Science Education
clock | January 9, 2009Chad is musing about teaching a class based on classical experiments in physics:
The idea would be to have students pick one of the classic experiments in science from, say, before WWII, track down the original papers, and read them to work out how things were done (tracing back other references as needed). Then they would look into how the experiment could be updated using more modern technology, and what the pros and cons of the different versions are. Ideally, they would do some version of the experiment themselves, and write up the results as well.
However....
I have very little idea what…
sporte | January 9, 2009The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is a non-profit organization that opened it's doors in April, 2008. One of the great things about this institute is it's commitment to sharing biotech knowledge with the surrounding community.
For the general public, HudsonAlpha has a ongoing written series on biology topics called Biotech 101. Teachers will probably find this useful too. There's a great description of Copy Number Variation written by Dr. Neil Lamb, their director of educational outreach. Some of the other pieces discuss Microarrays, Epigenetics, and RNAi.
School programs…
jlynch | January 8, 2009PZ is reporting that Mississippi is considering one of those inane textbook disclaimer bills (HB 25), the sort of thing that occurred in Alabama and Georgia.
AN ACT TO REQUIRE THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION TO INCLUDE CERTAIN LANGUAGE EXPLAINING THAT EVOLUTION IS A THEORY IN THE INSIDE FRONT COVER OF CERTAIN PUBLIC SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
The disclaimer would read:
The word 'theory' has many meanings, including: systematically organized knowledge; abstract reasoning; a speculative idea or plan; or a systematic statement of principles. Scientific theories are based on both…
clock | January 8, 2009From: SCONC
Tuesday, Jan. 20
6:30 p.m.
Science Cafe, Raleigh - "Supernovae: The Violent Deaths of Stars"
Stephen Reynolds, professor of physics at NC State University, discusses the violent deaths of mega-stars ... in space, that is. We are quite literally made of star stuff as a result. Reynolds and his colleagues recently made international headlines when they discovered the youngest-known remnant of a supernova in the Milky Way by tracking cosmic rays.
Tir Na Nog, 218 South Blount St, Raleigh, 833-7795.
jlynch | January 7, 2009Jim Lippard is organizing SkeptiCamp Phoenix 2009. A SkeptiCamp is "a conference whose content is provided by attendees. Where BarCamp is focused on technology, SkeptiCamp instead focuses on topics of interest to skeptics, including science, critical thinking and skeptical inquiry." The event is planned for February 21st and I've already agreed to talk on "Academic Freedom" and the Intelligent Design movement. If you are an Arizona skeptic, or even from further afield, wander on over to the Camp Wiki and sign-up either to attend or present.
There's a FaceBook group as well, by the way.
sporte | January 7, 2009Last fall, this blog got nominated for the 2008 Edublog awards, in the Best resource sharing category.
I was a bit distracted in December so this information came and passed without any acknowledgement. Now, I would like to thank whoever nominated Discovering Biology in a Digital World.
I'm especially thankful because I got to learn about all the wonderful blogs listed at the Edublog award web site.
Sigh. So many blogs, so little time.
Technorati Tags: 2008 Edublog awards
jlynch | January 6, 2009NCSE is reporting that the first anti-evolution bill of 2009 will be from Oklahoma.
Senate Bill 320 (document), prefiled in the Oklahoma Senate and scheduled for a first reading on February 2, 2009, is apparently the first antievolution bill of 2009. Entitled the "Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act," SB 320 would, if enacted, require state and local educational authorities to "assist teachers to find more effective ways to present the science curriculum where it addresses scientific controversies" and permit teachers to "help students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an…
sporte | January 6, 2009Science education faculty don't get no respect
At least that's a strong conclusion from a paper in the December 19th issue of Science (1). According to the article almost 40% of the 59 science education specialists, surveyed in the California University system, were "seriously considering leaving" their current jobs and some (20%) were considering leaving the field entirely.
Why?
Figure 1. Are science education specialists the Rodney Dangerfields of academics?
Before we continue, some more background information is in order. Who are these science education specialists and why do we have…
clock | January 6, 2009From SCONC:
Tuesday, Jan. 13
7 p.m.
Periodic Tables -- "Buzzed: Using Fruit Flies to Understand Alcohol Addiction." The Science Cafe of Durham features Duke freshman Kapil Ramachandran, who won national recognition at age 16 for his work on the Diazepam binding inhibitor, a protein that apparently confers alcohol tolerance in fruitflies. Put your own inhibitions to the test while discussing Kapil's work.
