Teaching and Outreach

My teaching background includes both experience in the classroom (General Biology Laboratory, FIU) and in the field as a faculty resource professor for various undergraduate and graduate tropical biology study abroad courses in Costa Rica. I especially enjoy mentoring university and high school students in the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program of the Organization for Tropical Studies and Field Museum Women in Science internship program. My favorite teaching experiences have been giving talks, presentations, and leading forest walks for local children in Costa Rica and the Chicago region.

Forest walks, talks, and amphibian and reptile ID workshops at the Sarapiqui Conservation Learning Center

Training members of Guias Rio Tigre Acodobrarti, Proyecto de Rastreadores Locales (photo far left) and MINAE forest rangers (photo immediate left) in amphibian and reptile identification and biological monitoring (Osa Peninsula).


Women in Science

Field Museum Women in Science Internships

Each summer, high school and undergraduate interns are paired together to work on a research project and present their results.

  • Is there evidence for acoustic (temporal and frequency) resource partitioning among syntpoic glass frog species?



LSAMP REU

OTS NSF LSAMP REU

Glass frog oviposition site selection

  • Do glass frogs select for specific habitat and microhabitat variables during oviposition?

  • Does oviposition site selection affect clutch success?

Student publications

Ortiz Ross, X.†, M. E. Thompson, E. Salicetti-Nelson, O. Vargas Ramirez, M. A. Donnelly. 2020. Oviposition Site Selection in Three Glass Frog Species. Copeia 108: 333-340.

Student Presentations

Ortiz-Ross, X.† , M.E. Thompson, and M.A. Donnelly. Oviposition site selection in three species of glass frog. Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Rochester, NY, 2018. * Honorable mention student oral presentation SSAR Seibert Award

Garcia, B.† and M.E. Thompson. Factors affecting clutch success in three sympatric species of glass frogs. McNair Student Conference. FIU, Miami, FL 2017.

Museum Outreach

Meet a Scientist

I enjoy sharing how we translate science into conservation action with museum visitors.