Maru

Kicking off a new Adapt Faculty Mentoring Network with @acs.org Green Chemistry Institute this week! 🌱
Eight new participants, eight returning as facilitators—shared leadership in action. 💚
How do you build communities that help people grow into leadership roles?
#GreenChemistry #Community

YouTube video by Sarah Prescott Ionic Liquids: A Cautionary Tale in Green Design and Lessons Learned

Recording here if you want to check it out:
🔗 youtu.be/BmbtCO7pdyM

#GreenChemistry #Teaching #ScienceCommunication #Sustainability #STEMEducation #Chemistry

She kept everyone engaged with examples ranging from Legos and Vicks VapoRub… to QSAR, microwave-assisted synthesis, and yes—even fart smell. That’s how you make chemistry memorable. 🔬✨

We kicked off our Greener by Design guest speaker series with Dr. Meghna Dilip (Worcester State University) and wow — what a talk.

“Ionic Liquids: A Cautionary Tale in Green Design and Lessons Learned” explored both the promise and the pitfalls of ionic liquids.

painted turtle hatchling crawling over rocks and grass

Life’s been busy with fall course prep, but I finally wanted to share this: we got to help at least 7 tiny painted turtle hatchlings cross the road safely after they hatched near our mailbox. 🐢💚 A magical summer moment. #sustainability #wildlife #EverydayJoy

White flowers in the foreground with a small pond behind

Apples need pruning work, ducks are happy with a clearer pond, and I’m grateful for the food + lessons this year. Onward to Maru’s Meadows. 🌱💚

Closeup picture of unripened peaches in small mesh bags on a peach tree

Tried fruit bags on peaches to keep pests out… accidentally hosted an ANT PARTY. 🐜😂 Lesson learned.

Two bowls of peaches on a counter

Peaches were the stars — so many that I had to thin them mid-season. Flash frozen for winter PEACH CRISP (better than apple crisp, fight me). 🍑🔥

Cucumbers and assorted colored tomatoes in pans

This season’s garden experiments had wins, fails, & surprises. Tomatoes thrived this year (drought & all) — heirlooms from local plant sales. Even got some yummy yellow ones! Pickle-palooza: sweet, dill, garlic-dill, & my grandmother’s sour (mustard) pickles. (Only I eat those… but it’s tradition.)

This is truly well said

Imagine spending all that time and energy to become an FBI agent and then President Mumbles McFacepaint orders you to march around the yuppiest neighborhoods of Washington DC in tactical gear so drunk college kids can jeer at you.

Last night, chants of “FREE DC” echoed loud and clear through the Washington Spirit broadcast, absolutely incredible. Huge shoutout to everyone who made noise. Free DC is doing amazing work! ✊💚

These are not the stories of the “violent criminals” ICE says they are detaining. These are CHILDREN.
 
The headlines are horrifying. So much for keeping us safer…

Trump freezes $200 million in UCLA science and medical research funding, citing antisemitism The Trump administration has frozen roughly $200 million in National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and other federal agency-funded research at UCLA, citing allegations the school d...

Suspension of all grants to UCLA www.latimes.com/california/s...

💬 What’s your main thing?
Whether or not you were at BIOME, we’d love to hear what grounds you as an educator, leader, or changemaker. Drop a reply—we’re building together.
#CatalyzingChange #BioQUEST #STEMed

screenshot of a menti poll word cloud, with the words collaboration, community, learning, and engagement largest in the center

🧭 “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” @travisyork.bsky.social
Travis York’s keynote helped us reflect on our center, and our word cloud said it all: community, collaboration, learning.
#TheMainThing #BIOME2025 #Equity

screenshot of a zoom room of participants headshots smiling, most wearing tie dyed tshirts

🌈 Tie Dyed Tuesday brought the color and the energy! Our Bonfire shop’s still open if you want to rep the spirit year-round: lnkd.in/ef2SKtv8
📰 Don’t miss future events: qubeshub.org/news/newslet...
#TiedyedTuesday #BioQUEST

screenshot of zoom room with headshots of participants smiling

🌀 BIOME 2025 (organized by @bioquest.bsky.social ) was one of the most energizing events of my summer. Educators across disciplines came together to catalyze change through inclusive, sustainable, community-centered STEM education. #BIOME2025 #CatalyzingChange #STEMed #CommunitiesOfPractice

Each event gave me real hope. If we crossed paths—thank you.
And if you’re working on inclusive STEM ed, I’d love to connect and hear about it. 💬

Let’s keep the momentum going.

