Talking Real Science with Wendy Riggs This episode of Share Science features Wendy Riggs , MS, an associate professor of biology at the College of the Redwoods in California. Wendy presented a webinar with us earlier this year on how to adapt classrooms to an online environment, and her enthusiasm and passion for education and science is what brought her here today as a guest. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST:

Where did you grow up and how did your youth influence your path and passion towards science?

I grew up in southern Oregon, east of the Cascades, so I was in a rural community and I pretty much lived outside. We used to go camping all the time, fishing all the time. I can vividly remember hiking around with my dad, and he would roll logs over so we could see what was underneath. We were definitely outdoors a lot, and I quickly realized that this is super interesting and a passion of mine.

I actually knew I wanted to be a teacher before I knew I wanted to be a scientist.

In my freshman year in college, I thought I was going to teach little kids, which would've been really fun, but I took a biology course and thought, "Nope, Ive got to teach biology and spend some time actually teaching at the high school level before moving to the college level." I definitely had a lot of outdoor experiences that made me want to learn more about how things work.

It's just really fun to have the background and the experience to be able to look at something and then go, how does that happen? How does it do that? To be able to look it up and figure it out is really fun.

Where did you study to get there and why did you choose education specifically?

When I was a junior in high school, my dad and I traveled. We visited Humboldt State University in Northern California and it was just instant. I was like, "Oh my gosh, Ive got to live here." We're right on the ocean. We're in the middle of the redwoods. It's a really amazing place, so I targeted the college itself because of where it's located. It also had a really strong marine biology program, and that was something that I was interested in, although I decided to spend my first semester thinking I was going to be in elementary education. Like I said, that first biology class, I still remember that professor and just how awesome she was at explaining things and how fascinated I was at being able to explain what was happening and being able to understand it, so I pretty much knew that education was the thing that I wanted to do.

Who was or is the greatest influence on your career?

It's so hard to say. Definitely that first biology professor. I also had an awesome biology instructor in high school who was just fired up. He used to take us out into the canals behind our high school in the fall. They would stop filling the canals with water, and we'd go out there and see all the critters that had sadly lost their water, so they weren't going to make it, but it was really fun to go see all the diversity that was out there.

I have definitely had some amazing biology instructors. I have to say that as a professional, as a college professor, the Human Anatomy and Physiology Society (HAPS) is just full of inspiring, supportive, amazing people who have had a huge impact on my professional development.

Our connection with that organization started out at face-to-face conferences, but with COVID and things moving online, we're now using social media to connect. We have town halls and hang out. It just feels like there's greater access to that part of my professional community than in the past. That's really, really valuable to me. [fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" align_self="auto" content_layout="column" align_content="flex-start" valign_content="flex-start" content_wrap="wrap" spacing="" center_content="no" column_tag="div" link="" target="_self" link_description="" min_height="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" sticky_display="normal,sticky" class="" id="" type_medium="" type_small="" order_medium="0" order_small="0" dimension_spacing_medium="" dimension_spacing_small="" dimension_spacing="" dimension_margin_medium="" dimension_margin_small="" margin_top="" margin_bottom="" padding_medium="" padding_small="" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" hover_type="none" border_sizes="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_radius="" box_shadow="no" dimension_box_shadow="" box_shadow_blur="0" box_shadow_spread="0" box_shadow_color="" box_shadow_style="" z_index_subgroup="regular" z_index="" z_index_hover="" overflow="" background_type="single" gradient_start_color="" gradient_end_color="" gradient_start_position="0" gradient_end_position="100" gradient_type="linear" radial_direction="center center" linear_angle="180" background_color="" background_image="" background_image_id="" lazy_load="avada" skip_lazy_load="" background_position="left top" background_repeat="no-repeat" background_blend_mode="none" render_logics="" sticky="off" sticky_devices="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" sticky_offset="" filter_type="regular" filter_hue="0" filter_saturation="100" filter_brightness="100" filter_contrast="100" filter_invert="0" filter_sepia="0" filter_opacity="100" filter_blur="0" filter_