Blog

Stay on target: Healthy habits for grad students

It’s easy, especially in times of stress, to slip into unhealthy habits – but a few steps down the dark path doesn’t mean it must forever dominate your destiny! With some planning and self-awareness, you can enhance your academic performance by maintaining your physical, social, and emotional well-being. Never...

MAET Overseas Instructors 2017

Every year the instructors of the overseas MAET cohort from Michigan State University create a video. This year’s video is a riff off of Ed Sheeran’s “Galway Girl” video, shot on location in Galway, Ireland. Vocals by Liz Owens Boltz; lyrics by the MAET Overseas 2017 instructional team; Video...

3 Simple Tricks for Using Listicles that will Alter the Shape of Your Learning Universe!

In an interactive roundtable session at the annual SITE conference, along with two of my colleagues from Michigan State University’s Educational Psychology & Educational Technology program, we guided participants through an exploration of the potential affordances and constraints the popular “listicle” format may offer for learning. After exploring the historical roots...

Emoji-cize: Stretch your emotions!

I’m incredibly excited that my game, Emoji-cize, has been accepted into the 2016 Meaningful Play conference‘s game exhibition at MSU this fall!  What the heck is Emoji-cize, you say? Emoji-cize Empathy skills have been shown to play a key role in the development of prosocial behavior in children. Yet many...

MAET Bridge Webinar on Gamification

On July 20, 2016, I had the honor of participating in a panel for an MAET Bridge webinar on Gamification with some of my favorite scholars: Spencer Greenhalgh, PhD candidate in the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology Program at MSU, and Dr. Carrie Heeter, Professor in the Department of...

Starmus: GTC Round Table (Day 4)

As if we needed more reason to like him, it turns out that @RichardDawkins wears fabulous socks! Achievement unlocked — met @neiltyson at #Starmus! #Starmus2016 #MAETy1 #MSUepet Cat on beach with a massive sandcastle that is clearly *his*. #tenerife @twitenerife Agree w/Blackburn & Schweickart: tell stories about the failures...

Starmus: A Brief History of Mine (Day 3)

One of my favorite @jilltarter quotes from her talk w/@neiltyson: “How do you know dolphins aren’t making art?” ;) #Starmus #Starmus2016 “In its complexity and geographical diversity, Titan is only rivaled by Earth itself.” @carolynporco #Starmus Penrose uses an image by M.C. Escher to illustrate that infinity can be...

Starmus: The Adventure is Just Beginning (Day 2)

Tuesday was another inspirational day at Starmus, filled to the brim with dynamic speakers and hearty intellectual fodder. Sessions were moderated by former SETI director (and one of my personal heroes) Jill Tarter, whose no-nonsense personality won me over immediately — as I am also “a stickler for the...

Starmus: The Event Horizon (Day 1)

The Starmus Festival, created by Garik Israelian, is an international celebration of science, astronomy, music, art, and culture. Over the past year (until a couple of months ago) I had the honor of managing social media for Starmus, and as a result was an invited guest to this year’s...