education
jdupuis | May 4, 2010That's the title of the short article I have in our most recent York Libraries Faculty Newsletter. It's a rejigged version for faculty of the two posts I did a while back on the blog I use for IL sessions, here and here. I'll be doing a more formal report on the IL blog at an upcoming conference, but that's for another post.
A lot of the newsletter is of local interest only, but there are a couple of articles that will have a broader appeal:
Information Literacy and Peer Tutors in the Classroom
Research Study on Perceptions of IL
It's also worth pointing out the short profile of Toni…
grrlscientist | May 4, 2010tags: Blue-headed Vireo, Vireo solitarius, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] photographed at Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, Brazoria County, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 27 April 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
The Blue-headed Vireo is a common and vocal bird of northeastern forests. Formerly lumped as a "Solitary Vireo" with the more western Plumbeous and Cassin's…
esiegel | May 3, 2010"An educational system isn't worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living but doesn't teach them how to make a life." -Unknown
Every now and again, people with all sorts of backgrounds -- from some graduate school all the way to having not finished high school -- ask me about getting involved in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Often, people's interest simply come from looking up at night.
I'm not going to lie, this is a huge question, with many different answers. First off, let's start off assuming that you have no background in math, no background in physics, and that you'…
grrlscientist | May 3, 2010tags: education, public outreach, SciCafe, science cafe, AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, NYC, streaming video
Who: AMNH paleontologists Dr Mike Novacek and Dr Mark Norell
What: free public presentation, "Travels with Tyrannosaurus"
When: Wednesday, 5 May at 700pm
Where: Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, American Museum of Natural History, Enter at the 81st Street (Rose Center) [directions and maps]
Cost: FREE, and there is a cash bar too! (must be 21+ with ID)
Amazing fossils are still out there, waiting to be discovered. Museum paleontologists Mike Novacek and Mark Norell will…
drorzel | May 3, 2010While I missed the controversial episode with comments about aliens, I figured I should at least take a look at the Discovery Channel's Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking, so I put it on last night after putting SteelyKid to bed. This was the big two-hour "Story of Everything" episode, starting with the Big Bang and describing the whole history of the universe.
I made it through about half an hour, before I gave up and went to bed. This was partly due to it being a really long day (I took SteelyKid shopping and to a playground, did some yard work, and went to a meeting on campus), so I…
grrlscientist | May 3, 2010tags: Sora, Sora Rail, Sora Crake, Porzana carolina, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Sora, also known as the Sora Rail or sometimes as the Sora Crake, Porzana carolina, photographed at Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 27 April 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Can you tell me why this bird's tail is so short?
A short tail is reportedly found in birds that specialize in fast flight, such as loons, ducks, grebes and…
grrlscientist | May 2, 2010tags: Using Statistics to Create The Ultimate TEDTalk, statistics, public speaking, Sebastian Wernicke, TEDTalks, streaming video
In a brilliantly tongue-in-cheek analysis, Sebastian Wernicke turns the tools of statistical analysis on TEDTalks, to come up with a metric for creating "the optimum TEDTalk" based on user ratings. How do you rate it? "Jaw-dropping"? "Unconvincing"? Or just plain "Funny"?
After making a splash in the field of bioinformatics, Sebastian Wernicke moved on to the corporate sphere where he motivates and manages multidimensional projects. You can get your copy of…
mikethemadbiologist | May 2, 2010Clive Thompson nails it when he describes the importance of statistical thinking (italics original; boldtype mine):
Statistics is hard. But that's not just an issue of individual understanding; it's also becoming one of the nation's biggest political problems. We live in a world where the thorniest policy issues increasingly boil down to arguments over what the data mean. If you don't understand statistics, you don't know what's going on -- and you can't tell when you're being lied to. Statistics should now be a core part of general education. You shouldn't finish high school without…
grrlscientist | May 2, 2010tags: Lake Victoria Weaver, Victoria Masked-Weaver, Entebbe Weaver, Gambian Black-headed Weaver, Yellow-backed Weaver, Yellow-collared Weaver, Black-headed Weaver, Ploceus melanocephalus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Black-headed Weaver, also known by numerous other common names, including the Yellow-collared (or Yellow-backed) Weaver, Gambian Black-headed Weaver, Victoria Masked-weaver, Lake Victoria Weaver, or the Entebbe Weaver, Ploceus melanocephalus, photographed Ndutu Safari Lodge, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen,…
grrlscientist | May 1, 2010tags: Bible Contradictions Quiz Show, religion, christianity, Bible, humor, funny, satire, comedy, fucking hilarious,animation, cults, streaming video
This amusing video shows a quiz show where the two contestants are asked questions about the bible -- unfortunately, the holy word of god is filled with contradictions (more contradictions than the Harry Potter series, for that matter!)
