education
rallain | February 13, 2010Do you like my title? I will make a connection in just a bit. This post is mostly about online colleges. I saw on TV that Kaplan now has online courses. So, what do I think about that? Here are some points.
Some people can learn online
I think this is an important starting point. Yes, there are people that can do just fine in an online course. Say there is an online course in physics (and there are). I think that students (not sure how many - could be a lot) that could perform just as well on a physics test as a student that took a traditional format course.
I don't think this is a…
grrlscientist | February 13, 2010tags: Common Egret, Great White Egret, Great Egret, Ardea alba, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Great Egret, also known as the Great White Egret or the Common Egret, Ardea alba, photographed in California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan, February 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4 & TC17E.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | February 12, 2010tags: Curlew Sandpiper, Calidris ferruginea, Ruff, Calidris pugnax, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Curlew Sandpiper, Calidris ferruginea, and Ruff, Calidris pugnax, photographed in the Nyumba ya Mungu reservoir, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, February 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300, 600 mm lens x 1.4. ISO 320, 1/800 sec, f/6.3.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
clock | February 11, 2010Mason Posner is a professor of Biology at Ashland University in Ohio. He also blogs on A Fish Eye View (though I notice he did not update it in a while). About a year ago, and inspired by some discussions emanating from ScienceOnline'09, he decided to try using blogs in his teaching. He did it last spring. And he is doing it again this spring.
You can check out his Marine Biology Course class blog, where he and the students are all posting in one place.
But also check out his Senior Capstone course in Biology and its class blog - he is the only one blogging there - the students are required…
grrlscientist | February 11, 2010tags: San Lucas Nighthawk, Sharp-Winged Nighthawk,Texas Nighthawk, Trilling Nighthawk, Lesser Nighthawk, Chordeiles acutipennis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lesser Nighthawk, also known by a suite of other common names, including San Lucas Nighthawk, Sharp-Winged Nighthawk, Texas Nighthawk, and Trilling Nighthawk, Chordeiles acutipennis photographed on the South Padre Island Convention Center, South Padre Island, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 30 March 2008 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera…
gregladen | February 10, 2010Har Mar is a funny little shopping mall in Roseville Minnesota. It is the home of the annual Twin Cities Creation Science Science Fair. Sometimes we visit the science fair, but it is not to laugh at the students....
... that would be rude and uncivil, and despite the fact that politeness and civility are EVILE, when it comes to children we should not be all in their faces.
Rather, we go to the funny little mall to enjoy each other's company, those of us who wish we got together more often than we do, to browse through the Creation Science Fair displays, and to size up the local…
grrlscientist | February 10, 2010tags: Orange-crowned Warbler, Vermivora celata, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Orange-crowned Warbler, Vermivora celata, photographed on the Katy Prairie, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 6 February 2010 [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.
The same individual, facing the camera:
Orange-crowned Warbler, Vermivora celata, photographed on the…
drorzel | February 10, 2010What's the application? Using lasers to reduce the speed of a sample of atoms, thereby reducing their temperature to a tiny fraction of a degree above absolute zero.
What problem(s) is it the solution to? 1) "How can I make this sample of atoms move slowly enough to measure their properties very accurately?" 2) "How can I make this sample of atoms move slowly enough for their quantum wave-like character to become apparent?"
How does it work? I've written about laser cooling before, but the nickel version of the explanation is this: You can think of a beam of light as being made up of photons…
grrlscientist | February 9, 2010tags: x-ray art, photography, nature, Nick+Veasey, TEDTalks, streaming video
Nick Veasey shows outsized X-ray images that reveal the otherworldly inner workings of familiar objects -- from the geometry of a wildflower to the anatomy of a Boeing 747. Producing these photos is dangerous and painstaking, but the reward is a superpower: looking at what the human eye can't see.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al…
sa smith | February 9, 2010Look, I like weird people. Goth kids. Sci-fi geeks. Language nerds.
Weird people are far more interesting than, say, the 'normal' people that get cast for shows like 'The Bachelor': Generic Human #231975, Generic Human #576930, Generic Human #750193, bleh.
But theres a whole different level of weird, and that level is 'Creationist'.
