Kenyan Safari Acrobats

Friday evening, I attended a professional development workshop from LASSI (Launching Astronomy: Standards and STEM Integration). We learned about Citizen Science, Big Data, Astronomy, and Zooniverse.org. It was a pretty cool workshop, working with pre-service teachers, masters students, and Wyoming state teachers. The session lasted about 4-hours, and by the time we finished, I was pretty tired. But the Science Methods students convinced me to stay out a little longer and attend the Kenyan Safari Acrobats.

These talented performed travelled 29-miles from Africa to perform for us that evening. It was super cool, thrilling, and awesome to see talented performers doing their thing. They were flipping all over the stage, balancing on each other, stacked chairs, and on glasses and boards! It was super impressive. Not going to lie, watching the performance made me really homesick for performing myself. Wahhhhh. But it was great being an audience member and totally worth staying up past my bedtime for this!

TheChristyBel

He Was My Favorite! Balancing on 8 chairs!

Super Strong, Super Talented.

What!?!? Balancing on a Roller with Glasses and Boards! STFU!

So Strong!

Art Themed Day - What Are You Craving?

Another Two Art Themed Days: Spaceships and What are you craving? Here are the results:

Monday's Theme: Spaceship

Marc's Spaceship

TheChristyBel's Spaceship
One Small Step For Moose - One Giant Leap for Moosekind!

Tuesday's Theme: If you could have any food, what would it be? What are you craving?

TheChristyBel is Craving Some Sushi

Marc Wants Lobster
Typical Both of Us East-Coasters Know What's Up!

TheChristyBel

Permanent Dirt Under My Fingernails

In my Drawing I class, our first homework assignment is a 'Measured Contour Line' drawing. In class, we've been practicing still-lifes with what our instructors have set up full of odds and ends where we would draw the outline shapes in various thicknesses and pressures to capture the still-life. The process of this drawing is that you start with a rectangle representing your picture plane that encompasses the composition of the drawing. You use a view finder or a mental picture frame to create the range of what you will draw. Then you work with light gestures (something I am struggling with) that uses diagrammatic lines to sketch out the general placement of parts and scale relationships. Diagrammatic lines are the skeletal, gestural, lines that provide a transparent construction of what you are drawing. So, lines overlap even if they do not belong to the same object. You draw lines through objects and surfaces and think about constructing the objects and surfaces of the still life transparently. You can use the vine charcoal for this.

Once you have a light, general gesture, you refer back to your viewfinder and a sighting stick to begin correcting and refining the placement of parts and spatial relationships within the drawing. The sighting stick uses the clock tool to measure angles, as well as the Mondrian tool or the 'grid method' to better locate the placement and relationships between the parts and objects. Continue to use the vine charcoal because it's forgiving and can erase easily. After you are satisfied with placement, scale, and proportion of the drawing you can start increasing pressure and using compressed and harder charcoals, making darker and bolder marks and lines. 

When you are close to making a clearer layout of your drawing, you can start refining lines and line quality. This mean being specific to the edges of the objects and modifying line treatment in the inner and outer edges of forms. I have never used so much eraser before until I got to this class. (I actually need to buy more pencil eraser refills!) Erasing through refining lines create clear contours.

Within this exercise, not only did it help us work on scale, proportion, and placement, but it encourages us not to work 'part-to-part' or working on one object to the next. By working fast and light pressure gestures you can capture a foundation then refine (another skill I'm working on). Below are photos of my homework assignment - working on the same techniques and processes, but using a still life I created at my apartment. Enjoy.

TheChristyBel

Looking Through the View Finder

This Was My First Attempt

This Was My Second Attempt (With More Cross-Hatching)

The Finished Product

Playing With Bacteria

This week, our Elementary Ed. Majors in Biology were experimenting with genetic engineering. This lab was super cool. They were learning how genetic engineering is a process that enables scientists to put a desired gene into a plasmid, or ring of bacterial DNA. The object of this lab was to use specific genetic engineering processes to transform bacteria with a gene that codes of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP).

Bacteria naturally contain one or more small circular pieces of DNA called plasmids. The unique pGLO plasmid encodes the gene for GFP plus a gene for resistance to the antibiotic ampicillin called beta-lactamase. Ampicillin is an antibiotic that kills various bacterial strains. However, if a bacterium has a certain gene resistant to ampicillin then exposure to the drug ampicillin does not kill the bacterium.

