Events

Speaking Topics

Events

2022 Availability:

In-person availability: October and November 2022. 

Virtual availability: May 2022 and October-December 2022.

Previous Events

October 2021: STAM MTS Professional Development Day
Keynote: The One Creating is the One Who is Learning
Five Fabulous Ways Students Can Create
VIRTUAL (hosted in Canada)

October 2020: Arkansas STEM Coalition Virtual Fall Conference 
Keynote: The One Creating is the One Who is Learning
Breakout Session: Bringing Science to Life with GIFs
VIRTUAL (hosted in Arkansas)

November 2019: CAST (Conference for the Advancement of Science Teaching)
Unlectured: Amoeba Sisters Adventures in Transforming the Lecture
Dallas, TX

March 2019: ComSciCon- Houston (at Rice University)
Communicating Science with GIFs
Houston, TX

March 2019: South by SouthWest Edu (SXSWedu)
Unlectured: Adventures in Transforming the Lecture
Austin, TX

March 2019: Metroplex Mini-CAST
Keynote: The One Creating is the One Who is Learning
Dallas, TX
​
March 2019: TCCTA Annual Convention​
Harnessing the Power of YouTube Videos to Facilitate Curiosity and Student Questioning
Houston, TX

July 2018: Panhandle STEM Conference
Five Fabulous Ways for Your Students to Create in Biology 
Lubbock, TX

July 2018: UTeach Stem Conference
Keynote: "The One Creating is the One Who is Learning"
Austin, TX

​June 2018: American Society of Microbiology Microbe
​Part of Symposium titled Creative Approaches to Presenting the Microbial World
Atlanta, GA

June 2018: #KleinPinIt Conference
Keynote: "Adventures in Creating"
Klein, TX

November 2017: CAST (Conference for Advancement of Science Teaching)
Five Fabulous Ways for Your Students to Create in Biology
Houston, TX

October 2017: Region 4 Science Conference
​​Formative Assessments with Student-Created GIFs
Let Students Be Creators with Science Vocabulary
Houston, TX

August 2017: TEKS Resource System Conference
Five Fantastic Ways Students Can Be Classroom Creators
Bringing Science TEKS to Life with GIFs
San Antonio, TX

​May 2017: UTeach Conference 
Speaker in Opening Plenary (Pinky is an UTeach alumna)
Austin, TX

March 2017: ComSciCon-Houston
Science Multimedia Panel
Houston, TX

January 2017: Klein ISD Unconference
Keynote: "The One Creating is the One Who Is Learning"
​Klein, TX

October 2016: TCCA
Amoeba Sisters Present: Five Fabulous Student Creation Types
Houston, TX

October 2016: Region 4 Science Conference
Student Video Creation in Science with Humor and Relevance
Houston, TX

July 2016: UTeach Alumni Conference
Strategies for Student Creation in a Time-Crunched Classroom
Austin, TX

June 2016: Region 9 Texoma Regional Math and Science Conference
Keynote: "The One Creating is the One Learning"
Amoeba Sisters Video Creation in the Classroom
Bringing Biology TEKS to Life with Comics and GIFs
Wichita Falls, TX

October 2015: TCCA 
Student Video Creation: Combining Creativity with Content The Comeback of the GIF: Animated Models Created by Students for Students
Houston, TX

July 2015: "Amoeba Sisters Student Video Creation Workshop" 
(in collaboration with UTeach)
Austin, TX

March 2015: SXSWEdu 
"Video Creation: Where is the Humor and Relevance?"
Austin, TX

February 2015: Region 4 Science Conference
Student Video Creation in Science with Humor and Relevance
Houston, TX

November 2014: CAST (Conference for Advancement of Science Teaching)
Engaging the 21st Century Biology Student With Student Generated Video
Dallas, TX

October 2014: Region 4 Digital Learning Conference
Beyond Screen Record: Bringing Humor and Relevance to Video Creation
Houston, Texas

July 2014: UTeach Alumni Conference
Engaging the 21st Century Learner with Video Creation
​Austin, Texas

Speaking Topics

Below are some of our active topics!

KEYNOTE: ​ "The One Creating is The One Who is Learning" 

Amoeba Sisters is a science YouTube channel that was created to try to solve a classroom obstacle, but over the past five years, it ended up showing us more about creating than we could have ever imagined. We have discovered there is so much learning in the creative process.  What is the value in involving students as creators in the classroom? What are some ways that students can create while still facing obstacles such as limited classroom time and/or resources? Join us in exploring the lessons we've learned in our adventure in creating! Discover how you can empower students as classroom creators!

Featured Presentation: "Five Fabulous Ways for Your Students to Create in Science" 

​The one doing the creating is the one who is learning, and this includes your science students! As the Amoeba Sisters, we are creators of videos, GIFs, and comics that demystify science. Consider the power of providing opportunities for your students to create! Learn how to involve your students as creators in your classroom while still maximizing your classroom time. Student creation types discussed include GIFs, comics, podcasts, and more with strategies for handling obstacles including limited technology. Teachers will leave this session with five ideas, several template resources, and recommendations of freely available tools to involve their students as creators, and not just consumers, of creations that can support science standards.

