Science Education
sporte | June 22, 2010Last summer, I had the good fortune to attend a conference in Washington D.C. on Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology education. There were lots of inspiring speeches, cool videos, and talks about building more student-centered classrooms and strategies for change.
Surprisingly, many of the attendees seemed unaware that there is a group of instructors, and educational programs who embody this vision, albeit with a bit of twist.
These are the biotech instructors and biotech education programs at the community colleges.
Many of the ideas described at the Vision and Change conference…
clock | June 21, 2010June edition of the Journal of Science Communication is out. Focus seems to be on communication in physical space and democracy. Check out the table of contents:
Bringing the universe to the street. A preliminary look at informal learning implications for a large-scale non-traditional science outreach project:
"From Earth to the Universe" (FETTU) is a collection of astronomical images that showcase some of the most popular, current views of our Universe. The images, representing the wide variety of astronomical objects known to exist, have so far been exhibited in about 500 locations…
gregladen | June 17, 2010A ten page section of the kid's book "Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be" is available for free download here, at the National Center for Science Education's web site.
Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be is available (for money) at Amazon. The NCSE web site is here.
lbock | June 14, 2010Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley said, "By the year 2010, 90 percent of the world's scientists and engineers will live in Asia."
Right now, 85 percent of people being trained in the advanced physical sciences in the U.S. are here on temporary education visas from abroad. Many of them end up going home and taking all that scientific knowledge with them.
It used to be that the "American Dream," American lifestyles, and American opportunities would seduce these brilliant minds from all over the world to stay and contribute their genius to America's growth and advancement. But now these scientific…
gregladen | June 11, 2010Chapter 11 of Futuyma's book, Evolution, Second Edition, is available for free download as a PDF file HERE, courtesy of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE)
gregladen | June 10, 2010A chapter from a special graphic adaptation of Charles Darwin's Origin, by Rodale Press, is available for free download from the National Center for Science Education. Click here for the PDF.
The whole shebang is about 14 bucks at Amazon: Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation
The NCSE is here.
clock | June 10, 2010USA Science & Engineering Festival Announces Nifty Fifty; Top Scientists Will Tell Their Stories in DC-Area Schools:
Ever wanted to talk with a Nobel Laureate? Did you know red wine goes well with steak, but also has anti-aging properties? Want to uncover the mysteries of baseball's knuckleball? These and other intriguing questions are answered at the Inaugural USA Science & Engineering Festival, the biggest celebration of science the World has ever seen!
Inspired by international science festivals that draw crowds in the hundreds of thousands, the goal is to increase our nation's…
gregladen | June 9, 2010... biodiversity through the ages ...
There's a story that scientists like to tell about the great evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane. Supposedly, Haldane once found himself in the company of a group of theologians. They asked him what one could conclude about the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation. "An inordinate fondness for beetles," Haldane replied.
The National Center for Science Education maintains a library of offprints and book chapters for which that they have been given explicit permission to distribute to the general public at no cost. One of these…
gregladen | June 9, 2010One of the great things about Coturnix is that he brings two context-broadening tools to the table in any discussion: Synchronic and diachronic. In a recent post (Am I a Science Journalist? he adds the diachronic. I had not previously realized or considered (or at lest, not thought it relevant) that early science journalists were not trained in journalism school, as has been the case recently. Recognizing this serves to place the professionalized (read "fetishied") version of journalism in a different light, and weakens models of modern practice that rely on potentially constraining…
clock | June 8, 2010 Joanne Manaster of Joanne Loves Science has just announced a science book reading contest for young readers (and movie-makers): Kids Read Science and Teens Read Science. Watch the introductory video:
Check out the contest instructions for details:
The contest is simple--just do what I do quite often. Read a non-fiction science book and make a video! Oh, you have to be a kid or teen. Just making that clear. Age 8-12 can enter Kids Read Science and ages 13-18 can join Teens Read Science. We will be thrilled to see you all be creative and articulate. Tell us what you learned in less than five…
clock | June 6, 2010Neil DeGrasse Tyson on 2012 - World Science Festival:
Video shot at World Science Festival 2010 by Christopher Hite.
clock | June 2, 2010Hi Café Friends,
Our June Science Café (description below) will be held on Tuesday 6/15 at the Irregardless Café on Morgan Street. Our café speaker for the evening will be Dr. Dianne Dunning from the NCSU School of Veterinary Medicine. Join us for a thought provoking discussion with Dr. Dunning about the relationships humans have with animals in our increasingly crowded world.
The Human-Animal Bond
Tuesday June 15, 2010
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 pm with discussions beginning at 7:00 followed by Q&A
Location: The Irregardless Café, 901 W. Morgan Street, Raleigh 833-8898
Animals touch our…
clock | June 1, 2010The new forum at PRI World Science:
Listen to a story by reporter Eric Niiler, followed by our interview with Stephen Palumbi.
Our guest in the Science Forum is marine biologist Stephen Palumbi of Stanford University. He uses genetics to study whale populations.
The International Whaling Commission is considering legalizing commercial whaling by some countries, but at a very limited scale. Palumbi says that the current proposal would fail to protect endangered whale species.
You can ask Palumbi your own questions. Join the conversation. It's just to the right.
* Do you think all whaling…
clock | June 1, 2010If you report, or just try to keep up to date, on research in this region, you know about RTI International. In 1958, it was the founding tenant of North Carolina's Research Triangle Park. Today it's one of the largest research institutes on the planet.
At 5:30 pm on Tuesday, June 8, RTI will welcome SCONC members to its 180-acre campus to learn about efforts to solve one of the world's most pressing challenges: the need to reengineer our energy use. Come and learn about efforts to create fuel from biomass, to remove sulfur and other bad actors from coal combustion and to use nanotechnology…
eklemetti | May 29, 2010Hope no one minds my shameless plug here, but I get a lot of questions about books to read if you're interested in learning about volcanoes. There are an awful lot of good books out there and we can add one more to that list: Volcanoes: Global Perspectives" by Jack Lockwood and Rick Hazlett. I've been able to go through the book and it covers almost everything a volcanophile would want to know about volcanism on Earth and in the solar system - including some information I didn't know (which isn't a big surprise). It is written as a textbook for advanced undergraduates, but as along as you…
clock | May 24, 2010Scientists: Don't ask what Hollywood can do for you, ask what you can do for Hollywood!
Jennifer Ouellette is the Director of The Science & Entertainment Exchange, and a popular science writer. She also writes for her blog - Cocktail Party Physics.
She spoke with The Plainspoken Scientist about how scientists can best help Hollywood.
kcollins | May 21, 2010
Inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers in your ActivClassroom by encouraging students to participate in the first USA Science & Engineering Festival, held October 10-24, 2010. The festival creates a new model for celebrating science and engineering across the country.
Two weeks of science events across Virgina, Maryland and Washington, D.C. lead up to a two-day Expo on the National Mall October 23-24, 2010. More than 400 of the nation's leading science and engineering organizations are already part of the festival, hosted by Lockheed Martin.
The Expo will help families…
gregladen | May 20, 2010Missouri's latest contribution to ruining science education has died a merciful death before even reaching committee. This did not happen by itself. This happened because we are keeping an eye on them.
We are watching you, Robert Wayne Cooper. And the rest of you. We are watching you too.
Read the happy details at the NCSE web site.