education
grrlscientist | November 20, 2009tags: Australian Darter, Anhinga novaehollandiae, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Australian Darter, Anhinga novaehollandiae, photographed at Mareeba Wetlands, 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.
emjohnson | November 19, 2009
(To watch this as a music video click on the volume icon in the top left.)
Here you are, all your bright, shining faces with a brand new copy of On the Origin of Species. It's extremely generous of Ray Comfort and Living Waters Publications to distribute so many free copies of a book with no political agenda whatsoever. I noticed that some of you found an odd additional chapter to the book that never appeared in the original edition. But many of you reclaimed Darwin's intent by removing these unfortunate pages and now have an excellent copy for yourselves or to donate to a worthy…
grrlscientist | November 19, 2009tags: Red-headed Woodpecker, Melanerpes erythrocephalus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Juvenile Red-headed Woodpecker, Melanerpes erythrocephalus, photographed at Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Art McLeod, 18 August 2009 [larger view].
Canon 40d 400mm 5.6 lens.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | November 18, 2009tags: Long-tailed Duck, Oldsquaw, Clangula hyemalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Long-tailed Duck, formerly known as Oldsquaw, Clangula hyemalis, photographed at Bodega Bay, California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 23 December 2007 [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.
drorzel | November 18, 2009It's always kind of distressing to find something you agree with being said by people who also espouse views you find nutty, repulsive, or reprehensible. It doesn't make them any less right, but it makes it a little more difficult to be associated with those views.
So, for instance, there's this broadside against ineffective math education, via Arts & Letters Daily. It's got some decent points about the failings of modern math education, which lead to many of our entering students being unable to do algebra. But along the way, you get frothiness like the following:
The educational trends…
grrlscientist | November 17, 2009tags: Greater Roadrunner, Geococcyx californianus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Greater Roadrunner, Geococcyx californianus, photographed at Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 29 March 2008 [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.
gregladen | November 16, 2009Bergman gave the argument FOR Intelligent Design, and Myers gave the argument AGAINST.
I have never seen an argument against Intelligent design so well made. It would seem that Intelligent Design is a point of view rather than a coherent theory, one that emerges as a socio political side-effect of the struggle between atheism and religion, one that has many proponents but no valid scientific published research to support it. Intelligent design, according to what I saw argued, makes little internal coherent sense. It is based on a two step process of reasoning: Irreducible complexity, which…
ejohnson | November 16, 2009
In the increasingly competitive and admissions-driven world of high school, learning doesn't always come cheap. SAT-prep programs and college admissions counselors charge a pretty penny for the advantages they (claim to) bestow upon anxious juniors and seniors, and even younger students, including those in middle school, are feeling the pressure. But what about families who can't afford exclusive prep courses?
Enter USAGraduate.com, a interactive online competition free to students in grades 6-12 that aims to engage students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects. The…
grrlscientist | November 16, 2009tags: Savannah Sparrow, Passerculus sandwichensis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Savannah Sparrow, Passerculus sandwichensis, photographed at Smith Point, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 31 October 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s 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 15, 2009tags: Crested Tern, Great Crested-tern, Swift Tern, Thalasseus bergii, identify this bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Crested Tern, also known as the Swift Tern or Great Crested-tern, Thalasseus (Sterna) bergii, photographed at Michealmas Cay, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan, 24 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 14, 2009tags: religion, fundamentalism, christianity, Why Do Atheists Care About Religion?, imrational, streaming video
How does religion impinge upon each American's rights? This video should open your eyes to the ridiculous, backwards and utterly nonsensical laws that control our lives because of someone's religious beliefs.
grrlscientist | November 14, 2009tags: Australian Lapwing, Masked Lapwing, birds, mystery bird, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Australian (Masked or Spur-winged) Lapwing, Vanellus miles, (formerly; Masked Plover, Spur-winged Plover), 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.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | November 13, 2009tags: Bar-shouldered Dove, Geopelia humeralis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Bar-shouldered Dove, Geopelia humeralis, photographed at Cooya Beach, Queensland, Australia. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Steve Duncan, 25 August 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4 1/2000 sec, f/4 iso 400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
drorzel | November 12, 2009The always interesting Timothy Burke has a good post about PowerPoint in classes, spinning off a student complaint. I've been lecturing with PowerPoint-- my own slides, not something sent to me by a textbook company-- since day one, so of course I have opinions on the topic.
For the most part, Burke's points on the pros and cons of PowerPoint are excellent. There's one motive for using PowerPoint that he leaves out, though, and it's slightly at odds with the rest of the advice.
One of the nice things about PowerPoint is that it can be used to provide a record of the lecture, for the sake of…
grrlscientist | November 12, 2009tags: Eastern Phoebe, Sayornis phoebe, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Eastern Phoebe, Sayornis phoebe photographed at Smith Point, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 3 November 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/250s 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 11, 2009tags: Hermit Thrush, Catharus guttatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Hermit Thrush, Catharus guttatus, photographed at Quintana Neotropical Sanctuary, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 30 October 2007 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/180s 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 | November 11, 2009
Talk about ephemera - Willy Chyr makes bioart out of balloons! Check out his installation Balluminescence:
Balluminescence - Lights, Balloons, Jellyfish! was commissioned by Science Chicago and was created for the program's finale signature event - LabFest! Millennium Park. An interactive installation, Balluminescence engaged participants in the process of creating art inspired by science. A team of balloon artists taught LabFest! attendants how to create simple balloon shapes, which were then added to one of three balloon jellyfish costumes. Through the activity, participants learned about…
grrlscientist | November 10, 2009tags: Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Poecile rufescens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Poecile rufescens, photographed at 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 1/320s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
gregladen | November 9, 2009In lecturing about behavioral biology (in any of a number of classes) it has been hard for me to avoid the lion story and the languar story. Both involve infanticide and selfish strategies by individuals. In both cases, females do things that are unexpected from the middle class heternormative Caucasoidowestern perspective. Babies die. For all these reasons, the stories wake up the students, get the students interested, and stuff gets learned. The key pedagogy here is this: If you are presented with a counter intuitive situation (and you are alert enough to recognized its…
gregladen | November 9, 2009It is a good idea to not use religious phrases like this in your newsletters:
The activities that took place inside and outside of the classroom last week were a wonderful example of how blessed I am to serve as the principal here at ____.
We want you to be qualified. Your being blessed or not is a matter to be addressed between you and your minister, or in your prayers at night, or elsewhere.