clock | June 15, 2006This Monday night I taught lecture #7 of the 8-week Intro Biology course (adult education at a community college). First, I gave them their Exam #2 (on Diversity, see my lecture notes on those topics here, here and here). The flat distribution of the first exam has now turned bimodal: some students are making big improvements and I will probably end with a nice cluster of As and Bs, while other students are falling and may end up with a few Ds and Fs, with nobody left in-between.
Then, I continued with the physiology topics. The week before, I covered nervous, sensory, endocrine and…
clock | June 15, 2006This is my first ever post on education. I wrote it on the John Edwards' primary campaign blog on December 23, 2003, and later re-posted it on http://www.jregrassroots.org/ forums. I republished it on August 23, 2004 on Science And Politics and republished it again on December 05, 2005 on The Magic School Bus. It's time for it to move into the new archives here:
Why does one so often hear that education can be improved by concentration on three Rs: reading, writing and arithmetic? The way this is usually implemented is by giving students exercises in these three areas, then giving them…
clock | June 15, 2006You will see (almost) identical text below on many SEED science blogs because we are all doing this together, as a team, so it is not a case of mass plagiarism:
Those of us who blog here at ScienceBlogs think science is cool, important, and worth understanding. If you're reading the blogs here, chances are you feel the same way.
A lot of us fell in love with science because of early experiences in school -- teachers who made science intriguing, exciting, maybe a little bit dangerous. But tightening budgets are making it harder and harder for public school teachers to provide the books,…
clock | June 14, 2006Amanda reviews the lies about sex and contraception that are peddled by the Catholic church in their pre-marital classes:Pandagon goes undercover the lazy way on a Catholic anti-contraception seminar
andPandagon goes undercover the lazy way on a Catholic anti-contraception seminar, Pt. II
clock | June 14, 2006Henry and Janine Cate of Why Homeschool will be hosting the next edition of Carnival of Education. If you write something appropriate for this carnival by by 7:00 PM PST on the Tuesday, the 20th of June, send your entry to them at: cate3 AT panix DOT com
clock | June 14, 2006I was checking sporadically his blog throughout the day to see when the good news will get posted and, lo and behold, here it is! Reed Cartwright has successfully defended his PhD dissertation and, next month, is coming to my school for his postdoc. Go say Hello and Congratulations to Dr. Cartwright
(OK, am I going to be next?)!
clock | June 14, 2006I wrote this post on February 27, 2005. Provocative? You decide....
I am happy, along with at least half of the blogosphere, that Billmon is back. One of his recent posts caught my eye, as it was comparing current treatment of science by the Bush Administration to the treatment of science by the Stalin Administration back in the early days of the USSR, notably Trofim Denisovich Lysenko. The US scientists today are very unhappy about this state of things and are pondering ways to fightback (hat tip: Chris Mooney)
I looked around the Internets to see what is there about Lysenko and I found a…
clock | June 13, 2006Carnival of Education #71 is up on What's it like on the Inside.
Carnival of Homeschooling #24 is up on About: Homeschooling.
clock | June 13, 2006SEED Magazine has an interesting article on the advances in avian transgenics....
I've been out of the loop for the past 3 or so years, but I took an Avian Biotechnology graduate class with Jim Petitte (mentioned in the article) a few years back, in which we did every step of the method separately, not really trying to make a transgenic chicken over a semester, but trying to figure out how to make each step work for us. The year I took it was the first time his class actually managed to produce a chimaera. Jim was so excited he was jumping up and down and hitting the ceiling - and he is a…
clock | June 13, 2006When a news release states that a brain region is crucial for something, one is led to believe that this is the MAIN center controlling that function. If it is crucial for thermoregulation than it is the center for thermoregulation and without it the animal does not thermoregulate. Or am I misunderstanding English (it is a second language for me, after all)?
So, when the article starts with: "Researchers at Northwestern University have pinpointed a brain area in flies that is crucial to sleep, raising interesting speculation over the purpose of sleep and its possible link with learning and…
clock | June 13, 2006A few months ago I reviewed Joan Roughgarden's book "Evolutions Rainbow". Now that SEED magazine has published an interview with her, I thought about writing about it again (or just republishing the old one), but now I see that I do not have to, because PZ Myers did a much better job at it than I could ever dream of doing, so go and read it.
The only sentence I did not like was: "There are objections that this requires group selection, which always puts an idea on shaky ground...." As someone who has studied group selection (both biological and philosophical literature) intensely over the…
clock | June 13, 2006Grand Rounds Vol 2 No 38 is up on Haversian Canal.
Philosophers' Carnival XXXI is up on Kenny Pearce's blog.
clock | June 12, 2006
This post is kinda personal. I wrote it first on July 27, 2005 on Science And Politics. Later, it was professionally edited and published on LabLit.com on March 3, 2006. Here is the unedited version:
I was just thinking today what a long and winding route I took in becoming a biologist. So, why not write a blog post about it?
As long as I can remember I loved animals. I have no idea where that came from. My family mostly had to do with theater, art, language and literature. I think they thought I was going to become an actor. My grandfather was a famous architect and I certainly have…
clock | June 12, 2006So, Wellbutrin is now officially a drug for treating Seasonal Affective Disorder. And chocolate is so unofficially. But, those may only take the edge off of the symptoms - they cannot affect the underlying causes.
clock | June 12, 2006I gave the second exam today. I have not graded them all yet, but I have a feeling that the grade distribution will move from flat to bimodal: some people going up into As and Bs, others falling to Fs, and nobody remaining in the middle. Some people put an effort in it, some don't. That's life.
Since the last meeting of the class (and the Final Exam) is next week, I'll have to quickly write down the notes for my last two lectures so the students can have sufficent time to study. I will post the notes here, as usual. I hope to get both lectures written tomorrow, but life may interfere if…
clock | June 12, 2006
This post is perhaps not my best post, but is, by far, my most popular ever. Sick and tired of politics after the 2004 election I decided to start a science-only blog - Circadiana. After a couple of days of fiddling with the templae, on January 8, 2005, I posted the very first post, this one, at 2:53 AM and went to bed. When I woke up I was astonished as the Sitemeter was going wild! This post was linked by BoingBoing and later that day, by Andrew Sullivan. It has been linked by people ever since, as recently as a couple of days ago, although the post is a year and a half old.…
clock | June 11, 2006
Welcome to the thirty-first edition of the Carnival of the Green. I am still trying to figure out the details of Movable Type after my move here last Friday (and please look around - there are 45 fantastic science bloggers here at SEED's ScienceBlogs), so fancy graphics and creative hosting will have to wait for some other time. Let's just take a straightforward look at this week's entries.
Is it sexual repression that's behind the religious right's obsession with gay marriage? Or are they just plain evil? Either way, they are using it to distract us from the far more serious issue of…
clock | June 11, 2006In chronological order so you know how much time you have to write and submit your posts:
Next Philosophy Carnival (philosophy) will be on June 12, 2006 on Kenny Pearce.
Next Grand Rounds (medicine) will be on June 13th on Haversian Canal.
Next Carnival of Education (teaching, education policy) will be on June 14th, 2006 on What It's Like on the Inside.
Next Animalcules (microorganisms) will be on June 15th, 2006 on Knowledge as Salvation.
First Mendel's Garden (genetics) will be on June 15th, 2006 on The force that through....
Next Teaching Carnival (higher ed) will be on or shortly after…