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 (
DigitalBio RSS feed
Wow! One of my commenters, Ms. Baker, suggested an entirely new way that scientists can help with science education. The only requirement is that a science class have their own blog.
So, if your science class has a blog, let me know, so I can share the URL and maybe recruit some scientists or at least graduate students, to take a look.
I think this idea is so great! It doesn't involve any kind of traveling and many, many different scientists can participate, thus minimizing volunteer burn out. It also gives students a way to practice writing about what they do and interacting with the world. Plus, with digital documentation, you can show your future employers and teachers the kinds of things you've been doing.
If your science class has a blog, put the URL in the comments and I will do my best to suggest that scientists visit, have a look, and do their best to say constructive things.
Here's the first submission: www.missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog
And one from Bora, is Ms. Hoffman's AP class blog.
I'd love to have more.
Here are some new additions:
Tomorrow's table from Pamela Ronald. This is going to be used for two months by students in a Genetics and Society class.
Biology in Action: another student blog from Carl Bird.
Education & Careers
Life Science
Comments
My class starts this week! I decided to turn my blog over to my class for 2 months. I will post and comment about my students questions, what we are learning etc.
I just checked out Miss Baker's blog- it is great! I have added it to my list of blogs to check out.
Please do share the URL.
Thanks!
P
Posted by: pam ronald | September 22, 2008 1:19 PM
It is not amazing, basically all are cell biologists
V
Posted by: R. V. Raghavan | September 22, 2008 2:32 PM
Not sure if this came up before, but a former professor of mine had an idea to have the fixing/creating of relevant (to the class content) pages on wikipedia as part of the assigned homework. The wikipedia page would of course need to be thorough, correct, and contain references to appropriate literature.
This way, your students can pick a topic that interests them, do the research, have it vetted by a pro (the professor), and then contribute it to the public through wikipedia.
I thought it was a great idea.
Posted by: Steve L | September 22, 2008 3:58 PM
Hey, my blog is listed! Sweet :) Seriously, thanks for the link - I would love to have some more "guest bloggers" for this year. Directions / email are on the blog itself so feel free to take a peek! Thanks...
Posted by: Ms. Hoffman | September 22, 2008 5:26 PM
Pam: thanks, I'll add your blog URL to the list.
R.V. Raghavan: ?
Steve: I like that idea. Do you know if it worked?
Ms Hoffman: I don't how many guests you'll get, but hopefully you'll have commentors.
Posted by: Sandra Porter | September 23, 2008 9:23 AM
Hello....my students are not asked to blog this semester but the blog is still active. Next semester I might ask my students to blog again....still undecided
My blog for Evolution and Diversity (Biol 124)
http://darwinslagacy.blogspot.com
My microbiology blog
http://mikrolife.blogspot.com
thanks for doing this!
Posted by: Dominic | September 23, 2008 1:12 PM
@Sandra: Not sure if it worked. He mentioned he was thinking about doing that for the following semester during the last day of class while we were all talking about what we liked/didn't like/etc about how the overall class went and just about life in general.
I graduated and moved on before I could see if he actually went through with it. I'm hopeful that it could work, though, even if it hasn't yet :-)
Posted by: Steve L | September 23, 2008 4:43 PM
I don't have a class blog, though I've thought about it.
Instead, I made my class blog. I made it a requirement of every single student to create a public blog if they didn't already have one. I said they could write about other things, but some of the content had to be about science.
We hear so much about how technologically sophisticated university age students are -- they're the "digital natives" and so on -- that I found it really interesting that the request to make a blog and an RSS feed totally flummoxed many of them.
Posted by: Zen Faulkes | September 23, 2008 5:40 PM
SInce I only teach the searching part of a couple of genetics classes, I've set up a wiki rather than a blog, to help the students after the class. I've even listed your blog.
The wiki is far from complete. My big push is this weekend since I'll be doing my first class on Monday, but I hope it will be a useful resource.
Thanks, Margaret
http://geneticsvcu.wetpaint.com/
Posted by: Margaret Henderson | September 25, 2008 7:12 PM
Margaret,
That's a nice wiki. I use PbWiki quite a bit with collaborative projects and have set some wiki sites up for other educators - but so far I find I'm the only one brave enough to make edits. I guess it will take a little time to get the activation energy together.
Posted by: Sandra Porter | September 25, 2008 10:04 PM