Featured Presentation: "Bringing Science to Life with GIFs" 

GIFs are popular among students on social media, but did you know they are also very powerful in science education? GIFs can serve as powerful visualizations and models for science processes and vocabulary. Take a look at the GIF science collection we have created! Learn how you and your students can create GIFs with or without technology while maximizing precious classroom time. When students are provided opportunities for creating GIFs, the result is a powerful blend of engagement, relevance, and science content!

Featured Presentation: "Using YouTube Videos to Facilitate Curiosity and Student Questioning" 

As co-creators of the Amoeba Sisters YouTube Channel, we create short science educational videos that use a style of memorable comics. Yet, we are only one of the many educational YouTube Channels out there! YouTube videos can serve as a tool, and like many tools, it is how the tool is used that determines its effectiveness. What are some different styles of educational YouTube videos out there? How can educational YouTube videos be more effectively used so that they provide more time for student discussion and encourage students to ask questions beyond the content? What are some free tools that can help students connect to the YouTube content? Participants will leave this session with an understanding of educational tools that can be used with educational YouTube videos, tips that help make YouTube videos more accessible, and creative ideas for promoting student discussion and questioning.

Featured Presentation: "Facilitating Student Discussion with Biology Comics" 

There is research that suggests humor, when used effectively, can be used to increase student content retention. As the Amoeba Sisters, we create biology videos, GIFs, and comics that strive to be memorable and are frequently humorous. How can the many biology comics that exist out there be used to facilitate student discussion and dynamically change traditional lectures? How can students get involved in creating biological comics that can be presented to the class for feedback? Participants will leave this session with an understanding of using comics as a student discussion tool as well as ideas for involving their students in the comic creation process. Concepts in this presentation are very similar to the method behind our Unlectured Series.

Workshop: "Communicating Science with GIFs"

While GIFs have been around since 1987, they have surged in popularity on social media and everyday messaging communication. Have you considered their use in education? GIFs can be very powerful for communicating educational concepts including science processes and vocabulary. This session will demonstrate several ways that GIFs can be used for class discussion as well as how instructors- and students- can create their own. Participants will leave this session with ideas for using GIFs in their biology course as well as a sample template for creating them. A smartphone, laptop, or tablet is recommended for this session. Note: Unlike the featured presentation on GIFs, this workshop format provides more time for participants to create GIFs to communicate their science (perhaps what they are teaching or their current research). We have a collection of GIFs that we often use as examples which may be helpful to view if considering whether this session would be a good fit.

Workshop: "Amoeba Sisters Video Creation Workshop" 

This workshop shows a teacher-student collaborative video creation process that uses a similar style of video creation that we use in our videos. The steps used are designed to maximize time and work with already freely available technology resources. You can actually find out more about our video creation steps on our "Student Creators" page.

Amoeba Sisters Press Kit

Note: Our Speaking Event Inquiry form is directly below this Q&A.

What is your speaking availability currently?

We took a hiatus from most in-person speaking in 2020 and in 2021 due to the pandemic.

​For 2022, we are currently working on some projects which limits our speaking availability. We have some in-person availability October and November 2022. We have virtual speaking availability in May 2022 and October-December 2022.

What is your fee to speak in-person or virtually at an event?

After submitting the inquiry form near the bottom of this page, we can calculate costs of time for presenting and preparation (whether in-person or virtually). In addition, if speaking in-person, we calculate hotel and travel costs. We need to be fiscally responsible to support ourselves with our time, but we also strive to keep our costs down as much as possible as speaking is not a major source of revenue for us. ​

There is a science or education conference that I like to attend. Can you speak there?

Maybe! We have some information compiled about us here that you can send to a conference organizer to help them determine if we are a good fit. Then, if the conference organizer is interested, they can complete the inquiry form near the bottom of this page.

What are your speaking topics?

Since we have learned so much by creating (videos, GIFs, comics, etc), we are very passionate about empowering students as creators in the science classroom. Many of our presentations focus on ideas for involving students to create in science. In addition, we also like to present about using YouTube in edu and biology-specific content. You can see more about our speaking topics on the "speaking topics" tab at the top of this page.

I am a high school teacher or college professor. Can I invite you to use Zoom or Skype with my class?

We love speaking to high school or college classes on Skype or Zoom. Since we won't have travel costs and the time commitment is usually small (15-30 minutes) without any prep, we don't charge anything for this. However,  we usually have limited weekdays available.

This is the sequence of what we have done in the past, but you may have another request:
1) How we got started.  
2) What we learned along the way. 
3) How creating has made us enjoy science even more and has helped us reach others. 
4) Do you have any questions for us?

Here are the steps we suggest to take if you are interested in having us join your class with Skype or Zoom:
1. Check with your school/university/district administration first as rules about how to proceed can vary around the world. 
2. Contact us using the speaking inquiry form (near bottom of this page), which will ask for potential dates. 
3. If you don't regularly use virtual conferencing, you may want to ask for assistance from a colleague who is familiar with Zoom or Skype.
4. Ask students to brainstorm questions ahead of time; they may want to write them down beforehand.

Just a note: we highly encourage checking out Skype a Scientist (not affiliated) if interested in connecting your class with scientists!

Our response to the above form usually takes between 2-4 business days as we will be checking our calendar and providing information in our response.
​
​ Note: We do not do email lists or newsletters. We only respond to emails or contact forms to answer an inquiry or provide requested information. See privacy policy.

---