education
drorzel | February 6, 2010I want to like this book more than I do.
As a general matter, this is exactly the sort of science book we need more of. As you can probably guess from the title, Why Does E=mc2? sets out to explain Einstein's theory of relativity, and does an excellent job of it. It presents a clear and concise explanation of the theory for a non-scientific audience, using no math beyond the Pythagorean Theorem.
I picked this up partly as research of a sort-- if there is ever a How to Teach Physics to Your Dog 2: Canine Boogaloo, the most obvious topic for it would be relativity, which I mention a few times,…
grrlscientist | February 6, 2010tags: Lesser Striped Swallow, Hirundo abyssinica, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lesser Striped Swallow, sometimes also known as the Striped Swallow, Hirundo abyssinica, photographed in the Mikumi National Park, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, February 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300s, 600 mm lens with 1.4 extender, ISO 500, f/7.1 1/640 sec. Exp compensation +1.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
jstemwedel | February 5, 2010The elder Free-Ride offspring is lobbying to try an experiment this weekend. The working title of the protocol is "homemade soda*" but I suspect it may be described differently in the final report.
Dr. Free-Ride: Tell me about the experiment that you proposed to your teacher.
Elder Free-Ride offspring: I'll mix four cups of baking soda and vinegar and put each in its own bucket to keep the bubbles from spilling over, and take what remains in the cup and add fruit juice to it, and taste it, and if it's not sweet enough add sugar to it, and then pass it off as soda!
Dr. Free-Ride: Tell me more…
grrlscientist | February 5, 2010tags: Cape Widow, Cape Bishop, Yellow-rumped Widow, Yellow Bishop, Euplectes capensis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Yellow Bishop, also known as the Cape Widow, Cape Bishop, or the Yellow-rumped Widow, Euplectes capensis, photographed in the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, February 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300, 600 mm lens, ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/1250 sec.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
bioephemera | February 5, 2010
An interactive flowchart/concept map from Berkeley's Understanding Science project. Click around a while, and tell me what you think of it. Accurate? Too simple? Useful?
grrlscientist | February 4, 2010tags: Carolina Chickadee, Poecile carolinensis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Carolina Chickadee, Poecile carolinensis, photographed in the photographer's back yard in Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 18 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/320s 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 | February 4, 2010tags: Science Online 2010, Scio10, Ms Baker's Biology Class,Staten Island Academy, NYC, education, technology, internet, streaming video
This is a video collage by Stacy "Ms Bakeriffic" Baker's high school biology students from Staten Island Academy in Staten Island, NY. In this video, they take part in Science Online '10 in North Carolina. They also went to the lemur farm, which makes me SO JEALOUS! I love lemurs!
I am so pleased to see this video of SciO10 -- an event I wish I had attended. On one hand, I am pleased these kids got to experience this and on the other hand, I am jealous,…
rallain | February 3, 2010I am sure I have talked about this stuff before, but it came up recently in a discussion so I figured I should put it here.
Let me draw a picture of learning.
The path of learning goes through the swamp of confusion. Suppose you are in a class and you are confused. This is good. If you are not confused, you are not going through the learning process.
All too often I see a student put their big toe in the swamp. It is icky, so they stop. Their thoughts are:
This can't be the right way. I am sure I made a wrong turn somewhere. I can't possibly go through this. If this IS indeed the way…
drorzel | February 3, 2010Yesterday's post on a variation of the "Twin Paradox" with both twins accelerating was very successful-- 337 people voted in the first poll question, as of a little before 9am, and the comments to the original post are full of lively discussion. That's awesome.
I wish I could take credit for it, but the problem posed is not original to me. It comes from a 1989 paper in the American Journal of Physics, which also includes the following illustration setting up the situation:
The article contains a full explanation, and also the following figure illustrating the result:
The correct answer is…
grrlscientist | February 3, 2010tags: Least Flycatcher, Empidonax minimus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Least Flycatcher, Empidonax minimus, photographed on the San Bernard Wildlife Refuge, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 5 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/400s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
mikethemadbiologist | February 2, 2010Once again, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg makes me wonder what the Obama administration was thinking when they nominated him for Commerce Secretary--they must have really believed that post-partisanship bullshit. Gregg's latest eruption:
Judd Gregg just had a meltdown on MSNBC that came out of nowhere. He's been attacking everything Obama, almost from the minute he turned down a Cabinet post offer from the White House, but his performance today was really weird. The conversation was about spending and, as usual, Gregg was acting like the incredible deficit freak that he is.