#STEMed #GreenChemistry #HigherEd #FacultyDev #CommunitiesOfPractice #CatalyzingChange

Community of Communities Gathering 2025 Schedule

🔬 Chemistry Community of Communities Convening
Joined a vibrant set of chem ed CoPs—some brand-new, others well-established.
📢 Spoke on BioQUEST as a Community of Transformation.
💡 Chem hasn’t had same structural and funding support as bio ed—but the energy here? 🔥
🔗 sites.google.com/view/chem-co...

Transforming Institutions Conference 2025 Saved on 2025-04-14 14:31:35 by Kacy Redd View Raw HTML Rowing in the Same Direction: Aligning Change Efforts Across Higher Education June 9-11, 2025 | St. Louis, MO The Transforming Institutions Conf...

🏛️ ASCN Transforming Institutions Conference
Shared how BioQUEST @bioquest.bsky.social supports equity-focused change in STEM.
💬 Rich convos on assessment, faculty networks + shared leadership.
🧠 Real change = community care.
🔗 ascnhighered.org/ASCN/transfo...

ACS GCI Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference Attend ACS Green Chemistry Institute's 29th Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference Pittsburgh, PA | June 23-26, 2025

🧪 Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference (GC&E)
Co-led a Greener by Design workshop with David Laviska and Sarah Kennedy @sarahkennedyphd.bsky.social.
🌍 Focus: green chemistry, the UN SDGs + systems thinking.
🎯 Takeaway: Values must be centered in STEM teaching.
🔗 www.gcande.org

It’s been a BIG summer of conferences—packed with ideas, momentum, and community. Here’s a quick rundown of where I’ve been showing up (and what I’m carrying forward). 🧵👇

The result—an increase of executive power at the expense of legislative authority-does not stand alone. Just last week, this Court granted another stay allowing the President to ignore a federal statute. That decision permitted the President to push forward in dismantling the Department of Education, even though Congress created that agency and tasked it with performing vital functions. See McMahon v. New York, 606 U.S. (2025) (SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 1). If the majority had any valid basis for taking that action (relating, say, to the breadth of the District Court's preliminary injunction) it did not appear on the face of the Court's unreasoned or-der. See id., at _ (order) (slip op., at 1); id., at (SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 18). That order simply signaled that the President could carry on, even in the face of a conflicting statute. So too does this order, and with the same lack of care. The majority has acted on the emergency docket—with "little time, scant briefing, and no argument" —to override Congress's decisions about how to structure administrative agencies so that they can perform their prescribed duties. Wilcox, 605 U.S., at _ (KAGAN, J., dissenting) (slip op., at 5). By means of such actions, this Court may facilitate the permanent transfer of authority, piece by piece by piece, from one branch of Government to another. Respectfully, I dissent.

By a 6-3 vote, SCOTUS lets Trump fire the Dem members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, who are protected against removal by statute.

Dissenting, Kagan says the majority is undertaking a “permanent transfer of authority” from Congress to the president.
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Columbia Agrees to $200 Million Fine to Settle Fight With Trump

Surely this will be the payment that finally gets the extortionist to stop demanding money

What an absolute waste of everyone’s time if you only have a 1 in 25 chance of being awarded funding. A waste of time for the applicants, for the reviewers (unless we’re just having robot RFKj review them), a waste of time for people waiting for cures and treatments.

🧵Introducing the Trump Action Tracker website!

Today I’m launching www.trumpactiontracker.info - a live, searchable list of authoritarian‑style actions from Trump’s second term (over 740 actions so far). 1/14

"Elite" schools could never!

BIOME 2025 Day 1!

Welcome to our annual BIOME 2025, focusing on the theme of Catalyst for Change: Empowering Faculty to Move Forward Together. Take a sneak peek below at today's schedule below!

For more information and to sign up for BioQUEST news: qubeshub.org/community/gr...

Yesterday we posted about the Trump administration shutting down the LGBTQ+ youth crisis line, the “press 3” option on 988 is officially gone. The Trevor Project is stepping up to help fill the gap, and they could really use some support right now. If you’re able, please consider donating! 🏳️‍🌈 💛