Bio-Link
sporte | January 10, 2008We often see memorials written about famous scientists, but we rarely see them about the people who work in the background to help people learn the science in the first place. Ron was one of those people whose work inspired teachers and helped spark excitement in science students throughout the world.
I just learned last week that Ron passed away and I'm still in a state of shock.
I met Ron ten years ago at the first BIO teachers' conference. I was a conference volunteer, working on the teachers' program planning committee and representing Bio-Link. BIO 99 was the first time that the…
sporte | November 13, 2007Congratulations to George Cachianes (who I've written about before), his amazing students from Abraham Lincoln High School, and collaborators at UCSF!
These students, from a public high school no less, placed in the top 6 finalists, along with only one other US team. The other top teams were: Peking University (China), University of Science and Technology (China), University of Paris (France), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), and UC Berkeley. I'm really impressed that these public high school students managed to beat students from MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Caltech, and Princeton, but…
sporte | March 10, 2007It must be spring. Summer course announcements are popping up everywhere and this site is no exception.
Last Friday, I posted an announcement about our summer bioinformatics course in Alaska, June 27-29th.
This week, I have a couple more conferences to announce. Naturally, I'll be at both of them, leading hands-on workshops for college and high school teachers in using the technology.
Today, I want to tell you about the Bio-Link Summer Fellows Workshop, June 4th-8th Berkeley, CA
I became involved with Bio-Link ten years ago when I was running the biotechnology program at Seattle…
sporte | January 5, 2007GenomeWeb reports that OKCC and the University of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center received NIH funds for genomics and bioinformatics education projects, respectively. Congratulations are certainly due to the University of Utah.
For a community college, on the other hand, to get NIH funding is very unusual and OKCC should be commended.
From GenomeWeb:
The NCRR said it will fund the Oklahoma City Community College $540,000 for the "Biotechnology/Bioinformatics Discovery" program, which focuses on professional development in life sciences informatics teaching techniques, particularly…
sporte | July 12, 2006Many regions in the United States, and the world for that matter, are seeking to entice biotech companies to relocate. As Lorraine Ruff and David Gabrilska describe in their Genetic Engineering News Article, "Metrics for Economic Development," the exhibitors at meetings like BIO work hard to:
".. entice founders and CEOs with a wide spectrum of inducements: institutional and technological excellence, free land, preferential tax rates, and low electricity and/or water rates. They punctuate the sale with regional culinary novelties: home of the famous crawfish (with plush toy), tasty sour mash…
sporte | June 27, 2006Yet another Bio-Link blog post.
The San Francisco bay area has experienced phenomenal growth in both the number of biotech companies and the need to find employees. But, no matter how many attractions entice potential employees to move to the Bay Area, they still face the problem of finding a place to live. Housing prices are, well, a bit startling to anyone from just about any other part of the country. This presents a dilemma for local companies.
If there aren't enough trained people nearby, and you can't get people from elsewhere, what do you do?
The City College of San Francisco may…
sporte | June 22, 2006Science Blogs has asked: What makes a good science teacher?
Many of the science teachers that I've met can't really be described by the adjective "good." The better fitting words are: great, marvelous, inspiring, and fantastic.
But, SBer's want to know, "what makes them so great?" Right?
I've compiled a list of characteristics that I've seen all great science teachers share. And, since this group rarely gets sufficiently rewarded beyond seeing themselves in the annual edition of the Bio-Rad Explorer catalog, I'm even going to name names and give examples.
What characteristics do…
sporte | June 16, 2006Blogging from Bio-Link, part III
High school teachers have different techniques for selling their students on the benefits of science and math. When some high school instructors step in front of a class, the quiet demeanor gets put away and another persona steps out - the USED-CAR SALESMAN SCIENCE EVANGELIST. Science is no longer "science," when these instructors head up the class, it's SCIENCE, in all capital letters! Other teachers choose the haughty law professor, from "The Paper Chase," as a role model, even though a post-law student friend of mine thought it should be banned from…
sporte | June 5, 2006Blogging from Bio-Link, part I
I am currently in Berkeley attending the 2006 Bio-Link summer fellows' workshop. It's hard to believe that it's been eight years since the first workshop was held. We're still meeting here in the same lovely Clark Kerr Center and I'm still, as every year, awed by the amount of initiative and drive that I see in the group of people that converge on this place from around the country.
Who would have thought that biotechnology education could inspire this kind of odd combination of family reunion and revival meeting?
Why would anyone hire your graduates?
When I…