"Mite" This Help Bees?

Task #1:  Write a short bio about your technical advisor.

 

Our technical advisor is Carolina Fonseca who is a Science Specialist at Peregrine Elementary School in Davis, CA.  She plans and teaches a wide range of science curriculum for kindergarten through sixth graders, including biomes, ecosystems, living systems, and gardening/food production.  During science classes, she gives background information, conducts experiments, provides hands-on learning, and teaches the students to research and present on scientific topics.  Currently, she is trying to start a research project on nutrition at this school.  She has been working at Peregrine Elementary School for about 2.5 years. 

 

Carolina Fonseca also used to work as a part-time faculty member in the Biology Department at the California State University, Sacramento, where she taught Intro to Biology and Intro to Statistics for two years.  Prior to that, in college, she worked as a chemistry & biology tutor and a research assistant. 

 

She received her Bachelor's in Science degree in plant biology from the University of California, Davis and her Master's in Science degree from the Califorina State University, Sacramento.  Her Master's thesis was on local adaptation of Elymus Glaucus, a CA native bunchgrass, and restoration ecology.  Her paper on this topic was recently published in the December 2014 issue of Ecological Restoration!

 

Even though her Master's research was on evolution and ecology, she has been interested in general science for as long as she can remember.  Mostly, she loves to share her enthusiasm for science by helping students learn.  She states, "That is why science education is the perfect field for me."  She decided to become a scientist, because she wants to learn, and she likes to question the world around her.  "I like to understand how things work," says our technical advisor!  

 

Carolina Fonseca, along with her husband, also is busy raising two adorable little scientists of her own -- a kindergarten-aged daughter and toddler-aged son!

 

 

 

Task #2: Ask your technical advisor to review what you have written.

 

Our technical advisor very kindly reviewed our whole website and design in detail.  She only suggested that we get a better and more detailed reference for the scientists who researched the brood cell pheromone.  She said that she was "interested in understanding how this pheromone is made, and how it can be synthesized", and she recommended finding the original report that the researchers wrote.  

 

So we looked further into what the researchers did with the pheromone.  We found the original research paper that they published, which was very complex, but we were able to understand generally how they examined and created a pheromone in order to study the development of bee behavior.  We added this information and the new reference to our website.  Ms. Fonseca then read and approved of our changes.

 

On her final review of our Design Screen and Component 3, she commented that the website was "awesome" and that she loved reading it. Overall, Ms. Fonseca thought that our website was on target, well organized, and made sense.  She even said that she wants to share it with her students at Peregrine School for their biology studies!

 

 

 

Task #3: If your technical advisor is a scientist, ask her about working with engineers.  Explain the difference between what a scientist and engineer do and why you think it is important for scientists and engineers to work together. 

 

We emailed Ms. Fonseca the following questions:  

 

- As a scientist, what is your perspective on working with engineers?

- What do you think the difference is between scientists and engineers, and why is it important for them to work together?

 

Below is her emailed response and then our answer to Task #3:

 

Ms. Fonseca wrote:  

 

"I truly believe in the power of collaborative work. Engineers and scientists have different areas of expertise, and I believe that working with engineers is a very enriching experience.  Scientists are experts in a particular field of science (natural or physical), while engineers are experts in designing, building, and/or maintaining different things. It is important for scientists and engineers to work together, because they have different skills and knowledge -- different things to contribute to collaborative projects."

 

So our understanding of this question is that a scientist is an individual who may be studying or has expert knowledge of one or more of the natural or physical fields of science.  An engineer is an individual who is trained and skilled in planning, creating, and/or sustaining different systems having to do with mechanisms such as machinery, engines, and public works projects.  It is important for scientists and engineers to work together, because they can use their specific sets of skills and knowledge to cooperate and contribute to projects.  For instance, scientists may have developed useful theories to test, based on all of the research they have done; engineers may have creative ideas for making a product from the theories.  Engineers may be able to think of ways to test scientists' ideas and/or know of implementation problems that might occur.  It might be hard for scientists to complete their projects without engineers, and it might be hard for engineers to get all of the information they need without scientists.  The final project should benefit from having valuable expertise from different fields.