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Northland Pioneer College (NPC) Biology Professor Pat Lopez gave a colorful PowerPoint presentation of her sabbatical last semester at the Navajo County Community College District Governing Board meeting on Feb. 19.
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The sabbatical was granted to Lopez by NPC for professional development and within that, Lopez said she spent the bulk of her time at the Petrified Forest National Park (PEFO) helping in a variety of areas.
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Lopez was also able to spend two one-week periods at Glendale Community College, observing lectures and labs, as well as attending the National Association of Biology Teachers Conference in San Diego.
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“Biotechnology is where the greatest advance of biology have taken place in the last 30 years,” shared Lopez. “I am a little behind in that. Spending time at Glendale gave me a chance to do professional development.”
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At the National Association of Biology Teachers Conference in San Diego, Lopez explored the possibility of two-stage exams for improved retention and decreased achievement gaps as well as teaching evolution to students with strong religious believes.
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Interaction and exploration continued with the time spent at PEFO. “I had a chance to do a back country tour with Superintendent Brad Traver,” shared Lopez. “Back country means every kind of wonder you can think of from ice cream rocks to petroglyphs to places where fossils litter the ground. It’s just there everywhere.”
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Lopez continued, “I was drafted into helping with the 2018 BioBlitz, which is a 24 hour snap shot of biodiversity within the park. It was all hands and all eyes on deck, inventorying as many species as possible in that time. We had over 100 participants and 1,000 sightings with more than 300 species found that were new to the park.”
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Then there was the winter bird survey, which was done at sunrise, but not too many birds showed up.
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“Dr. Bill Parker thought what would be useful would be for me to go through and look at all the permit applications for ecological work done at the park and create a spreadsheet,” said Lopez.
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Thinking it was just a way to organize the volumes of material at the PEFO offices, Lopez soon found some interesting pieces of history, including the permit the National Aeronautics and Space Administration submitted to come and drive the rover around with a guy in a space suit walking around because the rocks at the park were similar to those on Mars.
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“The overall value was time and space to read and interact with my colleagues,” concluded Lopez. “I am already applying the many things I learned to the classroom.”
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Board Member James Mattison thanked Lopez for her presentation, stating, “This demonstrates the value of the sabbatical, it is a tremendously powerful tool.”
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