Our fellow Swastika Issar has been working on a seminar series together with CVIF. Hear more from her on the series:

Senior High School teachers with backgrounds in environmental studies, chemistry and earth sciences have come together at the JAZC Marine Sciences Laboratory of the Central Visayan Institute Foundation, Jagna on a DOST-supported project to study marine mollusc diversity in Jagna Bay. Keeping their varied educational backgrounds in mind, I’ve designed the CVIF- Science Corps Seminar Series as an interactive resource to aid everyone in interpreting, understanding and communicating findings from the project. The series comprises seven lectures starting in September 2022 and going into January 2023. In the introductory seminar we discussed mollusc ecology and evolution in the light of fundamental concepts in biodiversity, genetic variation and natural selection. Next we discussed how variation in mollusc morphology could result from environmental variation, such as the effect of substrate. The ‘methods’ and ‘results’ modules of the series are focused on tools and techniques for quantifying mollusc diversity (DNA barcoding) followed by a crash course in sequencing data analysis. The seminar series will culminate in our connecting findings from data analysis to the larger conceptual framework discussed at the beginning of the series.

In photo from the left to right:

• Dr. Christopher C. Bernido (CVIF President)
• Ms. Mary Dored Ann Cadeliña (Science Research Specialist)
• Ms. Jodivine A. Navarosa (Science Research Specialist)
• Dr. Janneli Lea A. Soria (JAZC Marine Science Laboratory Project Head)
• Ms. Kimverly Ranoco (Science Research Specialist))