grrlscientist | May 1, 2010tags: Black-fronted Bush-Shrike, Black-fronted Bushshrike, Chlorophoneus nigrifrons, Telophorus nigrifrons, Laniarius nigrifrons, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Black-fronted Bush-Shrike, Chlorophoneus (Laniarius) (Telophorus) nigrifrons, photographed in the East Usambara Mountains, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 12 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300, 600 mm lens, ISO 800, F/5.6, 1/200 sec.
This is a challenging bird to identify, so I am asking you to instead try to identify the taxonomic family.
Please name at…
mikethemadbiologist | April 30, 2010By way of Yong Zhao, we find this Economic Policy Institute report, "Let's Do the Numbers", about the false precision in the award process of the Obama Administration's signature school reform initiative. Anyone involved in a grant award process knows that the design of the scoring metrics can have a huge effect on the outcome. Consider Massachusetts which lost millions of dollars because we wanted to examine why we should lower our curricular standards (italics mine):
...we examined the case of Massachusetts, which scored surprisingly low (13th of the 16 finalists) for a state with a…
grrlscientist | April 30, 2010tags: Rod-breasted Grosbeak, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus, photographed in a Houston backyard in Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 21 April 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Based on this bird's beak shape, what sort of diet would you expect it to have?
This bird primarily eats seeds, as indicated by the heavy beak and the angulated commissure (that…
drorzel | April 30, 2010We're just over 600 votes in the Laser Smackdown poll in honor of the 50th anniversary of the laser, as of early Friday morning. I notice that it has moved off the front page of the blog, though, so here's another signal-boosting repost, just so we have as many votes as possible, to establish maximum scientific validity when we declare the winner the Most Amazing Laser Application of All Time
Which of the following is the most amazing application of a laser?Market Research
Voting will remain open until next Sunday, May 2, just two days from now, with the ultimate winner announced on Monday…
grrlscientist | April 30, 2010tags: Deutsch für Doofe, German for Boneheads, German language, education, Speedyconkiwi, streaming video
German for Boneheads: lesson one. How to ask for six fish at the pet store without inadvertently ending up with 60 fish.
I still love Sulkasiipi.
cagapakis | April 29, 2010I got the chance to attend a panel discussion about science and the media presented by the UK-based charity Sense About Science. The audience was primarily scientists, many of whom were angry about how science is presented in the media: the outlandish claims, the hype, presenting "both sides" of stories where there is clear scientific consensus. The panel included a professional scientist who teaches about communicating with the public, an editor at the journal Cell, and a science reporter for the Boston Globe.
The panel was mostly about "traditional" media, with a little shout-out to blogs…
mikethemadbiologist | April 29, 2010I came across this excellent article by Jerry Coyne, which is part book review, part defense of natural selection. I recommend it highly. But, in reading the article, I wondered why people are so threatened by natural selection. Because that's not the philosophically challenging part. Unless you're a biblical 'literalist', the idea of a creator dude who acts through the mechanism of natural selection isn't too theologically challenging. After all, traits that are beneficial (at least locally and in the short term) increase, while the deleterious ones decrease. Surely, this is the best…
grrlscientist | April 29, 2010tags: Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, photographed at Bolivar Peninsula, Galveston County, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 8 April 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
jdupuis | April 28, 2010A great two-part series on great computing museums from the last few issues of Communications of the ACM (here and here).
The museums they profile are:
The Computer History Museum
The Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum
The Science Museum in London
The Deutches Museum
U.S. National Museum of American History
I'll include an extra bit from the first CACM article on the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. I'm choosing that one because as it happens I'll almost certainly be visiting it this coming July. I'm fortunate to have been invited to the annual Science Foo Camp, which happens to be at…
grrlscientist | April 28, 2010tags: Gilded Flicker, Colaptes chrysoides, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Female Gilded Flicker, Colaptes chrysoides, photographed sitting on top of a blooming Saguaro cactus on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 8 May 2008 [larger view]. You are encouraged to purchase photographs from this photographer. I am happy to email his contact information to you.
Canon 20D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.