Example: Remember that guy, that Creationist that branded kids in his Ohio classroom? Had a whole system of weird signals and words and stuff he was brainwashing kids with?
Yes, that was weird, but now weve reached a level of weird only Creationists can hope…
grrlscientist | February 9, 2010tags: Purple Finch, Carpodacus purpureus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Purple Finch, Carpodacus purpureus, photographed at the Big Sioux Recreation Area near Brandon, South Dakota. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 4 November 2007 [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.
grrlscientist | February 9, 2010tags: NASA, Endeavour, International Space Station, spaceship launch, STS-130,Kennedy Space Center, space exploration, physics, astronomy, engineering, streaming video
Space shuttle Endeavour, carrying Commander George Zamka, pilot Terry Virts, and Mission Specialists Nicholas Patrick, Bob Behnken, Steve Robinson and Kay Hire, successfully launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the early hours of February 8, headed for its 13-day STS-130 mission to the International Space Station.
grrlscientist | February 8, 2010tags: environment, education, conservation,animal welfare, dancing bears, India, sloth bear, Kartick Satyanarayan, TEDTalks, streaming video
Traditionally, the Kalandar community of India has survived by capturing sloth bear cubs and training them to "dance" through extreme cruelty. Kartick Satyanarayan has been able to put an end to this centuries-old practice, and in so doing discovered a lesson of wider significance: make the practitioners part of the solution.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers…
rallain | February 8, 2010This came in the mail.
This is an ad for someone's online homework service (I am not saying who). The important part, that you might not be able to read, says:
"Make Learning Part of the Grade"
I think I can interpret this logo in two different ways. Both of these interpretations are not too helpful.
Isn't that what a grade is supposed to be?
Maybe you already know that I am not a big fan of grades (grades and obedience, the point of grades). So really, what is the purpose of grades? I think of a couple of things, but most people should be able to agree that they somehow (magically)…
grrlscientist | February 8, 2010tags: Eagle Hawk, Gopher Hawk, Squirrel Hawk, Ferruginous Rough-legged Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk, Buteo regalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Ferruginous Hawk, also known by a variety of other common names such as Eagle Hawk, Gopher Hawk, Squirrel Hawk or Ferruginous Rough-legged Hawk, Buteo regalis, photographed in Lyman County, South Dakota. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Terry Sohl, 17 January 2010 [larger view]. You are encouraged to purchase photographs from this photographer. I am happy to email his contact information to you.
Canon 50D, 400…
cagapakis | February 8, 2010Teachers' Domain, a digital media resource for teachers, profiled Karmella Haynes, one of my amazing labmates!
There's a fun video of Karmella talking about her work on synthetic biology devices to track cancer cells and about careers in science streaming on the Teachers' Domain website. You should all check it out, she's an incredible scientist, artist, and teacher--a true inspiration!
gregladen | February 7, 2010A federal appellate court has ruled against a Christian school in Murrieta which had sued the University of California over its refusal to accept high school courses that rely on the Bible as the unerring source of truth.
Details here.
Next step: Homeschoolers!
(Hat tip: August Berkshire)
grrlscientist | February 7, 2010tags: Jackson's Widowbird, Euplectes jacksoni, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Jackson's Widowbird, Euplectes jacksoni, photographed in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, February 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, 600 x 1.4, ISO 320, f/5.6, 1/800 sec.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
rallain | February 6, 2010So, I put together part of my online textbook (finally). Let me give a little history and insight into this 'textbook'. Ok - I blog, I am sure you got that part already. When I write a post, I like it to start from the basic ideas so that anyone could find it and get what I am saying about some physics thing. Well, I started to realize that there were some things that I kept repeating (like how to add vectors). Instead of re-writing this every time a post had vectors, I made a post Basics: Vectors and Vector Addition. Then, I realized that I could keep doing this and slowly build up a…
bioephemera | February 6, 2010
Those of you who like to play with color may be interested in the newColoRotate interface, designed to make editing color palettes more intuitive. This tool was produced by the same team that made the useful educational website Causes of Color, which I've blogged about before. It explains the differences between iridescence, interference, luminescence, etc. in simple language easy for nonscientists to understand.
There's a quick demo video of the ColoRotate Photoshop plugin below the fold.