Uploaded November 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
I teach a freshman writing course at the University of Puget Sound that uses symbioses and parasitism as a focal point. Students learn about various associations between organisms, positive and negative, and develop skills in writing, evaluating scientific and popular literature, and creating presentations. As part of this course, several scientists have offered to "tele-visit" my classroom to discuss student questions.
Dr. Daniel McDonald of the Institute of Systems Biology in Seattle is our last "tele-visitor" to my freshman writing class, and since he is an expert on the microbiome (which is the topic of one of the books assigned to this course), it's hard to think of a more fitting final "tele-chat."
As with other "tele-visits," Dr. McDonald assigned some readings (from the Rob Knight TED book, "Follow Your Gut"). My freshmen did the readings, came up with some questions, and I forwarded them to Dr. McDonald. While it isn't possible for any speaker to cover all of the questions, I think it will be an informative and fun session!
Dr. McDonald's website is:
wasade.github.io
The lab in Seattle at which he is currently working is here:
price.systemsbiology.org
And here is a video of Dr. McDonald discussing human microbiome:
youtube.com/watch?v=mtGWHTux9Rc
I hope that you can join us for this last session. My students and I very much appreciate each and every one of the speakers this semester.
I teach a freshman writing course at the University of Puget Sound that uses symbioses and parasitism as a focal point. Students learn about various associations between organisms, positive and negative, and develop skills in writing, evaluating scientific and popular literature, and creating presentations. As part of this course, several scientists have offered to "tele-visit" my classroom to discuss student questions.
Dr. Daniel McDonald of the Institute of Systems Biology in Seattle is our last "tele-visitor" to my freshman writing class, and since he is an expert on the microbiome (which is the topic of one of the books assigned to this course), it's hard to think of a more fitting final "tele-chat."
As with other "tele-visits," Dr. McDonald assigned some readings (from the Rob Knight TED book, "Follow Your Gut"). My freshmen did the readings, came up with some questions, and I forwarded them to Dr. McDonald. While it isn't possible for any speaker to cover all of the questions, I think it will be an informative and fun session!
Dr. McDonald's website is:
wasade.github.io
The lab in Seattle at which he is currently working is here:
price.systemsbiology.org
And here is a video of Dr. McDonald discussing human microbiome:
youtube.com/watch?v=mtGWHTux9Rc
I hope that you can join us for this last session. My students and I very much appreciate each and every one of the speakers this semester.