Melissa Francis is a…
mikethemadbiologist | February 2, 2010Merry Tuesday. Links fahr ya. Science:
The Case for 'Gray Power'
How many Americans received the H1N1 vaccine?
The Intellectual Property Fight That Could Kill Millions
The Duration of PostDoc Training
Dual Function Of Post-Doctoral Training
Other:
Mr. Obama's Junk Economics: Democrats Relinquish the Populist Option to the Republicans
World hunger and the locavores
The futurist weighs in: The things we leave behind
Lies of rightwing populism: Those evil liberal elites
After Three Months, Only 35 Subscriptions for Newsday's Web Site
What A Coincidence!
drorzel | February 2, 2010Just about everybody has heard of the Twin Paradox in relativity: one twin becomes as astronaut and sets off for Alpha Centauri, the other remains on Earth at mission control. Thanks to time dilation, the two age at different rates, and the one who made the trip out and back ends up younger than the one who stayed behind.
Of course, the paradox is not that the two twins have different ages-- rather, it's that from a simple approach to special relativity, you would think that each twin should see the other's clock running slow, since it seems like getting into a rocket and flying off into…
grrlscientist | February 2, 2010tags: Lesser Goldfinch, Dark-backed Goldfinch, Spinus psaltria, Carduelis psaltria, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lesser Goldfinch, also known as the Dark-backed Goldfinch, Spinus (Carduelis) psaltria, photographed in San Rafael, California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 25 December 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1250s 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 | February 2, 2010Tuesday is a heavy teaching day for me-- I'm in lab from 9-4, basically-- so here's something to occupy the time. Oh, no! It's a pop quiz:
Pop quizzes are:(survey software)
(In case the phrase is an American idiom, a "pop quiz" refers to a short test given in class with no advance warning.)
This was inspired by Dermot O'Brien at Inside Higher Ed, who reports on taking his first quiz as a science student. The general topic of quizzes is one that generates a fair bit of heat, though, so I thought I'd see what my readers think of it.
My quiz policy as of a year or so ago was to give many short…
gregladen | February 1, 2010Is scheduled!
It will be held Feb 13 and 14 at Har Mar Mall, at the corner of County B and Snelling in Roseville MN.
Here's some info from the web site:
Have you been to the Home School Science Fairs? They are great! Some of the best and brightest kids in Minnesota were there. You could have learned how stable the Ark was in strong winds, how to, and how not to make yogurt, how weight effects the speed of a sled, and how to get energy from chicken droppings. Over 60 projects were up for display with many passersby stopping to check them out. It was a wonderful opportunity to place a…
grrlscientist | February 1, 2010tags: Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Regulus calendula, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Ruby-Crowned Kinglet, Regulus calendula, photographed on the Katy Prairie, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 1 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/400s 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 | January 31, 2010tags: Trumpeter Hornbill, Bycanistes bucinator, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Trumpeter Hornbill, Bycanistes bucinator, photographed in a classroom in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, somewhere in Scotland, UK. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
[larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
[Mystery bird] photographed in a classroom in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, somewhere in Scotland, UK. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
[larger view].
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | January 31, 2010tags: christianity, religion, cults, mind control, social phenomenon, Harry Potter, witchcraft, beliefs, education, streaming video
This video is a report on the christian wingnuts' response to Harry Potter -- it seems this is another cult of mind-control that is unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Since today is my birthday, and I am a rabid Harry Potter fan, I will spend this entire day brushing up on my spells and wand-work by watching Harry Potter DVDs. Since alcohol will also be involved, I urge you all to watch out, lest I (accidentally?) change someone into a toad.…