education
bioephemera | October 15, 2008Okay - it's halfway through the DonorsChoose challenge, and we need to do better. We still have several great projects left to fund. Luckily, our SEED overlords have decided to reward you for giving - not that helping kids learn isn't reward enough, but an iPod would be nice, wouldn't it?
So, Seed will be giving away Seed mag subscriptions and an assortment of mugs, laptop covers and USB drives each Friday from now until the end of October. In addition, there will be one 'grand prize' at the end of the drive: an iPod Touch!
All you have to do to enter is:
1) give to one of our DonorsChoose…
bioephemera | October 15, 2008In the interest of supplying an educational, scientific alternative to the third presidential debate, I give you this:
This video is the creation of those kooky Europeans at Marie Curie Actions, who also gave us this disturbingly throbbing website. It all has something to do with science education and careers, but I can't look away from the video long enough to tell exactly what.
If this is what an EU research career is like, I may have left science too early.
bioephemera | October 15, 2008
If you had to persuade a medieval peasant that the world was round, how would you do it? Why do you believe the world is round? And what does the American public in general think?
One of the hardest tasks I encountered as a professor was getting my students to recognize that all of their convictions - even assumptions as basic as "the world is round" or "the sun will come up tomorrow" - are built on a lifetime of accumulated experience. Sometimes the experience is direct: we've all seen the sun come up. But sometimes it's not. We often underestimate how little direct evidence we have for our…
drorzel | October 14, 2008Via Physics and Physicists, a breathtaking blog at the Washington Post proudly proclaiming the author's ignorance of algebra:
I am told that algebra is everywhere - it's in my iPod, beneath the spreadsheet that calculates my car payments, in every corner of my building. This idea freaks me out because I just can't see it. I sent out a query on my blog last week asking, Who among us in the real world uses algebra? Can you explain how it works?
This is exactly the sort of intellectual innumeracy I have ranted about countless times. The whole concept of the blog (subtitled "A year reliving high…
bioephemera | October 13, 2008
The National Library of Medicine just opened a new exhibition, "Harry Potter's World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine."
"Harry Potter's World" explores the plants, animals, and magic featured in the Harry Potter book series and their roots in Renaissance traditions that played an important role in the development of Western science. The exhibition incorporates the works of several 15- and 16th-century thinkers mentioned in Harry Potter and looks at topics such as alchemy, astrology, and natural philosophy, as well as the ethical issues faced by both the fictitious characters from…
drorzel | October 12, 2008Some time back, I saw Brother Guy Consolmagno talk at Boskone, and said "You know, I should invite him to campus." For those who don't recognize the name, he's an SF fan and an astronomer (well, planetary scientist) who also happens to be a Jesuit brother. He works at the Vatican Observatory, where he is the curator of the Vatican's meteorite collection.
After we were on a panel together last year, I asked him if he'd be interested in giving us a colloquium talk sometime, and he said yes. We exchanged a few emails, and settled on October 9, namely, this past Thursday, when he was going to be…
zooillogix | October 10, 2008Dear Incredibly Wealthy Readers,
A week or so back we announced our participation in the Donors Choose challenge. Specifically, we are raising money for elementary school teachers in the Bronx to bring animals into the classroom and a teacher outside of DC build out his outdoor ecology program. These are worthy, and very affordable, causes. Just imagine it: a tarantula in a 1st grade classroom named after you!
If you have a minute and can spare some money for a small donation, it would be much appreciated. There is a banner ad type link if you scroll down on the left sidebar or you can click…
clock | October 10, 2008Hmmm my DonorsChoose projects seem to attract more people from the outside than my own readers....
So, let me sweeten it up for you a little and offer prizes!
Two people - one who gives a single largest one-time donation, and the other who gives the most over the month (the end of October) will be able to choose a special prize: either an item from the A Blog Around The Clock CafePress store, or a copy of the Open Laboratory - either OpenLab 2006, or OpenLab 2007, or if you are prepared to wait a couple of months - the OpenLab 2008.
It is just one click away...
grrlscientist | October 9, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Already, dear readers, you are making a difference. For example, a few days ago, a classroom in North Carolina learned that they will be able to learn how to identify wild birds because you donated enough for them to fulfill their funding request. Thank you!
Of course, I will be sharing all updates with you that they send during the upcoming school year.
Dear GrrlScientist,
Thank you so much for funding my request for binoculars. Your gift was especially…
pontiff | October 9, 2008Not just grades but:
Grade distribution for the class. At a minimum: class average, standard deviation, median. Even better: a breakdown by grade.
