College of Education staff, faculty enjoy unique hobbies during their spare time

With faculty and staff as diverse as those in the Penn State College of Education, it should come as no surprise that the hobbies of those individuals would be every bit as diverse.

College of Education staff have unique ways of enjoying their free time. Included below are just some of the interesting hobbies of those who make the college run.

Staci Lynch

Arachnids typically use a web to capture, but it was a different type of web that piqued the interest of Staci Lynch, an administrative support assistant in the Department of Learning and Performance Systems.

“Last year toward the end of the pandemic, I found myself with a lot of extra time on my hands, as a lot of us did,” Lynch said. “One day I came across a photo of a small super white fluffy creature with hot pink sparkly teeth on Pinterest of all places and down the rabbit hole I went.

“As my understanding of the world of arachnids grew, I realized that not all species are as scary as media has portrayed them. Jumping spiders specifically are very curious in nature and very docile. Their venom if bitten is also not significant to humans. They are initially much more scared of us than we are of them.”

It’s this message — that spiders are often misunderstood and unfairly characterized — that Lynch wants the world to hear on social media. She even keeps some spiders as pets.

“When I discovered this new little world I had stumbled upon, I felt compelled to share it with the world and my Instagram followers,” she said.” My account started to grow tremendously as there were many others that did not know, either. I feel I have fulfilled a small life purpose of helping break the stigma against these tiny, magnificent creatures and helped change perspective to encourage those that may come across one to not smush it.

“We all have a purpose on this beautiful earth, or we wouldn’t be here. I am certainly not asking everyone to keep them as pets but just respect their existence and relocate them if they are in a place you claim as yours.”

Ashley Patterson

Since she was a child, Ashley Patterson, associate professor of education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has enjoyed paper crafting. But it was five years ago that she discovered her latest love within that world — paper quilling.

What may seem like tedious work to some provides an endless opportunity for creativity for the self-described introvert as she said just about anything goes when it comes to paper quilling.

“I either sketch out or print out whatever I’m going to be making,” she said. “If I’m working from a photo, then I trace the outlines.”

The opportunity to share her creations is another joy paper quilling brings to Patterson. She actually doesn’t have any of the pieces she’s made because they’ve been gifted for occasions including weddings, baby showers and memorials.

And while she already had found paper quilling as a hobby before March 2020, the isolation and extra free time that came with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic really allowed her to take her work to another level.

“We were all just living in this amoeba of life — it was so great to have a task to plan and execute, to be able to engage in an activity with a hard beginning and end,” she said.

Scott Metzger

To say Scott Metzger has been playing Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) for most of his life would be no understatement. Since his first exposure as a 10-year-old, the now associate professor of education (social studies education) has been fascinated by the role-playing game that features lots of swords, sorcery and other medieval imagery.

“I think it appeals to certain personalities — the creatives; those who enjoy the wargaming aspect; storytellers,” he said. “I put myself in the category of people who like complicated rules and how they interface with each other.”

He also credits the game for sparking the interest in history that has led him down his chosen career path. Metzger received his undergraduate degree in history and taught social studies before earning his doctorate and joining the faculty in the College of Education.

He is part of a trio of friends that has played regularly online for years, first via email, then Skype before migrating to online platforms specifically designed for playing D&D.

Metzger may already have passed his love of the game on to the next generation. His daughter started becoming interested at age 10 and Metzger has taken an active role in nurturing this interest by helping his daughter and her friends continue playing online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think D&D still has a lot of the same relevance and educational value,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s a cooperative game of storytelling and problem-solving, and I think that’s wonderful for children.”

Julia Plummer

On just about any spring day, it doesn’t take long to hear the birds of central Pennsylvania calling. Julia Plummer, professor of science education and the director of curriculum in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has answered that call.

Plummer has a passion for birds she discovered more than a decade ago.

“After I moved to State College in 2011, I saw an announcement about a bird walk at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center,” she said. “I like the outdoors so I thought I would give it a try. After several bird walks at Shaver’s Creek, I decided to put more effort into my birding. I started going out, looking and listening for birds on my own and trying to improve my skills at identification. I’m particularly interested in recording bird calls and songs.”

Over the years, Plummer has tracked hundreds of different types of birds — a challenge borne from her ornithologic passion. She also has invested in specialized equipment to feed that passion.

“In recent years, I’ve spent a lot of my time trying to record as many different species of birds as I can,” she said. “I’ve currently recorded 373 species worldwide. I use a couple of specialized pieces of equipment for my recording. I have a 22-inch parabola that I use to amplify the bird song, producing higher quality recordings than just with a traditional handheld audio recorder with shotgun microphone. I also have a specialized microphone that I put on the roof of my house to record birds as they fly over. I mostly use it at night because that’s when many species of birds migrate. I identify the species based on the sound and visual aspects of the calls when viewing them in a spectrogram.”