Broad Street Cafe, 1116 Broad Street, Durham; free and open to the public http://www.ncmls.org/periodictables
sporte | January 4, 2009My oldest daughter's favorite sweatshirt is one from the Seattle Children's Theatre Drama School, with the motto, "What's your motivation?"
I was reminded of motivation the other day, as I talked about projects with the DIY biology group. It's pretty clear that you can't pick a project without knowing whether you're motivated by the discovery or the application.
Many of the people I've known in academia, either researchers or science educators, are motivated by the prospect of discovery. They either want to discover something new or help their students make discoveries. Inquiry-based…
gregladen | January 4, 2009The following announcement is from Nature.
About a year ago, an Editorial in these pages urged scientists and their institutions to 'spread the word' and highlight reasons why scientists can treat evolution by natural selection as, in effect, an established fact (see Nature 451, 108; 2008).
This week we are following our own prescription. Readers will find at http://www.nature.com/evolutiongems a freely accessible resource for biologists and others who wish to explain to students, friends or loved ones just what is the evidence for evolution by natural selection. Entitled '15 evolutionary…
sporte | January 3, 2009This afternoon, I attended the first meeting of a DIY biology group in Seattle, after a kind invitation from one of the founders.
DIY, for those of you new to the acronym, stands for "Do It Yourself."
But, you say, there are lots of people who do biology on their own. Some people keep pets. Some have children. Others raise tropical fish, go bird watching, or mushroom hunting. Some people even make yogurt or cheese, or brew beer, or make wine. What makes DIY biology so different?
This isn't your grandfather's home brew
Well, lets say for now that it's a little more technical…
gregladen | December 30, 2008... and other matters.
The following list represents widely held beliefs, either first order beliefs (things you hear people say) or second order beliefs (things implied directly by what people say):
Evolution is very slow.
It takes millions of years for a species to evolve into another species.
Evolution has stopped for humans.
Evolution occurs over "geological time scales."
Geological time scales are very long ... millions of years.
Geological and evolutionary time scales are similar to each other.
Evolution = Natural Selection.
"Macro evolution" is slow, "Micro evolution" is fast but…
clock | December 21, 2008There was a good reason why the form and format, as well as the rhetoric of the scientific paper were instituted the way they were back in the early days of scientific journals. Science was trying to come on its own and to differentiate itself from philosophy, theology and lay literature about nature. It was essential to develop a style of writing that is impersonal, precise, sharply separating data from speculations, and that lends itself to replication of experiments.
The form and format of a scientific paper has evolved towards a very precise and very universal state that makes scientist-…
clock | December 19, 2008I did not know there were so many of them:
Student science publishing: an exploratory study of undergraduate science research journals and popular science magazines in the US and Europe:
Science magazines have an important role in disseminating scientific knowledge into the public sphere and in discussing the broader scope affected by scientific research such as technology, ethics and politics. Student-run science magazines afford opportunities for future scientists, communicators, politicians and others to practice communicating science. The ability to translate 'scientese' into a jargon-…
clock | December 19, 2008January issue of Scientific American is devoted to Darwin's 200th birthday and contains several excellent articles. Check out The Latest Face of Creationism in the Classroom by Glenn Branch and Eugenie C. Scott for starters.
But beware, there are other (and I would say better) ways of thinking about some of the issues in some of the articles, so check out what Larry has to say about Why Everyone Should Learn the Theory of Evolution and Testing Natural Selection. You may not agree 100%, but you need to think about it.
clock | December 19, 2008I get mail:
The National Academies want to identify the topics in science, engineering, and medicine that matter most to the public and that people have the greatest interest in learning more about. Once the topics have been selected, we plan to create a suite of educational materials (in both print and web formats) about each subject, with the goal of offering objective, reliable resources about complex topics.
We developed a 2-minute survey that we'd like to distribute to our key audiences. Readers of your blog are one of those key audiences and we would love to hear what topics matter…
clock | December 18, 2008Get involved:
There are many reasons to celebrate science. With the many seminal anniversaries that are on the horizon in 2009, it seemed only logical that we should celebrate them as a community! From astronomy to zoology we are all here - ready to support public understanding of the process and nature of science in an exploration of "how we know what we know."
evolgen | December 18, 2008A couple of years ago, there was talk in the bioblogosphere about getting the general public interested in bioinformatics and molecular evolution:
Amateur bioinformatics?
Lowering the Ivory Tower with Molecular Evolution
Molecular Evolution for the Masses
The idea was inspired by the findings of armchair astronomers -- people who have no professional training, but make contributions to astronomy via their stargazing hobbies. With so much data available in publicly accessible databases, there's no reason we can't motivate armchair biologists to start mining for interesting results.
But how…