Juliet Johnston

We are going to organize and host an outreach event for LGBTQ+ young folks who are interested in STEM called Queer Science. While preparing for this, we will learn about teaching pedagogy, educational evaluations using quantitative and qualitative assessments, science communication, mentorship, and community organizing across the Five Colleges. We will interrogate these pedagogical foundations and create our own aspirational vision for Queering STEM education. We will connect with LGBTQ+ scientists across the Five Colleges and help them build fantastic interactive demonstrations to inspire LGBTQ+ young folks. The efforts of this course will lead to hosting a fantastic Queer Science Day event and to a publishable report about how to inspire future LGBTQ+ scientists into STEM fields! Keywords:STEM, Education, Outreach, pedagogy, queer

Learn the foundations of bioinformatics with a hands-on class using data from the guts of bees (collaboration with Dr. Jennifer VanWyk!). We will explore how to analyze microbial population data from a large, diverse array of microorganisms by sequencing and analyzing 16S rRNA gene amplicons. This type of dataset is extremely common in environmental microbiology, medical microbiology, and even applies to other ecology fields. This course will focus heavily on coding using RStudio and large spreadsheets. The final report of this course will *hopefully* be published in a peer-reviewed journal! You are strongly encouraged to take Bioinformatics: Metagenomics Assembly alongside this course. Keywords:microbiology, bioinformatics, environmental, ecology, computational

Learn how to assemble a genome of a parasite that infects bees (collaboration with Dr. Jennifer VanWyk!). We will analyze shotgun metagenomic data to understand this parasite's functions in the guts of bees by annotating specific proteins, functions, and enzymes. This type of data set is extremely common in environmental microbiology and medical microbiology. We will focus heavily on using KBase and spreadsheets, while occasionally learning about python and submitting jobs to slurm clusters. The final report of this course will *hopefully* be published in a peer-reviewed journal! You are strongly encouraged to take Bioinformatics: Community Analysis alongside this course. Keywords:microbiology, bioinformatics, environmental, ecology, computational

We are going to build and develop a video game to help reinforce environmental engineering principles centered around wastewater treatment! Everybody poops but the cleaning process is often "out of sight and out of mind!" To help younger generations learn about the complex microbiology which cleans and remediates such a vital part of our daily lives. we're going to develop an interactive game! This class is going to require self-motivated students who are already reasonably proficient or can self-learn one of the following: art design, sound design, computer programing, and science communication. Throughout the course you will become experts in wastewater treatment, science communication, and gain real-world team building skills. Our final project will hopefully become a new educational tool for the public! Please e-mail Dr. Juliet Johnston (jjfac@hampshire.edu) for permission to enter the course and specify which skills you bring to the team! Keywords:Education, engineering, game design, sound, art

Learn the basics of environmental microbiology and how tiny single cell organisms dominate the Earth! This course will explore the physiology and metabolism of individual organisms before expanding to how microbial communities interact and control biogeochemical cycling. Towards the end of the course, we will explore applications of environmental microbiology from bioremediation of wastewater to fermentation byproducts in foods. We will occasionally have hands-on demonstrations and fundamental lab work. Throughout the course, we will have presentations and dialogues about how environmental microbiology impacts society and ties into social justice Keywords:Environmental microbiology bacteria archaea fungi

Overview of topics within environmental engineering and how humans have built infrastructure around us. Learn how to leverage chemical, biological, and physical processes to clean the environment. Course topics will span from drinking water treatment, wastewater treatment, solid waste management, hazardous waste management and more. There will be several opportunities for field trips to visit local infrastructure. Throughout the course, we will explore how our approaches to environmental engineering infrastructure intersect with equality and social justice in the community. Friday lab section will be a dedicated space for diving into engineering problems, mathematics concepts, homework review, and ongoing discussions. Keywords:Engineering waste drinking water pollution