October 14, 2009
Category: Science education • teaching
If you have a little time, the Dolan DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor will be presenting some really interesting workshops on neuroscience and genetics.
The dates are:
Nov. 5, 2009: Inside Cancer - workshop on teaching cancer; Raritan
Valley Community College, Somerville, NJ
Nov. 6, 2009: Genes To Cognition - workshop on teaching neuroscience;
Raritan Valley Community College, Somerville, NJ
Nov. 21, 2009: Inside Cancer - workshop on teaching cancer; Great Bay
Community College, Portsmouth, NH
Nov. 20, 2009: Genes To Cognition - workshop on teaching neuroscience;
Great Bay Community College, Portsmouth, NH
And the registration info is here: http://www.dnalc.org/programs/teacher_training.html
You can also find the info on the Fan wall at our Bio-Link Facebook Fan page.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:13 PM • 0 Comments
September 23, 2009
Category: classroom activities • environmental education
We always see interesting creatures whenever we walk on the beach. Now, a new program from the University of Washington and the state department of Fish and Wildlife is seeking to enlist beach walkers in a community science project where they can help monitor biodiversity.
Read on »
Posted by Sandra Porter at 11:11 AM • 1 Comments
September 22, 2009
Category: Science education • Seattle • biotechnology
This morning I attended the Fifth Annual WBBA Governor's Life Sciences Summit. The breakfast was great; the talks were okay.
I do enjoy the stories about people who's lives were saved because of biotechnology and I agree that the focus of the summit, research and discovery are important, but I can't help thinking about the missing piece.
Read on »
Posted by Sandra Porter at 3:36 PM • 0 Comments
September 21, 2009
Category: Humor • Science culture
How did it get between the windows?
Maybe this is why the flight attendant kept asking us to close the shades.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 9:00 PM • 6 Comments
September 3, 2009
Category: Science culture • Science education • biotechnology
This summer, I had the good fortune to attend three (or was it four?) conferences on science education. One of the most inspirational conferences was one on Vision and Change in Biology Education. This conference was co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the AAAS. It was a call to action for biology educators and many of the points and findings resonated deep in my bones.
Then, I read the press release from the AAAS.
And right there in the middle, I found this statement from the AAAS CEO, Alan Leshner.
Read on »
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:20 AM • 28 Comments
August 14, 2009
Category: Databases • Gene • Genetics & Molecular Biology • Genomics • Next Generation DNA Sequencing • sequence analysis
You might think the coolest thing about the Next Generation DNA Sequencing technologies is that we can use them to sequence long-dead mammoths, entire populations of microbes, or bits of bone from Neanderthals.
But you would be wrong.
Read on »
Posted by Sandra Porter at 6:24 PM • 1 Comments
July 27, 2009
Category: Science careers • Science education
I've just returned from two conferences that focused on educating students for careers in science and technology and what do I find here at the home fort? There's Chad writing a very nice series on science careers!
I was a little puzzled by PNAS acryonym in his titles since to me, PNAS stands for "Proceedings of the National Academy of Scientists" and is a high impact scientific journal. But then I realized that Chad is a physicist and he might not know this. It's quite possible that PNAS isn't as big in the physics community as it is in biology.
Anyway, this is a very nice series, so way to go Chad!
And teachers and career counselors pay attention! These kinds of jobs are great and you should have your students reading Chad's interviews.
Here are some of my favs.
You may not know this, but many kinds of things are considered medical devices. To give a brief definition, medical devices are things that are not drugs. They do not alter your body's metabolism. Many kinds f diagnostic tests, like the pregnancy tests you can get at the drug store, are medical devices.
Figure 1. You can make things like this with a two year degree from a community college.
Posted by Sandra Porter at 12:52 AM • 4 Comments
July 26, 2009
Category: Next Generation DNA Sequencing • biotechnology • sequence analysis
Last spring, I gave my first hands-on workshop in working with Next Generation Sequencing data at the Eighth Annual UT-ORNL-KBRIN Bioinformatics Summit at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee. The proceedings from that conference are now on-line at BMC Bioinformatics and it's fun to look back and reflect on all that I learned at the conference and all that's happened since.
Figure 1. Fall Creek Falls State Park, TN
Read on »
Posted by Sandra Porter at 9:56 PM • 0 Comments
July 24, 2009
Category: Science education
I don't remember learning about plasma when I took physics, but it's amazing stuff. Last week at the Hi-Tec conference in Arizona, I got to learn how an electromagnetic field can be used to push plasma around a tube. Community college students get to play with the coolest toys!
Here's some plasma contained in a small area.
Figure 1. Plasma on the table.
Here's some plasma getting pushed around a tube.
Read on »
Posted by Sandra Porter at 5:11 PM • 5 Comments
July 21, 2009
Category: Science education • Videos • biotechnology • nanotechnology • web resources
Liveblogging from the Hi-Tec conference
I'm currently at the Hi-Tec conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. (If you follow me on Twitter - www.twitter.com/@digitalbio - you may have seen me complaining about the temperature). It's an interesting conference, so I'm going to share some of the things that I'm learning.
Dr. Travis Benanti and Dr. Steve Fonash from Penn State University are presenting an interesting session this morning on nanotechnology.
Luckily, you don't have to know anything about nanotechnology to find the session fascinating.
If you're interested in learning about nanotechnology or teaching
about this, they have free modules and courses available at their web
site, www.nano4me.org , and they will also post the slides from this morning's talk.
What is nanotechnology?
Read on »
Posted by Sandra Porter at 3:00 PM • 5 Comments
I am a microbiologist and molecular biologist turned tenured biotech faculty turned bioinformatics scientist turned entrepreneur. My passion is developing instructional materials for 21st century biology (
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