education
grrlscientist | June 26, 2009tags: House Sparrow, Passer domesticus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] House Sparrow, Passer domesticus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 3 June 2005 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2005:03:06 17:34:01
Exposure Time: 1/30
F-Number: 8.00
ISO: 500
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
drorzel | June 26, 2009The Dean Dad slaps his forehead and asks a question:
We have anecdotal evidence that suggests that students who actually take math for all four years of high school do better in math here than those who don't. We also have anecdotal evidence that bears crap in the woods. Why the hell do the high schools only require two years of math?
Silly Dean Dad-- math is too hard. It would be completely unreasonable to make kids take more math, and anyway, it's perfectly ok to know nothing about math.
(That's sarcasm, by the way. Click on the link.)
The comments to the original post are well worth…
bioephemera | June 25, 2009
a ten year old rape victim from the Congo
photo by Endre Vestvik
Almost a month ago, a number of bloggers launched Silence is the Enemy, a blog initiative against sexual violence. Since then, we've seen a number of thoughtful and provocative conversations throughout the blogosphere, trying to pinpoint the factors, like war, that can create a social climate where, tragically, rape is considered normal.
For example, consider this interview with Dumisani Rebombo, a South African man who sought forgiveness from the woman he gang-raped as a teenager:
A friend and my cousin pressured me to prove…
drorzel | June 25, 2009Over at Skulls in the Stars, gg has a very good response to the polemic about the dullness of modern science that I talked about a few days ago. He takes issue with the claim that modern science is "dull" compared to some past Golden Age, and does a good job of it-- go read it.
I think he makes some very good points, but my own main problem with the piece is a different sort of thing. Fundamentally, the article strikes me as a "Fans are slans" argument dressed up ina lot of science-y jargon. And "fans are slans" arguments drive me nuts.
The basic argument is laid out in a comment by Bruce…
grrlscientist | June 25, 2009tags: Juvenile Martial Eagle, Polemaetus bellicosus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Juvenile Martial Eagle, Polemaetus bellicosus, photographed in Nakuru National Park, Kenya, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 29 July 2006 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, 200-400 VR lens at 200. ISO 200, 1/2000, f 5.6.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
bioephemera | June 25, 2009Nature has gone science journalism crazy, with no less than six new articles on the subject! My favorite is "Science Journalism: Toppling the Priesthood," by Toby Murcott, who argues that coverage of peer review is a necessary component of truly investigative, accurate science journalism.
I don't agree with everything Murcott says, but he makes some really good points:
Journalism is often described as history's first draft. Much contemporary science journalism, however, can be seen as a second, or even a third draft. Unlike reporters covering other fields of public life, science journalists…
grrlscientist | June 24, 2009tags: Cliff Swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Cliff Swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, photographed at Attwater Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 30 May 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200 ,Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
drorzel | June 24, 2009There's an interview with me, plus bonus comments from Emmy, over at Paw Talk:
Words of advice for fellow pet owners?
If you're looking to get a dog, I'd recommend visiting your local animal shelter, as you can find lots of great dogs there. And take walks with your dog-- every now and then, I see people who just leave their dogs penned up in the yard, and that's just sad. Get out, see the neighborhood, and get a bit of exercise. Yeah, it's a drag sometimes, especially when it rains, but it's better for both of you.
Emmy: Treats. Lots and lots of treats. Also, don't trust the squirrels. They'…
mikethemadbiologist | June 23, 2009If so, my respect for her just went up a notch. I'm not a huge fan of MA Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (although she is far better than Wilkerson), in part, because of her unwillingness to protect arts funding in MA. But, in response to the idea that financial literacy should be added to the school curriculum, she recently said something very Boston (italics mine):
Committee member Sen. Sonia Chang-DÃaz, D-Jamaica Plain, a former public school teacher who supports the bill, had reservations about trying to stuff more material into a realistic math curriculum. "It was an enormous struggle for me to…
bioephemera | June 23, 2009
I'm here in DC at the Newseum for the State of Innovation Summit, a collaboration between SEED and the Council on Competitiveness. The crowd is pretty awesome - right now Adam Bly, SEED's CEO, is sitting a few rows from me with E.O. Wilson. Earlier, Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, talked about a conversation he'd had recently with Steven Chu about using the Smithsonian's resources to enhance public understanding of climate change. As he spoke, the intense sunshine of a summer day in DC played across the Smithsonian castle turrets directly behind him (the seventh floor…
grrlscientist | June 23, 2009tags: Pigeon Guillemot, Cepphus columba, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pigeon Guillemot, Cepphus columba, photographed at Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 8 June 2009 [larger view]
Photo taken with a Canon 50D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
gregladen | June 22, 2009This is a struggle I can relate to:
Perez Hilton thinks that hot chicks can't do math. I have taught math to children of a variety of ages. It is difficult to convince young women in our society that they can do math. Young women often lack self-confidence about mathematics. Many of them think that "only the ugly, unpopular girls" do math. One high school student once told me that she didn't want to go to a summer math program because if she did "everyone will think I'm uncool."