The plasmid pGLO also incorporates a special gene regulation system, which can control expression of the fluorescent protein in transformed cells. The gene for GFP can be switched on in transformed cells by adding the sugar arabinose to the cells' nutrient medium. Selection of the cells that have been transformed with pGLO DNA is accomplished by growth on antibiotic plates. The transformed cells will appear white on plates not containing arabinose, and fluorescent green under UV light when arabinose is included in the nutrient agar medium.

The students seemed really engaged with this lab and were really excited to see their bacteria plates glow under UV light!

Glowing Bacteria!

Everyday Art & Share

Marc thought it would be a great idea to pick a topic, subject, or whatever everyday and create something by the end of the day that we could show each other. How adorable is that? Even though we can't be with each other and do art with each other, we can still make something art-related and share it with each other. These themed creations could be as simple as a sketch, something more intricate and complex, any media, any interpretation. So these are from this week's themes: Monday - Mythical Creatures, Tuesday - Your Dream Home, Wednesday - Your Dream Pet! Thursday through Sunday: well, we got really busy with work, class, and my other homework, so we are picking this back up today!

Tonight's theme will be: A Spaceship and you'll see the end products tomorrow! Enjoy! 

TheChristyBel

Monday - Mythical Creatures by Marc (Snow Monster)

Monday - Mythical Creatures by theChristybel (the Fiery Phoenix)

Tuesday - ChristyBel's Dream Home - A Log Cabin, Big Windows, & Lots of Water!

Tuesday - Marc's Dream Home - A Hammock and a Huge Glass-Window Garage

Wednesday - Marc's Dream Pet - A Penguin!

Wednesday - ChristyBel's Dream Pet...Moose - Duh!
I Think We'll Need More Room in the Van For It!

Learning Values...in Drawing

 Today we learned about values and shading! My favorite part of drawing! This was a super cool exercise we did. You cover your entire paper in a middle tone gray (mostly vine charcoal and maybe a layer of compressed charcoal). Then we examined a photo placed on the projector. Originally, the photo we were going to be drawing from appeared incredibly blurry. But the objective of the class was to not draw exactly what we saw, but to focus on the various intensities of dark and lightness. So, we use compressed charcoal to emphasize really dark areas (additive areas) and then use our erasers to emphasize really light areas (reductive areas). After each session, our instructor would focus our photo more and more until he showed us the focused picture. It was really cool. Our instructor stated that if he just shown us the picture, we would go straight to one object (can you guess it would be the cow on the bottom right) and not focus on anything else. He wanted us to capture the dark, light, and middle tones of the image first. This drawing is not done, but it was pretty interesting to make. I kind of like it unfinished!

TheChristyBel

Romantic Right?

When I got home from campus, I received a text that totally made me smile.

Everyone should talk to their significant other like this. Romantic right?!?! 

Haha.

:)

Send your someone special something to smile about.

TheChristyBel

This is a Sign of Endearment, Right?

GALentine's Day Brunch

This morning, my neighbor, Lisa, invited me to a GALentine's Day brunch with her and her colleagues in the Wildlife Ecology Department. Brunch was super wonderful. I met a group of really welcoming and wonderful ladies! We chatted about everything from being here in Laramie, our departments and focuses of studies, where we are from, and so much more! It was really nice and comforting how easy it was to come up with conversation with this group, despite being the outsider of the group (not from the same department). But Lisa's gals were awesome to have brunch with! We had brunch at the CrowBar over on 2nd and Ivinson Street in the Downtown area. Brunch was super delicious and the endless mimosas were great as well!

Hope you all had a great Valentine's/GALentine's Day!

TheChristyBel

The Last of the Christmas Mugs

Remember when I showed you those mugs I made for holiday gifts way back when?! Well, I have finally gotten the rest of them fired and packaged up for some very special people. Here, are the last mugs - they went through a Salt Fire Atmosphere - where the temperatures get mega hot and at a certain temperature, salt is added to the kiln. This allowed the salt particles to break up and adhere to the pieces placed in the kiln. It gives a very interesting crystallized look to them! I cannot tell who these are for, since they are on their way to the recipients now! But they are late holiday gifts!

