Science Communication Research + Practice | Impacts Assessment | Organizational Change Management
It’s World Sea Turtle Day, and I just happen to have a sketch of a sea turtle hatchling!I sketched this wee turtle, along with a handful of others in a display aquarium, last September. They were awaiting release at sunset, because the popular nesting site we visited was also one of Cyprus’s most popular beaches. Continue reading “A quick sketch for World Sea Turtle Day!”
You can tell it’s spring; the Internet is aflutter with bird articles.A lot of those articles relate closely to the two-part series I just wrapped up about attracting wild birds using methods informed by ornithology research.
I was inspired to investigate the subject because we have a “new-to-us” backyard that is bare dirt. A few trees and shrubs sit at the corners of the lot, but that’s it. We’ve begun by seeding in some native grasses and installing a vegetable garden, and now are considering what we could do to attract birds.
Ever since I first took an animal’s life with my own hands with the intention of eating it – a brook trout caught in a barely-big-enough-to-call-a-stream back in high school – I have been at turns fascinated and repulsed by what is involved with getting meat from hoof to dinner plate. This preoccupation predates my interests in science communication (#scicomm and #sciart) and persists to this day.
A lot of science and emotion is tied up in modern assessments of the ecological sustainability, morality, and even human/animal rights issues associated with eating meat. The British publication The Learned Pig recently published a photo essay of mine which explores the hands-on experience of killing, butchering, and eating meat. Continue reading “An artful look at eating meat”
…what I discover or wonder about with others through #scicomm projects and workshops. That’s what compelled me to launch Drawn to Quebec, an illustrated #sciart column about nature and culture, nearly one year ago.
Recently, I unpacked all my art materials, guide books, and gear into a new home on the windswept grasslands of Wyoming. And so I’ve returned to visually capturing what makes life so compelling in the high, dry, and sunny Mountain West of my childhood. Continue reading “Drawn to the West: a syndicated sciart column”
I’m delighted to announce that my illustrated column, Drawn to Quebec, has been nominated for a provincial ‘Best Column Writing’ award! Scroll to the bottom for links to all the articles in the series, or keep reading to see what the nomination, from the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph‘s editorial team, says: 
“Bethann’s illustrated column, Drawn to Quebec, has been a breath of fresh air for the editorial team and our readership. Specifically, she raised our awareness of issues that we didn’t know. Her extensive knowledge of the natural world, combined with years’ of teaching experience, enable her to write in a conversational fashion, including the readers in her articles by using “we” and “our”. This approach has helped not just our readers, but our staff, feel as though they’re being spoken with (not at), and they’re actively participating in discovery and exploration of Quebec City’s nature/culture overlap. Continue reading “Drawn to Quebec: an illustrated newspaper column”
Bethann Garramon Merkle, MFA 