Herbivory and coral reef health: do sea urchins upend the parrotfish paradigm? University of Vermont, February, 2019.
Coral reefs and climate change. Green Mountain Academy for Lifelong Learning, VT. February, 2018.
Next Generation Science Standards: what’s the big idea? Keynote speech, Chittenden South Supervisory Union, VT, August 2014.
What is natural? Merck Forest & Farmland Center, Rupert, VT, June 2013.
Why Evolution Matters. Green Mountain Academy for Lifelong Learning, Manchester, VT, August 2012.
Doing science in school. Keynote address, Rutland (VT) Southwest Supervisory Union, August 2012.
Science and anti-science in America. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, University of Vermont, Rutland, VT, May 2011.
What's love got to do with it: the biology of human mate choice. Northshire Bookstore, Manchester Center, VT, March 2011.
What’s the big idea: using technology in the K–12 science classroom. Keynote address, Southwest Vermont Science Partnership summit, December 2010.
Doing science on planet earth. Keynote address, science summit, Manchester Elementary and Middle School, Manchester Center, VT, January 2010.
What are the chances: a celebration of earth’s atoms. Merck Forest & Farmland Center, Rupert, VT, June 2009.
Why Darwin Matters. Northshire Bookstore, Manchester, VT, March 2009.
Fear of flying: why science matters. Convocation address, Bennington College, Bennington, VT, September 2, 2008.
A life of reading. Keynote address, school year opening, Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union School Teachers, August 2008.
Science and anti-science in America: belief and knowing. Keynote address: plenary session, 31st Annual Conference of the New England Association of Environmental Biologists. Mount Snow, VT, March 15, 2007.
Physiological differences among newts from ponds of different pH, (with student K. Stoop). Joint meeting of icthyologists and herpetologists, New Orleans, July 2006.
Presenter, Art, Artists & Teaching, J. Paul Getty Trust & Bennington College, Bennington, VT, June 2002.
Has pH served as an agent of natural selection in the evolution of newts? Northeast Natural History Conference VII, New York State Museum, Albany, NY, April 2002.
Adaptations of newts to ponds of different pH. Johnson State College, current topics in biology series, Johnson, VT, April 2002.
What’s so hot about fever anyway? fever as adaptation. Colorado College, Department of Biology Seminar, Colorado Springs, January 1999.
The Enterprise of Science. Keynote address, Vermont Institute for Science, Math, and Technology, Summer Institute, sponsored by National Science Foundation, July 1995.
Animal life of ponds. Bennington County Conservation District, August 1994.
The Biology of Sex. Burr & Burton Academy (private high school) biology seminar series, Manchester, VT, June, 1994.
Barbie Doll Biology: Can Barbie Do Math? Presented to the Vermont Institute of Science, Math, and Technology. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Colchester, VT, October 1993.
The Biology of Gender. Sponsored by the Women’s Issues Study Group, Bennington College, VT, October 1992.
Scaling: An Integrated Approach to Science and Math. Vermont Blueprints for Change II, Stowe, VT, May 1992.
The Contingent Nature of Scientific Knowledge. The Freedom Forum, Media Studies Center, Science and the Media, Columbia University, NY, March 1992.
Scaling the Heights with Dinosaurs. The importance of scale in science. Annual meeting of the National Science Teachers Association, Boston, March 1992.
Some Like It Hot! A predictive model of the Law of Conservation of Energy. Vermont Blueprints for Change II, May 1991.