education
grrlscientist | October 27, 2009tags: Mississippi Kite, Ictinia mississippiensis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Mississippi Kite, Ictinia mississippiensis, photographed at Smith Point, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 30 September 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.
drorzel | October 27, 2009FriendFeed and Twitter are a terrific source of articles about how New Media technologies are Changing Everything. The latest example is Sebastian Paquet's The Fate of the Incompetent Teacher in the YouTube Era, in which he declares that the recorded lectures of Salman Khan are the beginning of the end for bad teachers:
Even assuming, conservatively, that Khan's calculus videos are only slightly above average, roughly half the students taking calculus this semester would save time and pain by watching his lessons instead of paying attention to the mediocre teaching happening in front of them…
grrlscientist | October 26, 2009tags: DonorsChoose, science education, teaching, fund-raising, poverty
I am so lucky to be enjoying a flood of thousands of unique visitors right now, so much so that my blog will surpass the 4 million visits mark in an hour or less. To celebrate this incredible landmark, I ask you -- all of you -- to donate to a DonorsChoose classroom! DonorsChoose is a non-profit fund-raising agency that provides money to teachers throughout the United States to help "their kids" improve their education. I chose specific classrooms to help -- my "Challenge" students -- that focus on classrooms that are (a…
grrlscientist | October 26, 2009tags: Ruddy Turnstone, Arenaria interpres, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery birds] Ruddy Turnstone, Arenaria interpres, photographed at Smith Point, Texas. [I will identify these birds for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 30 September 2009 [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.
grrlscientist | October 25, 2009tags: DonorsChoose, science education, teaching, fund-raising, poverty
How many of you are Harry Potter fans, or know someone who is? How about all those millions of kids in the United States who are crazy about Harry Potter and his amazing owl, Hedwig? So don't you think this makes owls a special bridge between kids and the worlds of imagination and literature and nature and science? I certainly think it does, so of course, I think this wonderful DonorsChoose project, Who Gives a "Hoot" About Owls! is a superb classroom lesson to interest this high-poverty classroom of 120 third graders in…
mikethemadbiologist | October 25, 2009For anything? Excluding very rare norovirus outbreaks, I can't remember ever reading about school absentee rates like these from Grafton, MA:
Grafton High School closed early today after more than a third of its students and more than a quarter of its staff stayed home sick. It is the only school in the state to close, according to public health and education departments, but absenteeism has been elevated some communities across the state. At the beginning of the school year, state officials urged schools to close only as a last resort during flu season and instead focus on keeping sick…
grrlscientist | October 25, 2009tags: Juvenile Martial Eagle, Polemaetus bellicosus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Juvenile Martial Eagle, Polemaetus bellicosus, photographed in Nakuru National Park, Kenya, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 29 July 2006 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, 200-400 VR lens at 200. ISO 200, 1/2000, f 5.6.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Here's another look at this bird.
Review all mystery birds to date.
drorzel | October 25, 2009My panel on "Communicating Science in the 21st Century" was last night at the Quantum to Cosmos Festival at the Perimeter Institute. I haven't watched the video yet-- Canadian telecommunications technology hates me, and I'm lucky to get a wireless connection to stay up for more than ten minutes-- but if the video feeds I've seen from other talks are an indication, it should be really good.
The panel wound up being primarily about journalism, which is understable given that the other four participants are all very distinguished journalists. I did my best to uphold the honor of the New Media…
grrlscientist | October 25, 2009tags: intelligent design, scientific process, science classroom, rational thinking, AtheistBusCA, streaming video
Kenneth Miller provides a brief explanation as to why "intelligent design" is not admissible in a science classroom.
grrlscientist | October 24, 2009tags: DonorsChoose, science education, teaching, fund-raising, poverty
I am so excited and so proud of YOU, my beautiful readers, for donating your precious and limited dollars to help kids in impoverished classrooms continue their journey towards claiming a brighter future through education. As of a few minutes ago, we raised the minimum of $2500 in DonorsChoose funds, which qualifies us for at least $2000 in matching funds from Hewlett-Packard! However, I have a confession to make: I am a selfish bastard because I want MORE MORE MORE of those precious HP funds to share with impoverished…
grrlscientist | October 24, 2009tags: Bearded Vulture, Lamb Vulture, Lammergeyer, Gypaetus barbatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lammergeyer, also known as the Bearded or Lamb Vulture (for reasons that I'll bet you can correctly guess at), Gypaetus barbatus, photographed on Mt Kilimanjaro, at just under 15000 feet, at Barafu Camp. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 24 July 2006 [larger view].
