Promoting Joy in Biology Teaching and Learning

When have you felt move valued and seen in a learning setting? For most, the classroom does do evoke feelings of acceptance and joy. Instead, the emphasis on rigor and grades has made learning painful. It's time for joy! I study how joy can be fostered in the classroom and the impact joy-centered has on student success. I also am a pedagogical consultant and trainer––preparing current and future educators for the challenging, but exciting roles of a facilitator in a classroom. I explore how professional development can alter the culture of teaching and learning, particular in STEM, and how these changes can lead to systemic change.

Interested in joining my lab? I am accepting undergraduate student researchers for the summer.

If you want to learn more about biology education research, including using qualitative and quantitative methods to explore impacts of teaching on learning, reach out to me at [email protected]. 

The Monkeyflower Microbiome

All plants harbor communities of microbes in their tissues known as endophytes. Endophytes are increasingly recognized for their role in plant tolerance to stress, including drought, salinity, herbivory, and pathogens. Despite their importance, little is known about their evolution, taxonomy, or ecology in natural systems. Plants that are adapting to stress, especially those at the edge of their species range, make an ideal system to study microbial species interactions that confer tolerance to plant hosts. My long-term goal is to use an evolutionary and ecological understanding gained from identifying fungal and bacterial endophytes from wild plants at range limits and determine their function in mitigating plant stress through experimental inoculation. 
Picture
Monkeyflower (E. laciniata), part of its range from lower (warm-edge) to higher (cool-edge) elevations, and its entire range across the Sierra Nevada.

Marasmius from Madagascar 

 Fungi represent a vast and indispensable part of life on Earth. They are the planet's recyclers, symbionts of over 90% of all plants, a critical component of every ecosystem. Yet, despite their importance and impact, only some 120,000 of an estimated 1.8 million species of fungi have been formally described; less than 7%. Not surprisingly, it is in the warmest, wettest places on Earth where the greatest number and variety of species exist; places that represent the foremost frontiers of mycological exploration. For my master's thesis work with the Desjardin Lab at San Francisco State University, in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences Madagascar Biodiversity Center, and through funds raised through my Kickstarter campaign "Mushrooms of Madagascar", I traveled to the rainforests of Madagascar in search of new species of wood-decaying mushrooms, Marasmius, named for their ability to revive after desiccation when exposed to moisture (a process called "marcescence"). I described 5 new species, provided DNA sequences for 43, and constructed the most complete monograph of Marasmius globally to date (Shay et al. 2017).

Check out my travel blog "Shay Shrooms" for the details from the adventure!  

​Here is one of the species I described, Marasmius rubrobrunneus, ​named for its reddish brown color. 
Picture
Marasmius rubrobrunneus mushrooms. Scale bar = 10 mm. Photography by D.S. Newman. Shay et al. 2017.
Picture
Marasmius rubrobrunneus a) basidiospores; b) basidioles; c) cheilocystidia; d) pileipellis cells. Scale bar = 10 μm. Illustrated by J.E. Shay.

Publications

Rules of plant species ranges: applications for conservation strategies
JE Shay, LK Pennington, JAM Montiel-Molina, DJ Toews, BT Hendrickson, JP Sexton (2021)

Resilient instructional strategies: helping students cope and thrive in crisis
JE Shay, C Pohan (2021)

Tackling real-world environmental paper pollution: a problem-based microbiology lesson about carbon assimilation
JE Shay, R Solis, ME García-Ojeda (2020)

The genus Marasmius (Basidiomycota, Agaricales, Marasmiaceae) from Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, West Africa
CL Grace, DE Desjardin, BA Perry, JE Shay (2019)
Phytotaxa 414 (2), 55-104

Transmission of Bacterial Endophytes
AC Frank, JP Saldierna Guzmán, JE Shay (2017)
Microorganisms 5 (4), 70. DOI 10.3390/microorganisms5040070​

​Evolution of ecological niche breadth
JP Sexton, J Montiel, JE Shay, MR Stephens, RA Slatyer (2017)
Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 48. DOI 10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110316-023003

The type species of Tetrapyrgos and Campanella (Basidiomycota, Agaricales) are redescribed and epitypified
DE Desjardin, BA Perry, JE Shay, DS Newman (2017)
Mycosphere 8 (8), 977–9852017. DOI 10.5943/mycosphere/8/8/1

Biodiversity and phylogeny of Marasmius (Agaricales, Basidiomycota) from Madagascar
JE Shay, DE Desjardin, BA Perry, CL Grace, DS Newman (2017)
Phytotaxa 292 (2), 101-1492017. DOI 10.11646/phytotaxa.292.2.1