| Description | Beyond Writing 101: Preparing Engineering Students for their Future as Effective Eommunicators Dr. Seana Davidson is a Lecturer and UW Bothell. She has been conducting research at the University of Washington, Seattle, for 17 years, and teaching for the past decade. As a Research Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department Davidson has had extensive experience reviewing journal submissions for a number of journals, writing, publishing, and reviewing grants. She has earned multiple grants from NSF, DARPA, and Chevron Energy Technology Company, and coordinated complex projects with diverse personnel including undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs. As a committed educator, Davidson has mentored undergraduate and graduate student research for 16 years in the fields of microbial symbioses, molecular methods, environmental microbial ecology, and applications of earthworms, which are really mini soil bioreactors. All of her students were required to write about their research, most also participated in the Mary Gates Undergraduate Research Symposiums, and several won Mary Gates Undergraduate fellowships. Dr. Davidson also enjoys teaching in the classroom and has taught microbiology related topics at the University of Washington for approximately a decade. She is committed to helping others improve their writing and often helps colleagues with editing, and her students with their writing structure and language use. Her courses often incorporate a writing component. A microbial ecology course she taught for three years required weekly writing that improved their critical thinking and writing skills over the quarter simply through writing practice. This will be her fifth year teaching a technical writing workshop that she developed for CEE students needing a few more W credits to graduate, offering her the opportunity to learn more about engineering and sustainability topics from the students. The course focuses specifically on improving fundamental writing skills and communication. Dr. Davidson has traveled widely, mainly for research, but also for fun, including several earthworm hunts in the forests of Brazil. These trips included teaching the local scientists and students about the earthworm symbiosis system and required skills for communicating concepts to students who barely understood English. Davidson's educational background includes a BA in Biology from University of Oregon Robert Clark Honors College and a PhD in Marine Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego (1999), and continued to a postdoc in Hawaii to work on luminescent squid funded on an NIH NRSA award. Davidson is passionate about education and improving science communication because engineers and scientists need to clearly convey their findings to be effective at their jobs, and to educate the public. She will present her concepts for future development of an engineering communications program. Dr. Davidson will be available for drop-in meetings on Feb. 26 between 10-10:30 a.m. in Sieg 420. |
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