Marie van Staveren
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chemdrv.bsky.social
Marie van Staveren
@chemdrv.bsky.social
They/them. Chemistry teaching faculty at UMBC. LongCOVID. Programming, equity, and non-traditional paths in chemistry education. Centering humans and hope. Opinions very much my own.
Reposted by Marie van Staveren
this is bisexual heritage. Please do not mess it up, this can heal us or really hurt us...
Brendan Fraser says 'The Mummy 4' is the sequel he's always wanted to make

“I’ve been waiting 20 years for this call ... It’s time to give the fans what they want"

(via AP)
November 22, 2025 at 6:57 PM
"I maintain that the destructive lens of the people made of wood is not science itself, but the lens of the scientific worldview...the separation of knowledge from responsibility."
From "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer
November 22, 2025 at 11:02 PM
I had Blackboard on the list of restriced apps when my phone is in work mode and honestly good choice
November 21, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Reposted by Marie van Staveren
Oooooooh, looks like the news is out! 😁

Our human evolution picture book announcement!!!

I've been SO pumped about this one. It is the story both my soul and my academic side has been longing to tell. I'm thrilled to work with Galia and bring this important story to life for young kids everywhere.
November 20, 2025 at 10:31 PM
I had an entire plan to get to work today based on city buses always running 5min late...and the bus came early
November 20, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Okay y'all read this
Okay, a little more serious of a thought on this...

Grades started becoming less meaningful when more students started to be able to get good grades. (They were meaningful to more people when they reenforced the existing social hierarchies.)
I'm being made to understand that grades don't "mean anything anymore" but I'm hoping someone can point me to the time when they were meaningful.
November 19, 2025 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Marie van Staveren
I'm being made to understand that grades don't "mean anything anymore" but I'm hoping someone can point me to the time when they were meaningful.
November 18, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Clearly having an odd work day, started an impromptu re-read of Pedagogy of the Oppressed midafternoon
November 18, 2025 at 9:28 PM
My heat is on the fritz so I just keep roasting squash and throwing it into everything I'm eating and honestly 10/10 would recommend
November 18, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Today's theme is colleagues saying that students didn't listen the first five times they said something so they repeated it five more times and me trying to figure out how to turn my internal scream into something professionally useful
November 18, 2025 at 3:29 PM
I skimmed an annoying reading for journal club because I thought I had to leave early for a student thing, but then the student rescheduled. Should I actually do the reading?
November 18, 2025 at 1:56 PM
By any chance does one of y'all keep a list of news reports of Rainbow Flames accidents?
November 17, 2025 at 12:18 PM
City living this morning looks like shelling beans on my front stoop while listening to the wind gusts grab the last of the leaves off the trees
November 16, 2025 at 1:37 PM
This is your irregularly scheduled reminder that college students are not kids
November 14, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Thinking about a talk I saw recently from a red state faculty member whose slides contained very few banned words but who clearly was talking around them the whole talk
November 14, 2025 at 3:40 PM
It's possible I've never actually focused on anything in my life
November 12, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Row house living is my heat being out and thanking my neighbors for the heat coming through the walls so it doesn't get too cold in my house
November 12, 2025 at 2:31 PM
My happy thought for the day:
Two students who took pchem with me last year are doing biochem this fall. They tend to study for biochem quizzes in my conference room.
Now, they are *not* biochemists. It's a requirement that they're taking with much complaining...
November 11, 2025 at 9:32 PM
A student dropped by with a statement of purpose for feedback and I'm suddenly remembering that it's about to be letter of rec season. Putting this out there for anyone else who'd forgotten it was coming...
November 11, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Anyone else picture the Goddess Boys when they wipe down their kitchen counter or is it just me?
November 10, 2025 at 12:55 PM
A change for me that predates chatgpt is doing more mental math. For years I've been pausing before I reach for a calculator and pushing myself to do the work in my own brain. Not all math all the time, just more than I used to.
I became very conscientious about this during COVID. I do puzzles, read hard things or read and watch programming with different normative (or cultural) assumptions etc. I would like to keep what I can. Bananas to come out of the forced mediated world of COVID…and jump into AI.
Exactly, including for the long term for health benefits. Friend of mine did Parkinson’s research at Mayo for decades and he tells me all the time how important it is to stay mentally active to reduce the chances of a whole lot of cognitive decline.
November 8, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Latest LMS feature: "Automate encouragement"
November 7, 2025 at 8:18 PM
The joy on social media this morning is invigorating. Next steps for me: wake up my kid, donate to a good bank, check in on a neighbor who needs a hand, then get to work.
November 5, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Reposted by Marie van Staveren
I’ll never support Donald Trump or his administration’s aims and actions. But I know too that they’d rather have people like me just give up instead and become apathetic and cynical so they can do what they want without opposition.

I’m doing the reverse instead. (11/11)
October 31, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Marie van Staveren
Man, do you know what rules? Actually loving other people, reminding us that we deserve a government that cares for us, and inspiring us to meet our neighbors.
November 5, 2025 at 2:51 AM