education
grrlscientist | July 17, 2008tags: Western Sandpipers, Calidris mauri, Semipalmated Sandpipers, Calidris pusilla, birds, nature, Image of the Day
Western Sandpiper, Calidris mauri, and Semipalmated Sandpiper, Calidris pusilla (foreground), at Bolivar Flats, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 4 June 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
apalazzo | July 17, 2008A friend of mine just sent this to me (for the record, he's a structure biologist, i.e. he studies the structure of proteins and other biological molecules):
My kid had a screen session with a school administrator for his kindergarten today. Following are some answers he came up with:
Teacher: "What is your favorite activity?"
Son: "Thinking."
He is probably right. He is always thinking of how to get his favorite food: rice krispies, candy...
Teacher: "What does your Daddy do?"
Son: "Work."
Teacher: "Where does you Daddy work?"
Son: "I don't know."
Teacher: "What's your Daddy's job?"
Son: "…
grrlscientist | July 16, 2008tags: Western Sandpipers, Calidris mauri, birds, nature, Image of the Day
Western Sandpipers, Calidris mauri, at Bolivar Flats, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 4 June 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
grrlscientist | July 15, 2008tags: Semipalmated Sandpipers, Calidris pusilla, birds, nature, Image of the Day
Semipalmated Sandpipers, Calidris pusilla, at Bolivar Flats, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 4 June 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
drorzel | July 15, 2008As you have no doubt noticed, my early-morning review of Randy Olson's Sizzle was part of a concerted effort to get blogs to review the movie all on the same day. It's an experiment of sorts in using blogs to promote the movie.
Unfortunately for Olson, it seems to be an experiment designed to test the old adage that "there's no such thing as bad publicity, as long as they spell your name right." Most of the blog reviews collected at the ScienceBlogs page for the film were, um, less than glowing. My own kind of "Meh." review is one of the better ones on ScienceBlogs.
Having looked at a whole…
clock | July 14, 2008What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education by Paul Anderson:
The report establishes that Web 2.0 is more than a set of 'cool' and new technologies and services, important though some of these are. It has, at its heart, a set of at least six powerful ideas that are changing the way some people interact. Secondly, it is also important to acknowledge that these ideas are not necessarily the preserve of 'Web 2.0', but are, in fact, direct or indirect reflections of the power of the network: the strange effects and topologies at the micro and macro level that a billion…
clock | July 13, 2008Georgia Harper saw an interesting article in USA Today about Open textbooks and, among else, says:
Open access is just one part of a much bigger and more complex picture. I am very optimistic that open access will find its way into the book market (or what we call books today), but again, it's not like that will cut off the flow of revenues. Quite the contrary. It just makes it possible for a lot more people to benefit from the work of authors while authors and those who help them ready their works for public consumption still reap sufficient financial rewards to make creating worthwhile.…
grrlscientist | July 13, 2008tags: Black-necked Stilt, Himantopus mexicanus, birds, nature, Image of the Day
Black-necked Stilt chick, Himantopus mexicanus, at Bolivar Peninsula, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 24 May 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200 1/1000s f/1.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
grrlscientist | July 12, 2008tags: Killdeer, Charadrius vociferus, birds, nature, Image of the Day
Killdeer chick, Charadrius vociferus, at Anahuac Wildlife Refuge, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 27 June 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/2000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
grrlscientist | July 11, 2008tags: Long-billed Curlew, Numenius americanus, birds, nature, Image of the Day
Long-billed curlew, Numenius americanus, stretching, at Bolivar Flats, Texas. This bird is in breeding plumage.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 July 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
grrlscientist | July 10, 2008tags: Long-billed Curlew, Numenius americanus, birds, nature, Image of the Day
Compare this species to the two previous images of the day. The long-billed curlew is a larger relative of the whimbrel.
Long-billed Curlew, Numenius americanus at Bolivar Flats, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 July 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
grrlscientist | July 9, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, evolution, flatfish, Amphistium, Heteronectes, transitional fossils, missing link, Matt Friedman
During the development of extant flatfishes, such as this plaice, Pleuronectes platessa, one eye has migrated round the head to lie on the same side as the other. So these fishes have an 'eyed' (up) side and a 'blind' (down) side suitable for their bottom-dwelling lifestyle.
