Today was a beautiful fall day with the sun shining on the yellows, golds, and reds of the trees. The geese were flying around in large groups, calling to one another, pretending to get ready to fly south. We are all preparing for the winter to come.
The last school year was designated a "Sustainable Year" at Corning Community College and there were many activities throughout the year designed to increase awareness of sustainability among faculty, staff and students. The ad hoc Green Campus Committee which was started a few years ago has been replaced this year by a standing Sustainability committee, bringing the work into the mainstream of the college. We are very pleased that sustainability is now part of the college climate with administrative support and approval!
Another important milestone this year was the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth. The yearlong celebrations are almost at an end. We have chosen Dr. Sheila Dean to give our fall visiting scholar lecture on campus. Title of her lecture is "Charles Darwin: After the Origin and Before the Descent". Dr. Dean is curator of the Darwin Bicentennial Exhibition at Cornell University and is a respected scholar in the field. She is author of “Charles Darwin: After the Origin”. This book answers the question “What did Charles Darwin do during the 22 years after the Origin of Species was published?” as well as other questions about Darwin. We are looking forward to meeting her and hearing her talk.
I am also excited about our next year's conference topic: "Promoting Scientific Literacy in the 21st Century". Chad Thompson is the organizer and Westchester CC will be hosting the conference. I urge you all to make an effort to come in April. The lack of scientific literacy in our country should be of great concern to all of us. We, as biology educators, have the opportunity to change this one student at a time.
The conferences are always interesting, we meet with many colleagues from across the state and we have fun. This is an opportunity for those of you who are downstate to attend a conference relatively close to you. So mark your calendars and start planning. Interesting things can come from these conferences. The Green Campus Committee on our campus and later the Sustainable Year was formed after an inspiring session at the ESATYCB conference in Genesee Community College a few years ago.
Corning Community College |
