Welcome to Biominerals: Earth to Life  

Earth to Life activities are underway to communicate our research findings to K-12 science teachers, their students, and the general public through diverse outreach activities.  Thanks to support from the National Science Foundation, we are able to develop (and now refine) these projects for K-12 students and teachers through two efforts:   The NSF Ocean Sciences Program is supporting our focus on communicating new insights into how the calcifying phytoplankton (coccolithophores) play important roles in the behavior of modern earth environments while also providing clues to ancient earth history.   Similarly, the NSF Geobiology and Low Temperature Geochemistry Program is funding research into how the silicifying phytoplankton have become remarkable materials scientists with the ability to make gigatons of beautiful ‘glass houses’ of amorphous silica each year!  

Another aspect of our outreach efforts is to show students and teachers alike how our research group uses advanced materials technology to make new discoveries and illustrate how modern science is very much an interdisciplinary endeavor.  Traditional boundaries between disciplines melt away as biology, geology, chemistry, materials science and engineering converge to understand how organisms nucleate and grow spectacular (nano-macro) shells and skeletons.

Stay tuned to how these early efforts develop.

 

2006

Tucson Gem and Mineral Show
Tucson, Arizona
Shelling out the Shapes [pdf]

Virginia Association of Science Teachers Conference
Richmond, Virginia
Earth to Life:  Making skeletons and shells of minerals [pdf]

Montgomery County School System:  After School Enrichment Programs
Blacksburg, Virginia
Earth to Life:  Science of Seashells v. 1.0 [pdf]
Images from our first set of sessions [pdf]

 

2007

Biogeochemistry of Earth Processes
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
Mighty Tiny Pattern:  Coccolithophorid [pdf]
(works best when pattern is printed onto a light cardstock paper)

Biogeochemistry of Earth Processes
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia
Mighty Tiny Pattern:  Diatom [pdf]
(works best when pattern is printed onto a light cardstock paper)

 

2008

Forthcoming!