Image: KÃ¥re Telnes.
Flounder, turbot, sole, halibut and plaice (pictured above) are more than just a tasty slab of flesh on your plate. They are flatfishes that spend their adult life lying…
grrlscientist | July 9, 2008tags: Whimbrel, Numenius phaeopus, birds, nature, Image of the Day
Whimbrel, Numenius phaeopus at Bolivar Flats, Texas.
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 July 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
bioephemera | July 8, 2008
Those of you in the greater DC area may be interested in the NIH Science in the Cinema Film Series at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring.
Starting tomorrow, July 9, there will be free weekly screenings of films centered on various medical conditions - like Alzheimer's (Away from Her), locked-in syndrome (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and HIV/AIDS (Life Support). The films will be followed by commentary from researchers in the field and a Q&A session, which could be interesting, given the directorial liberties that are often taken in films dealing with medicine and biology.
If…
grrlscientist | July 2, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, open access, publishing, life science research, Declan Butler
Image: Orphan.
Wow, have you read Declan Butler's nasty little hatchet job that was just published in Nature about the Public Library of Science (PLoS)? My jaw hit the top of the table in my little coffee shop where I am ensconced -- why would Nature demean their journal by publishing such a snotty little screed where they attack the normal, but probably painful, financial ups-and-downs of a new journal?
Because Nature represents the old way of doing things, so Nature is afraid of those upstarts, PLoS…
purepedantry | July 2, 2008Publishing in Science, Gormley et al. compared the benefits of Oklahoma's TPS pre-K program to Head Start. Conclusion: preschool matters in cognitive development.
Early childhood education programs in the United States face enormous challenges. The overwhelming majority of Head Start program participants are poor, and many Head Start children face additional risk factors, such as a single-parent home or a home where English is not the primary language spoken. Pre-K programs targeted to poor or otherwise at-risk children face similar challenges. Even universally available programs, such as…
bioephemera | June 30, 2008FYI - the deadline to apply for astronaut school is tomorrow, July 1:
NASA is now accepting applications for its 2009 astronaut class. The agency is looking for a few men and women who want to fulfill their dreams and be a part of the next generation of explorers.
To be considered, a bachelor's degree in engineering, science or math and three years of relevant professional experience are required. Typically, successful applicants have significant qualifications in engineering or science, or extensive experience flying high-performance jet aircraft. Teaching experience, including work at the…
sheril | June 27, 2008
This week I've composed my first column at Science Progress called 'Plight of the Postdoc: Is modern American science strangling its young talents in the cradle?' The piece explores some illuminationg--and troubling--figures about the arduous road ahead for many early career scientists.
At first glance, it might seem that American science finds itself in a kind of golden age. According to the National Science Foundation, the United States is graduating more Ph.D.s in science and engineering than ever before, with 29,854 in 2006 representing an all time high. Meanwhile, we spend more on…
drorzel | June 27, 2008Over at Science After Sunclipse, Blake has a very long post about the limitations of science blogs. Brian at Laelaps responds, and Tom at Swans On Tea agrees.
You might be wondering whether I have an opinion on this. Since I'm going to be talking about it at a workshop in September (first talk, no less...), I better have some opinions..
The original post is very long, but can probably best be summarized by the following paragraph:
My thesis is that it's not yet possible to get a science education from reading science blogs, and a major reason for this is because bloggers don't have the…
drorzel | June 26, 2008A few days ago, some colleagues and I were discussing the year that just ended, and the curriculum in general, and the frequent lament about needing to repeat ourselves came up. Due to some quirks of our calendar, we have a lot of students taking courses out of sequence, and as a result, have to teach the same mathematical techniques in multiple classes.
On top of that, though, the students tend to say that any given technique is entirely new to them, even when they've already seen it. When that part came up, one of my colleagues said "Well, of course they do that-- I did that when I was an…