Happy Late Christmas!

TheChristyBel

Happy Valentines Day!

Just wanted to stop by the blog and with all my followers and readers,

Happy Valentine's Day!

I really appreciate all of your support with this blog!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love you all!

TheChristyBel

Moose Kisses to You & Your Loved Ones
Xoxo,
TheChristyBel

Elementary Ed. Majors Meet Cockroaches

This morning, our LIFE1020 students got to have an in-depth analysis with the Invertebrates, specifically Arthropods. They were to investigate the sequence in which these hissing cockroaches move. Not going to lie, I did not even know the sequence in which legs move first to propel them to scurry! So it was cool making the hypotheses with the students and observing the cockroaches prove or falsify their guesses.

It was really awesome to see the uneasiness, excitement, and curiosity that the students had towards the hissing friends we brought into class. I was surprised many of the students actually wanted to get up close and personal with them! Many raised their hands and asked if they could hold them and how to properly hold them! It was awesome! Some even overcame their fear of 'creepy crawly bugs!' Super proud of them. 

TheChristyBel

Supporting Other Artist Friends

Today I received one of the most beautiful gifts: a painting hand-made directly for me. This professionally painted, matted, and framed piece was specifically made for me by my good friend, Alec Falle Hamilton. I met Alec through my fellow, TSS grad, Mandy Redpath when I went to spend Thanksgiving with her two years ago in Vail, CO. Alec is by far an incredible artist - his geometric and symmetric style uses a variety of mediums: acrylic, watercolor, pen, ink, and sharpie! And he's on a trend of using natural history and animals right now too. He calls them Spirit Animal Mandalas.

On his Facebook, he has been blasting his artwork like crazy and was even taking special orders where he would custom make you your own animal spirit. So, I totally messaged him asking to make me my Spirit Animal in a nature-theme. Guess which animal is my spirit animal....?!?! MOOSE! 

But he jumped right on it and had visible step-by-step photos of his progress! It was super cool to see the painting emerge in a matter of a few days! 

I paid him over PayPal and once he was finished with the original and got digital copies of the painting, he sent it over to my apartment!

I am soooo in love with my Alec original!

But you can order a print of it through his website! Totally check it out! He is incredibly talented and willing to make art specifically for you!

Thank you, Alec for this beautiful piece! 

TheChristyBel

Thank You Alec!

Photo Credit: All photos came from Alec' Facebook Page.

Rare Clouds Form Over the Tetons

I am wishing I was in Jackson right now...let me tell you and show you why!

Yesterday, there was this really cool wispy cloud that hovered over the Teton Mountain Range. Through the photos that I saw online, it looked super cool and mysterious! I really wish I could've been there to see it in person. 

The clouds were described as 'shape-shifting' and 'had billowed like a handkerchief of a seagull with its beak touching the Grand's summit.' 

Meteorologists called the cloud a lenticular cloud. These types of clouds form downwind of mountain ranges under certain atmospheric conditions. They perfectly occur in symmetrical disks appear like huge alien UFO flying saucers. The lenticular cloud that formed in the Tetons resulted from an unusual combination of strong winds and moisture residing at the 13,000 - 14,000-ft elevations. 

It is just crazy and mind-boggling that clouds can form not just from varying atmospheric conditions, but the land itself! Super cool.

There is a formal article about this where I got this information. Check it out!

TheChristyBel

Photo Credit to the Grand Teton National Park

Into the Creepy Crawly Lair

Sea Urchin

Starfish

While I was grabbing cockroach-friends for our Invertebrate - Arthropod lab, I stumbled upon some really cool specimens! Do not worry, these were not alive. However, it made me really miss being near the beach! Haha. So cool the Animal Biology students get to take a gander at these during their lab! Super jealous! However, my students got to handle and study specimens that moved...and hissed!

TheChristyBel

Sea Cucumber

Hanging with Blue

Had dinner with Brady this evening so he could help me understand my Masters statistical data and tests. Brady cooked this really good elk stew! It was delicious! We also had a special guest try and eat dinner with us, Blue, his dog! Blue is the perfect lap dog, but it was pretty amusing how he would sit on your lap, but practically lay over the table.

