education
grrlscientist | December 3, 2009tags: Black-bellied Whistling-duck, Black-bellied Tree-duck, Dendrocygna autumnalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Black-bellied Whistling-duck, also known as the Black-bellied Tree-duck, Dendrocygna autumnalis, photographed in Hermann Park Conservancy, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 18 November 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
bioephemera | December 2, 2009As many of you know, I've been working for the past couple of years on youth internet health and education issues. While the stereotype is that younger = tech savvier, that's not strictly true. Younger kids may be better acquainted with the internet, may use it more, and may feel more comfortable with it, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have the cognitive skills or experience to differentiate between manipulative content, unreliable content, and good content.
How many of you, as adults, have been tricked into clicking on a deceptive banner ad that looked like genuine content? How many…
grrlscientist | December 2, 2009tags: Lesser Scaup, Little Bluebill, Aythya affinis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Male Lesser Scaup, also known as a Little Bluebill, Aythya affinis, photographed in Tom Bass Regional Park, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 27 November 2009 [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 | December 1, 2009tags: Gadwall, Anas strepera, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] female Gadwall, Anas strepera, photographed in San Bernard Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 March 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s 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 | November 30, 2009tags: education, academic achievement, university, college, Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Universities, William G. Bowen, Matthew M. Chingos, Michael S. McPherson, book review
The second book review I've ever published in Nature Magazine appeared last week, roughly the same time I was on a trans-Atlantic flight from NYC to Frankfurt, Germany. Due to my lack of wireless and jet lag, I've neglected to mention this until now. This review discusses a book that I think is very important for everyone involved in higher education to read and think about: Crossing…
drorzel | November 30, 2009
Via Chris Mooney, a Seth Borenstein article about Obama's love for science:
Out in public, Obama turns the Bunsen burner up a notch, playing a combination of high school science teacher and math team cheerleader.
Last week, for example, the president announced that the White House would hold an annual science fair as part of a $260 million private push to improve math and science education.
"We're going to show young people how cool science can be," Obama said. "Scientists and engineers ought to stand side by side with athletes and entertainers as role models."
It's nice to hear that the…
grrlscientist | November 30, 2009tags: Chipping Sparrow, Spizella passerina, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Chipping Sparrow, Spizella passerina, photographed at Illinois Beach State Park, Lake County, Illinois. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Janice Sweet, 20 October 2009 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
I am helping you prepare for the Christmas Bird Count by posting so many images of the Chipping Sparrow, since this is a commonly misidentified CBC species (in Illinois, at least).
Review all mystery birds to date.
mikethemadbiologist | November 29, 2009Because the Mad Biologist isn't nearly curmudgeonly enough, especially about things like education [/snark], I thought this post by Ed of Gin and Tacos hit the right notes:
Should our educational system emphasize information retention or "critical thinking?" Here's the problem. We do neither. Exams like this are no longer given, at least not commonly, but has it been replaced with anything more useful? In my limited experience we are producing wave after wave of students who reach adulthood utterly unable to distinguish between their puckered assholes and a hole in the ground but with access…
grrlscientist | November 29, 2009tags: Australian Pelican, Pelecanus conspicillatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Australian Pelican, Pelecanus conspicillatus, photographed at Atherton, Queensland, Australia. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan, 26 August 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4 & TC17E.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
The Australian Pelican is found throughout Australia, Papua New Guinea and western Indonesia, with occasional reports in New Zealand and various western Pacific islands. Pelicans are…
mikethemadbiologist | November 27, 2009Over at Sciencewomen, a reader, who is considering a Ph.D. program, asks:
I have a Masters in Biology (from a 5 year BS/MS program) and for the past 4 years I've been working as a lab manager/technician. I have my own research project(s) in addition to keeping track of ordering/equipment maintenance/mouse breeding/etc. All-in-all it's a sweet gig and I could see myself doing this or something similar for most of my career. The problem is that there seems to be this culture in biology that one has to get a PhD, and my competitive side kind of feels the need to get one mostly just to show that…
grrlscientist | November 27, 2009tags: Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Calyptorhynchus banksii, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Calyptorhynchus banksii, also known as Bank's Black Cockatoo, photographed at Walgett, New South Wales, Australia. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan, 18 August 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | November 26, 2009tags: White-tailed Hawk, Buteo albicaudatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] White-tailed Hawk, Buteo albicaudatus, photographed at the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 22 November 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s 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 | November 25, 2009tags: Western Gull, Larus occidentalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Western Gull, Larus occidentalis, photographed at Pt. Reyes, California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 21 December 2007 [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.
Review all mystery birds to date.
drorzel | November 24, 2009I've been a little too busy to participate, but His Holiness and Eric Weinstein on Twitter have gotten into an interesting exchange about the structure of academia, and the appropriate number of Ph.D.'s in science. As usual, I suspect I'm not fully understanding the majesty of whatever Eric is arguing in favor of, but it's provocative.
At about the same time, the Dean Dad has been on something of an anti-tenure bender, starting here, continuing here, and culminating in a blistering rant about Michael Berube. Dean Dad is in favor of replacing tenure with infinitely renewable five-year…
grrlscientist | November 24, 2009tags: birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] photographed at Bolivar East Beach, Galveston County, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 17 October 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/800s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
This image features a cluster of bird species; can you tell me how many species are present, what species they are, and how many individuals of each species you see?
Review all mystery birds to date.
bcohen | November 24, 2009
"Amaryllis," by Katelyn Sack
I work in the engineering school here at U.Va. My office faces a lobby-type area just outside the main computer lab for undergrads. That space has blank walls. We recently commandeered it and opened up an art gallery. The painting above is one of four currently hanging in this first installment. I make note of the exhibit here, at The World's Fair, because it seems entirely in keeping with the ethos of this blog, where in our best days we cross the so-called boundaries between scientific, artistic, and political worlds.
from KS collection
U.Va.'s…
gregladen | November 23, 2009Over the last several years, the cost of a college education in Minnesota has gone up several percent, but the range of services and opportunities one may have access to has not gone up (and in many cases gone down). This is probably true across the country. Right now, in California, there is debate over a 32 percent student fee increase. Which reminds me: There was a time when you could estimate the cost of college by knowing "tuition" and then cost of living while in college, and throwing in a couple of hundred bucks a year for other stuff like books. Then the book prices went through…
grrlscientist | November 23, 2009tags: Least Tern, Sterna antillarum, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Least Tern, Sterna antillarum, photographed at Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary, Houston, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 24 July 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s 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 | November 22, 2009tags: Swainson's Blue Mountain Rainbow Lorikeet, Trichoglossus haematodus moluccanus, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Swainson's Blue Mountain Rainbow Lorikeet, Trichoglossus haematodus moluccanus, photographed at Yungaburra, Queensland, Australia. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan, 26 August 2009 [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 | November 21, 2009tags: Plumed Whistling Ducks, Eyton Tree Ducks, Dendrocygna eytoni, identify these birds, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Plumed Whistling Ducks, also known as Eyton Tree Ducks, Dendrocygna eytoni, photographed at Atherton, Queensland, Australia. [I will identify these birds for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan, 26 August 2009 [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.