral research at Duke University and Stanford University, where she worked on understanding how lysosomes contribute to cancer progression and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Yogalingam is currently a Senior Scientist at Bio Marin Pharmaceutical in Novato working on the development of effective therapies for the treatment of genetically-defined diseases.

Links:

BioMarin

LinkedIn

Previous Marin Science Seminar talk

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