5 years of Sharing Science Documentaries

As a child I *loved* watching The Land Before Time. Over and over again. Every time I was heartbroken as Littlefoot is left alone without his mother. Every time Sharptooth was just as scary. Without a doubt this movie must have helped in some small way to shape who I am today. I still love finding tree-stars in the wilderness. That movie will be a part of me forever. But people remember some weird stuff from their childhoods. As an older millennials who grew up on VHS tapes, we remember the previews and commercials that came before the feature film. And as much as I hold this movie close to my heart, it’s not actually what I remember most about this tape. One of the previews for this movie was a Pizza Hut commercial with a mom dropping off her young son for a birthday party. She’s giving him all sorts of advice for how to behave and she reminds him, “Don’t forget to share. Share, share”. These words somehow got lasered into my brain. Anytime I hear the word share it’s like that clip plays in my brain.

As far as weird snippets of pop culture from my youth forever etched into my brain (alongside the Doug Funny theme song, and the (first two) Ninja Turtles movies) it’s not too bad. Sharing is pretty important. Sharing pretty much underpins everything we do here at Sweet Tea, Science. And sharing is why four years ago I created the best holiday a #SciComm nerd could ask for. That’s right the 5th Anniversary of Share a Science Documentary Day is upon us!  What started as a simple social soiree to sneak science upon some unsuspecting schoolmates and kindred spirits is still…just that. Really why mess with perfection? Continue reading “5 years of Sharing Science Documentaries” →

Managing Your Motivation

Staying motivated in the unstructured work environment of academia can be difficult.  For me, it has always been easy to stay on task during the field season because the summer ticks away regardless of how much I get done.  I have to be organized and get in while the plants are growing and the tides are favorable. As summer gives way to fall, I have often gone through productivity slumps.  This was especially true after I was done with my coursework and, more recently, when I was struggling with some mental health issues. In spite of these challenges, I have been at this graduate school game for (*gulp*) nine years now, and I’ve learned a thing or two about how to bring structure to my days and set myself up for maximum productivity.  In other lucky news, I have tons of smart friends who kindly offered up some of their best advice on a Facebook thread I started. Thanks Tanya, Jeff, Christy, Brendan C, Danielle, Haley, Kevin, Sarah, Brendan H, Anne, Vadim, Ashley, Chhaya, Jamie, Lyndsey, Eddie, Jessica, Caroline, Sacha, Becky, Bjorn, Carlos, Aviva, and Colin!

Here are my top tips for staying focused and productive!

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That time I told the bartender I didn’t want popcorn and he told me I needed popcorn…and he was correct.

Continue reading “Managing Your Motivation” →

Sweet Link ParTEA (August 2018)

We hope everyone has had a great August. As always, this month has gone by too fast. It’s already time again for our collection of awesome links and videos that we found enjoyable and/or important this month. Let us know if we missed any super cool posts!

“She drew their attention as a wolf that had a lot of moxie and was very adventurous.” Check out this NatGeo article about Nate Blakeslee’s new book, American Wolf, who’s central character was once “the most famous wolf in the world”.

This in-depth interview with Francis Weller, author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, is a must read when you have the time.

We are clearly fans of Priya Shukla‘s Forbes articles. Check out this one about the ocean’s itty bitties with an important link to carbon cycling.

Continue reading “Sweet Link ParTEA (August 2018)” →