Spring of 2019 was my second semester of being a TA (teaching assistant) for the popular Cornell University course PLPPM 2010/2013 Magical Mushrooms and Mischievous Molds. The main course had over 300 (!) students this year and I also taught smaller lab section to 27 students every Friday morning at 10am. Last year (with a […]
The topic of the mycology section one week was mushroom identification, an important one for anyone interested in mushroom foraging. We had also spent a lecture discussing Amanitas (of mario brothers mushroom fame). So I decided to make up some amanitas and ask the students what features would need to be added in order to […]
I like pretty much anything with cinnamon or raisins, but put the two together and I love them! I think there was a point in my first year of grad school where I was eating three cinnamon raisin bagels a day. I wish I were exaggerating… Cinnamon raisin bread has been a longstanding favorite of […]
One of my favorite baking projects for my magical mushrooms class was based on lichen week. Lichen is made up of a symbiosis (an interaction) between fungus, algae, and from a recent discovery yeast is also involved. Lichen can grow in harsh environments and comes in many forms. In class, we brought in samples of […]
This year I was a TA (teaching assistant) for a class at Cornell called Magical Mushrooms and Mischievous Molds. Its one of the largest classes at Cornell with over 300 people enrolled and is a popular way for non science majors to fulfill a science requirement. I taught the course last year as well including […]
It’s graduation weekend at Cornell. Lots of my friends are graduating this year including my roommate Mike, who has also been my unofficial taste tester for the past two years. Mike just finished a PhD in the plant sciences and one of his projects was on a grain called Kernza which is being touted as […]
In our lab we have a pretty nice and simple tradition for birthday celebrations. Whoever’s birthday was last makes the next birthday person’s cake. My birthday comes before the other two grad students in my lab (who happen to have the same birthday). Sometimes they make a request and this year they asked for a […]
One of the great perks of being in academia is the opportunity to travel to conferences every year. Not only is this an awesome chance to share your research, meet with collaborators, and learn about other work going on in your field, it’s also an amazing way to visit places all over the world and […]
My name is Zoe. I’m a 4th year PhD student at Cornell University living in Ithaca, New York, an aspiring plant scientist, and an avid baker. I bake almost every week, so I decided to start up this blog to share recipes and photos. I like to keep myself guessing so while my bakes are […]