VIP Outreach Team Activate!

Today is the first of four outreach events that Meg Burke, Lindzy Bivings and I will be leading all around the Batangas area. I’m nervous and excited about sharing about science, biodiversity, and sustainability for people on local communities in the Philippines! Our first stop today is a training for about 60 teachers at the …

Incredible Coral Reef and the Academy Aquarium

Working at the Cal Academy, I have spent a good amount of time in our aquarium, particularly our main setpiece, the giant Philippines coral tank. I must admit I have wondered if the sheer diversity and density of life in our tank actually represents what you would encounter here in the Philippines.  Having done several dives …

Cool Specimens in the VIP Makeshift Lab

As I mentioned in a previous post, we’ve got a really neat makeshift lab that we’ve set up in the dining area of the Atlantis Beach Resort. I did a little walk through and spotted these cool specimens that were recently collected. Kelly Markello was working on this beautiful echinoderm. It appears to be leeching …

Snorkeling with Rich Mooi

Yesterday I had the opportunity to go on a snorkeling dive with Rich Mooi, curator of invertebrate zoology at the Cal Academy. Dr. Mooi is one of the principal investigators of the expedition and an expert on marine invertebrates, particularly sea urchin. He’s also an amazing illustrator and science educator. So really a triple threat!     …

Arrived at Atlantis Dive Resort

We’ve arrived! After about 20 hours of flights from San Francisco to Honolulu to Guam to Manila, an overnight stay in Manila, a three hour ride in a van, and a one hour boat ride, we finally arrived at the Atlantis Dive Resort in Puerto Galera yesterday afternoon (Tuesday, April 7).   I have not spent much …

Hyperlapse Test 2: T-Rex Orbit Shot!

The Hyperlapse app seems pretty cool. But the latest iOS already includes a timelapse function in the camera. So what’s the big deal? A lot, apparently, as you can see from comparing the two videos of the same subject that I shot with the iOS timelapse function and Hyperlapse, respectively. In this case, I chose to …

Update on My Philippines Adventures this April!

[crossposted from the "Academy Adventures" blog] Hi Folks! Rik Panganiban here, senior manager of Digital Learning at the Academy. I’m super excited to announce that, beginning on April 5, I will be participating in the 2015 Philippines Verde Island Passage (VIP) expedition, along with 40 or so other scientists and other experts from the Cal …

Off to the Philippines for VIP 2015!

Hi Folks! Rik Panganiban here, senior manager of Digital Learning at the Academy.  I’m super excited to announce that, beginning on April 5, I will be participating in the 2015 Philippines Verde Island Passage (VIP) expedition, along with 40 or so other scientists and other experts from the Cal Academy and other science institutions in the United States and …