NIkon D2X 70-200 VR lens at 200, ISO 200, 1/1250, f 6.3.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
According to legend, the Greek playwright…
grrlscientist | October 24, 2009tags: DonorsChoose, science education, teaching, fund-raising, poverty
I have a confession to make: I love ant farms. I love them so much that one of my readers bought me an ant farm to cheer me up shortly after I lost my funding and was experiencing a long run of bad luck in my job search -- the financial stress and loss of self esteem were almost unbearable. But even though I am an adult (well, I'm told I look like an adult), I found hours of joy watching "my ants." But imagine how eye-opening an ant farm would be for a bunch of impoverished second-graders who have never seen or…
grrlscientist | October 23, 2009tags: DonorsChoose, science education, teaching, fund-raising, poverty
I thought DonorsChoose would send me all my donors' contact information, but apparently they don't, so I need you to send me a copy of the email receipt you received from DonorsChoose so I can enter you in as many prize drawings as possible. Of course, I also need your mailing address along with this receipt because I am leaving the country two weeks after this fund raising effort has ended, so I want to get everything mailed to you as soon as possible because I can't afford to mail prizes from Germany! (especially since…
grrlscientist | October 23, 2009tags: DonorsChoose, science education, teaching, fund-raising, poverty
One of my donors, Hewlett-Packard, has notified me that they are willing to provide my Challenge classrooms with an additional $2000 IF I manage to raise a total of $2500 by Sunday. That means we're only $514 away from being able to nearly double our ability to help impoverished classrooms throughout the United States! I've already donated $300, so I am completely tapped out, so I am asking you: please donate to my DonorsChoose classrooms!
In recognition of your kind gifts to help others, Princeton University Press is…
mikethemadbiologist | October 23, 2009At the risk of channeling my inner Bob Somerby, it seems that, in this fairly comprehensive NY Times article about the rising costs of college, there isn't any discussion about why these costs are spiraling. If it's a fixed cost, such as guaranteed faculty salary increases (snort), then that implies one solution. If it's a one-time cost (e.g., a massive spike in the cost of energy), then it's not much of an issue (or more accurately, there isn't much colleges can do about it). But nowhere in the article, is this discussed. Maybe I'm a wonky scientist or something, but I like to solve…
grrlscientist | October 23, 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 these birds for you in 48 hours]
Image: Janice Sweet, 20 October 2009 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
grrlscientist | October 23, 2009tags: DonorsChoose, science education, teaching, fund-raising, poverty
I am focusing on this project, For the Birds!, because it targets fifth grade kids, the perfect age to get them interested in birds for life. Further, this is a high-poverty classroom in NYC (my home), and I wish to help the kids here develop an appreciation for the glorious bird life that migrates through here and resides in this large city. But this is an expensive project because they are asking for 15 binoculars for a classroom of 30 kids, so I donated $300 to this project to get it started. Will you donate money to…
grrlscientist | October 23, 2009tags: FLOW, For the Love of Water, pollution, bottled water, film trailer, streaming video
Part eight (the last part) of Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century: The World Water Crisis.
Learn more about the film and purchase the DVD.
grrlscientist | October 22, 2009tags: FLOW, For the Love of Water, pollution, bottled water, film trailer, streaming video
Part seven of Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century: The World Water Crisis.
grrlscientist | October 22, 2009tags: DonorsChoose, science education, teaching, fund-raising, poverty
One of my donors, Hewlett-Packard, has notified me that they are willing to provide my Challenge classrooms with $2000 IF I manage to raise a total of $2500 by Sunday. That means we're only $1000 away from being able to nearly double our ability to help impoverished classrooms throughout the United States! I've already donated $300, so I am completely tapped out, so I am asking you: please donate to my DonorsChoose classrooms!
In recognition of your kind gifts to help others, Princeton University Press is offering 2…