Love this pup.

TheChristyBel

While Prepping for Bio Lab

This spring, while just taking my drawing I course and finishing up my masters, I am taking a Practicum in Lab Teaching course. This is really cool; this course allows students to assist in a Biology Lab. Essentially, we are not TA's, but we are assisting the TA's. However, my situation is a little bit different. Since I am a grad student and already have teaching experience, the professor paired me with the actual professor of LIFE 1020 (Biology for Elementary Ed. Majors). So I am not just an assistant, but sort of the TA - but I do not hold office hours (only if I want to - which I am on a case by case basis) and do not have to grade (which is great!). My professor is really awesome - she is super positive, flexible, and really communicative on what she wants with her class. She is also really open to to me chiming in during class, adding my own little tid-bits, and eventually, going to allow me to teach and lead a lecture/lab. Very cool.

This course is pretty great and flexible - I can basically make it the experience I want. I have a different, more intimidate participation and involvement with my chose course than the other lab assistants. I am attending both the lecture and lab - which is great. I can get to know my students more and it's also a great opportunity to review myself with Biology (since I haven't taken a Bio class since 2006/2007. But as I look at this teaching opportunity, I get to observe my professor teach and how it affects my students' understanding and interest in the class. Also, since I am assisting, my professor and I totally bounce ideas back and forth on how to engage the students, make it more interactive and hands-on, and I'm allowed to put my thoughts and ideas on the table (which, she has used in some of the classes so far)! Also, there are plenty of opportunities to go outside and I am able to use my outdoor ed/interpretive skills too! So, I am getting a lot of review, implementation, collaboration, more teaching experience, and experience in a FORMAL classroom all at the same time. Plus, a mentor - my professor is just great talking to about teaching, the university in general, the Post-Bac program (which I am interested in doing - eventually), and being a great friend. I am so grateful and pleased with this course and the connections I am making through it. Besides the great relationship and experience I am having actually in the lab/lecture, the assistants and I all meet with our actual Practicum's professor for reflection and discussion on inquiry and other various classroom management and instructional strategy topics. It's a little review, but its great for reflection about the lab and our own teaching.

Something is Too Big For It's Shell
It's Shed Time!

I should be documenting more of my involvement, but I really haven't. I've been so focused on the class, I forget to take photos. But...Friday afternoon after my WITS recruitment event, I had a weekly meeting with my professor to go over next week's lab. This lab is talking about animal diversity and we are focusing on invertebrates...which means an opportunity for live animal specimens! Boom...and guess what we're working with - Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches! I feel like I am back at Ashland Nature Center! It was super awesome checking out all live and dead specimens in the lab. I even got to do a Handling Tutorial with my professor - since she is not keen on holding these 'creepy-crawlies.'  Felt great!

But to the right, is a photo of one that we discovered was shedding! How freaking awesome is that?!? Enjoy!

TheChristyBel

A Taste of the Jurassic Past

This afternoon, the graduate assistantship I am working with was having an interest/recruitment meeting. The University's Geology Museum was awesome enough to host/house our event! The event went fairly well. We were prepared to have 20-25 interests attend, however, only 5-students showed up. No worries. The program is still relatively new and small, so I hope that more turn out will progress over time. But anyways, before and after the event, I was able to help set up and break down our event's equipment...and...check out the museum. I love that place, I go there all the time, and just find something new and awesome to nerd over. I've also developed a great relationship with the museum program's curator, Laura. She is fan-freaking-tastic! She showed me the specimen room and lab, where they have the actual dinosaur bones that are still in the casts. They are super cool, and yes, I may have geeked out since I was in the presence of millions of years old bones from HUGE dinos! Don't judge! But they are looking for volunteers to come in and basically, sort through these casts, pick out the actual bone, and glue the pieces together (like a huge and complicated jigsaw puzzle). If only I had the time, I would totally do it! Until then, I was able to touch the bone and LICK a piece (that is how you can tell if it is bone or not - it will sort of stick to your tongue!) Best day of my life...maybe when I get most of my paper for my Masters completed, I'll volunteer 1-day a week! Here's to hoping!

TheChristyBel

Diplodocus Bone - From the Thoracic/Shoulder Area