See this post for the big picture and the gory details.
I can tell you that there was a lot of stuff going on in my…
grrlscientist | June 22, 2009tags: Pied Avocet, Recurvirostra avosetta, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Pied Avocet, Recurvirostra avosetta, photographed in Walvis Bay, Namibia, Africa [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dennis Paulson, April 2007 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
mikethemadbiologist | June 22, 2009...they live in Massachusetts. Most of us have read the "ZOMG!! AMERICAN KIDZ DON'T KNOW TEH MATHZ!" stories. But a recent study (pdf), found by way of Matthew Yglesias, points out that some states in the U.S. actually do better than most countries (and then there's Mississippi, Alabama, and Washington D.C.).
The authors took the NAEP test, which is administered to U.S. fourth and eighth graders, and used a cohort which also took the international TIMSS test, to transform the NAEP data into equivalent TIMSS scores.
Looking at the fourth grade scores, MA, with an average TIMSS score of 572,…
grrlscientist | June 21, 2009tags: Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrororum, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrororum, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 12 November 2007 [larger view].
Date Time Original: 2007:11:12 09:11:15
Exposure Time: 1/639
F-Number: 8.00
ISO: 400
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | June 21, 2009I was surprised to learn that the fringe animal rights activist group, the Humane Society of the United States, has formed the Humane Society University which was recently granted a license to grant bachelor's degrees in three areas; animal studies, animal policy and advocacy, or humane leadership. They also are licensed to grant certificates for graduate study in those same areas. Required courses are offered online or at their Washington DC site starting autumn term in 2009.
All students, who must have attained junior status elsewhere, are required to take two courses: Animal Protection…
gregladen | June 20, 2009Check it out:
ATLANTA - A suburban Atlanta principal who resigned during an investigation into cheating on students' standardized tests was arrested Friday and accused of altering public documents.
The school's assistant principal also turned herself in to local police Thursday night in a case that the head of a state teacher's group described as rare. School officials allege that the two changed answers on fifth-grade standardized tests to improve scores and help their school meet federal achievement standards
This sort of behavior (only alleged so far in this case, but whatever ...) can not…
grrlscientist | June 20, 2009tags: Sanderling, Calidris alba, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Sanderling, Calidris alba, photographed at Galveston, East Beach, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 19 May 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200 ,Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | June 20, 2009tags: The Science of Story Telling, Paul Nurse, genetics, family history, narrative, streaming video
This video is a fascinating look at Paul Nurse's personal history .. Nurse, who is a biochemist, Knight, 2001 Nobel Prize Winner and President of Rockefeller University in NYC, reveals how, after 58 years, he finally learned the truth of his own family history. As a boy, Nurse always felt "a little bit different" from the rest of his family. His parents and siblings all left school at age 15 while he excelled at academics and pursued higher education. In his 30s, Nurse's mother confided in him…
grrlscientist | June 19, 2009tags: BBC America, natural history, nature programming, television, entertainment, education, streaming video
I just wanted to let you all know that every one of you with a television is the subject of my enduring envy because I just learned from Nicole Wetzold that my favorite radio news and television programming source has done it again: BBC is now bringing all of its natural history content together under one brand, BBC Earth. This programming is available in the United States on BBC America. As a taste of what to expect, here is a video they sent me to share with you. It is a tiny bit of…