John Boyette

In summer 2022, I served as a mentor for Isaiah Bastien, a student at Lawson State Community College and participant in the University of Alabama’s NSF REU program. I met with Isaiah weekly throughout the summer, at first supporting him in his transition to full-time research, and later helping him to create a research poster and practice his presentation skills. Isaiah presented his research at a national conference in 2023 and recently received an honorary lab coat from Lawson State Community College, signifying his high achievement in STEM. Given that my experiences as an REU participant were crucial to my development as an early career researcher, it was deeply rewarding to support the growth and success of another REU participant.

The “Meet a Bama Biologist” program seeks to pair scientists at the University of Alabama with K-12 classrooms throughout Alabama. This initiative was created to narrow the K-12 science education gap in one of the nations most underserved areas. In October 2021, I was paired with two 5th grade classrooms at Holt Elementary School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and was asked to show how frogs interact with their habitats. I created a presentation including a brief overview of amphibian biology and a version of my “Frog Powers!” activity (developed at the NMNH), adapted for a virtual setting. Both classes loved the activity and nearly overwhelmed me with questions about “crazy” frog adaptations!

As part of my REU at the National Museum of Natural History, I designed an outreach activity titled “Frog Powers!” which introduced museum guests to the incredible biodiversity of frogs. The activity involved asking guests to consider physical features of frogs (e.g. big eyes, long legs, or webbed toes) and use this information to pair frogs with an expected environment (aquatic, terrestrial, tree canopy, or subterranean). This activity exposed guests to a variety of unique environmental adaptations in frogs, and also introduced them to the process of forming hypotheses based on natural observation. The activity was very popular with guests of all ages and it was especially rewarding to witness so many potential scientists excited about frogs!