The sound of a rattlesnake is unmistakable once you’ve heard it once. But this sound wasn’t on my mind when I almost stepped on one a few weekends ago. I was in the Santa Rita mountains of southern Arizona. The highest peak, Mt. Wrightson, looms 7000 feet above the Tucson basin. In late March, mountaintops…

(Re-blogged from a piece I wrote for the White House) My great-grandfather immigrated to the United States from China in 1915, at the age of 11. He soon became the owner of a corner grocery store in Tucson, Arizona, and stayed in the community for decades. Now, almost a century later, I find myself living…

I was honored yesterday to speak at the White House about my work with the University of Arizona’s Sky School. We are a residential outdoor science school located in the heart of the Coronado National Forest. Our mission is to connect K-12 students to science and environment, and so inspire the next generation of conservation…

Is it more effective to learn science through the common progression of disciplinary science classes or instead through an interdisciplinary approach? The University of Arizona has many students with science course requirements and scientific interests who might still not be planning on science careers or degrees. Narrowly focused courses might not be the most effective…