Elizabeth Stoner

Betsy's teaching and research interests have centered on the role that humans play in nearshore marine environments, and ways we can mitigate potential effects on these ecosystems. Classes that she currently teaches are Environmental Science and Sustainability, Oceanography, and field-intensive courses including Shore to Sea: Ecosystem Services in the Caribbean and Biology of Cape Cod. Betsy strongly believes that teaching and research go hand-in hand, and that engaging in scientific discovery outside the classroom can be an effective teaching tool in the classroom to better inform course content. To this end, Betsy engages in active research, in which she primarily focuses on elucidating how human activities, particularly nutrient enrichment, affect the role that benthic (bottom-dwelling) species interactions have in marine and estuarine environments. Much of Betsy's research has taken her to the Caribbean (The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands), where she has studied human-driven benthic jellyfish blooms and their effects on coastal marine ecosystems. Betsy has also focused on STEM education research, working with students underrepresented in STEM to pursue research experiences, and engaging in inquiry-based experiences for non-STEM students to help advance their science literacy skills.