Scores of students in the class on standardized exit exams. For example I'd like to see how students who took the class scored on physics GREs.
Surveys of the students perception of the difficulty of the class. Comparison of this ranking for same students across other classes.
Today, when information storage is cheap, why is it that we have a grading standard consisting of a few lousy letters (less for some schools..you know who I'm talking…
grrlscientist | October 8, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Already, dear readers, you are making a difference. For example, today, a classroom in Connecticut learned that they will be able to study anatomy because you donated enough for them to fulfill their funding request. Thank you!
Of course, I will be sharing all updates with you that they send during the upcoming school year.
Dear GrrlScientist,
Thank you so much for your generosity. You cannot imagine how thrilled the sixth graders will be to get such a…
clock | October 7, 2008Perhaps you are still waiting on contributing to my projects, but these projects of my SciBlings cannot wait much longer!
gregladen | October 7, 2008The Science Museum of Minnesota recently developed an exhibit called "Race: Are we so different?" This exhibit is now at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and will be in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, St. Louis, New Orleans, Kalamazoo, Boston and Washington DC between now and June 2011.
If you get a chance, go see it.
In the meantime, a review of this exhibit has just been published in the current issue of Museum Anthropology, authored by Mischa Penn, Gil Tostevin, and yours truly, Greg Laden.
As one of the authors, it is obvious to me that this paper is brilliant! But I…
grrlscientist | October 6, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Today's featured project is below the fold.
This teacher's proposal has only 26 days left to be funded, but only $25 has been donated so far! Mrs. R, who is starting her second year as a teacher, needs another $513 to add a special science lesson to her curricula. I think that Mrs. R has shown a lot of initiative by completing summer workshops that prepare her to teach science in her classroom, and when you read her proposal, you will find that she is especially…
clock | October 6, 2008
Today, instead of introducing people, I will introduce a session, or two or three.
Feedback from participants of the last two conferences indicated a lot of interest in sessions relevant to science educators at all levels. At both the 1st and the 2nd conference, we had one session on using blogs in the classroom. But this time, we want to heed the calls and provide, if possible, three such sessions, each targeting a somewhat different audience.
So, if you go to the conference wiki and check the Program page, you will see the following three sessions listed there:
Online science for the…
grrlscientist | October 4, 2008tags: John Scopes, Scopes Monkey Trial, Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial, evolution, creationism, religious fundamentalism, education
Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial: John Thomas Scopes.
Image: Watson Davis (1896-1967), courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution (copyright free). [larger view].
Description: Taken the month before the Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial. June 1925
Creator/Photographer: Watson Davis
Medium: Black and white photographic print
Dimensions: 4.25 in x 3 in
Culture: American
Geography: USA
Date: 1925
Persistent URL
Repository: Smithsonian Institution Archives…
grrlscientist | October 4, 2008tags: John Scopes, Scopes Monkey Trial, Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial, evolution, creationism, religious fundamentalism, education
Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial: Privies outside the Rhea County (Tennessee) courthouse with "Read Your Bible" sign.
Image: Watson Davis (1896-1967), courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution (copyright free). [larger view].
For the first time ever, a series of 39 original photographs from the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial are now available for your viewing pleasure.
Description: Taken during the Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial. July 1925
Creator/…
grrlscientist | October 3, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Already, dear readers, you are making a difference. For example, today, a classroom in North Carolina learned that they will be able to study a variety of microscopic life using prepared slides that you purchased for them. Thank you!
Of course, I will be sharing all updates with you that they send during the upcoming school year.
Dear Grrlscientist,
"More Than Meets the Eye," funded in your honor by ANONYMOUS, is now becoming a reality for the students of Mrs. M…
grrlscientist | October 3, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Today's featured project is below the fold.
This is a rural high-poverty school in North Carolina. The teacher is a bird watcher who also lives with pet birds, and she seeks to instill this love for birds into her students. In this proposal, she and her students will learn about the diets of owls by dissecting owl pellets and examining the remains of insects and bones from small animals that the owls cannot digest.
"Whooo's in the Forest?" Part II
I teach a…
clock | October 3, 2008Wow! Six of my DonorsChoose projects - Science Laboratory Kits, Who Gives A Hoot!, No More Worksheets!, Vroom! Vroom! Forces and Motion, What's the weather for today? and Math Mania have now been fully funded!
Unfortunately, not by my readers.... (pout)
If this keeps happening I'll add some more projects. All for science/math teaching projects in schools in low-income areas of North Carolina.
Your turn...