VIRTUAL EVENTS

Join Smithsonian Marine Ecosystem Exhibit marine science educator, Laura La Beur, as she shares facts about the Oculina Reef, a deep-water coral reef habitat off the coast of Florida, and introduces the Oculina Ecosystem exhibit at the St. Lucie County Aquarium in Fort Pierce, Florida. A feeding of the exhibit will follow.

Join EarthEcho International for a STEM-tastic conversation about diversity and inclusion in marine science with the founders of Minorities in Shark Science (MISS). MISS seeks to promote diversity and inclusion in shark science and encourage women of color to push through barriers and contribute knowledge in marine science.

Learn from our Submersible Pilots and Co-Pilots as we explore topics ranging from sonar imaging to buoyancy control. Each individual will discuss their unique path to Submersible Piloting and answer questions about the training process, how manned submersibles work, and wild encounters with marine life—including sharks!

Join EarthEcho International for a STEM-tastic conversation about conservation criminology with Aalayna Green, Conservation Criminology Student at Michigan State University. Aalayna has interest in wildlife conservation, indigenous rights, natural resource policy, wildlife crime, feminist political ecology, water sanitation, community conservation and environmental sustainability.

Ever wondered where your #1 and #2 went after you flushed? And what exactly do we do with all those wastes? Join EarthEcho and the South Cross Bayou Advanced Water Reclamation Facility as we go behind the scenes of Pinellas County’s largest wastewater treatment facility to learn about how we recover our favorite waste, a solid #2, and make it into a safe product that can be used as a fertilizer to grow crops. With streaming footage from inside our egg-shaped digesters to our fertilizer factory, we’ll give you a firsthand look at how science, technology, and engineering allow us to protect human health and keep our waterways clean from “poo-lution!”

Join EarthEcho International for a STEM-tastic conversation about fisheries biology with Dr. Julie Vecchio, Fisheries Biologist at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, FL. Dr. Vecchio is a marine biologist who uses chemistry and genetics to study the movements and diets of fish from the first days and throughout the lifetime.

Join EarthEcho International for a STEM-tastic conversation about watershed biogeochemistry with Diana Oviedo Vargas, Watershed Biogeochemist at Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, PA. Diana's research seeks to improve our knowledge about the elemental cycles in streams, rivers, and estuaries and how they are linked to each other, to the water cycle, and to the terrestrial ecosystem at the surface and the subsurface level. Her expertise includes aquatic ecosystems in temperate and tropical zones and along the full river continuum, from headwaters, to large rivers, to estuaries and the coastal ocean.

Join EarthEcho International for a STEM-tastic conversation about environmental forensics and ecology with Dr. Tiara Moore, Environmental Ecologist and Postdoctoral Scholar at The Nature Conservancy in Seattle, WA. Dr. Moore is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Washington and The Nature Conservancy using soil eDNA to develop a biodiversity census of Ellsworth Forest to compare species diversity across management treatments over the past 10 years.Inside and outside of the lab, Dr. Moore hopes her research in biodiversity will translate to increasing the overall diversity in science. She dedicates her time to mentoring minority women in the lab and in afterschool programs. Founder of A WOC SPACE, Dr. Moore aspires to make a safe and inclusive workplace for all women of color (WOC) through WOCShops and individual personal trainings. To round things off Dr. Moore combines her experiences as a WOC Scientist with her upbeat personality in her Academic Standup Shows, both communicating science and the struggles of being a minority in STEM.