Science Education
grrlscientist | September 30, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Today is a special day because today is the first day of my DonorsChoose Challenge. DonorsChoose is a fund-raising campaign where the public can help classrooms throughout the United States to raise the funds necessary for educating children in grades K-12. Each ScienceBlog writer who is participating will raise funds for the entire month of October. Each participant has chosen a subset of the listed classroom proposals to fund based on their own special criteria.…
sporte | September 30, 2008I learned via e-mail yesterday that the biotechnology program, that I taught with for ten years during the 90's, is ending due to low enrollments.
I also learned yesterday, via the Seattle Times, that a resurrected version of ICOS called CMC Icos Biologics is planning a $35M expansion of their biotech manufacturing plant in Bothell and talking about hiring lots of students with two-year degrees.
The irony isn't lost on me.
We struggled with variable enrollments too, when I was at Seattle Central Community College. A couple of years saw way too many students and troubles finding enough…
sporte | September 30, 2008HealthMap is a great site that could be an excellent resource when teaching a biology, microbiology, or health class. Not to mention, I can picture people using it before they travel somewhere or even just for fun.
I learned about HealthMap awhile ago from Mike the Mad Biologist, but I didn't get time to play with the site until today.
Here's an example to see how it works.
How do I use HealthMap?
I begin using HealthMap by changing the number of diseases selected to "none."
Then I scrolled through the list until I found something interesting. I chose "Poisoning." The number of…
sporte | September 30, 2008One time, I suggested in a list-serve that science teachers make more use of primary scientific literature. Naturally, I learned all the reasons why teachers don't do this-lack of access being one of the biggies- but I also learned something surprising.
One teacher wrote that she re-writes a lot of research articles to make them easier for her students to read. I can understand that notion, in principle. My students struggle with scientific language, too, even those that have bachelor's degrees in biology.
What surprised me was thinking about the amount of time that activity would take!…
sporte | September 29, 2008This First Annual Conference for New Jersey Biotechnology Educators will be held on Saturday, Oct. 4th at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey.
I'm excited about attending this conference, not only because of the biotechnology part, but because I've reading Sarah Vowel's book Assassination vacation and I'm looking forward to seeing the last resting place of President James Garfield. Sarah Vowel is an incredibly funny commentator on NPR's "This American Life" and so, even though I don't usually read about people making pilgrimages to famous presidential sites, I had to read…
sciencewoman | September 29, 2008I justed wanted to give a shout-out to my friends at YellowIbis.com, a science t-shirt shop. They specialize in wonderful shirts featuring all sorts of molecules (pick your favorite, they'll make it), sciencey one-liners, and "science varsity" shirts. Minnow and I were recently outfitted with some of their shirts and we debuted them at the zoo blogger meet-up.
I have coveted one of Yellow Ibis's shirts ever since I first heard about them. I love, love, love their "this is what a scientist looks like" t-shirt, and now I own it. Pictures of the shirt, and Minnow's adorable shirts below the…
sporte | September 29, 2008Calling all scientists and science-fans: you can help with science education by letting students know you're interested. How? Go and comment on classroom blogs and wikis.
I've been gradually collecting some blogs from different classes and I've even had some brave volunteers offer theirs for review.
So here goes:
www.missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog
Ms. Hoffman's AP class blog
Tomorrow's table from Pamela Ronald. This is going to be used for two months by students in a Genetics and Society class.
Biology in Action
Evolution and Diversity (Biol 124) at http://darwinslegacy.blogspot.com…
clock | September 27, 2008Watch this informative video (sorry, could not find a way to embed it here).
Oh, should have known it existed also on YouTube (thanks Greg):
gregladen | September 26, 2008There are several areas of controversy emerging in the discussion of Minnesota Science standards, but almost none of this controversy has to do with Evolution and Creationism. Amanda and I attended a public meeting on the issue last night, and I felt at the end that a kind of victory had been achieved.
But this is complicated.
I'd like to give you an overview of what this process is about, describe what appears to be new in these standards, outline the apparent areas of controversy (very briefly) and finally make specific suggestions for changes in the standards that have to do with…
sporte | September 26, 2008Let's play anomaly!
Most of this week, I've written about the fun time I had playing around with NCBI's Blink database and finding evidence that at least one mosquito, Aedes aegypti, seems to have been infected at some point with a plant paramyxovirus and that the paramyxovirus left one of its genes behind, stuck in the mosquito genome.
During this process, I realized that the method I used works with other viruses, too. I tried it with a few random viruses and sure enough, I found some interesting things.
You've got a week to give it a try. Let's see what you find! The method is…
gregladen | September 25, 2008Details here, and please see this.
At least post your concerns/ideas on line (using the link above).
sporte | September 25, 2008Do mosquitoes get the mumps? Part V. A general method for finding interesting things in GenBank
This is the last in a five part series on an unexpected discovery of a paramyxovirus in mosquitoes and a general method for finding other interesting things.
In this last part, I discuss a general method for finding novel things in GenBank and how this kind of project could be a good sort of discovery, inquiry-based project for biology, microbiology, or bioinformatics students.
I. The back story from the genome record
II. What do the mumps proteins do? And how do we find out?
III.…
terrasig | September 24, 2008Any of you working in academic programs that offer forensic sciences training are well aware that CSI has been a boon this multidisciplinary area of biology, chemistry, engineering and materials sciences.
However, we don't yet have any television programs glorifying a career in pharmacology or biotechnology.
I've just spent a few hours on YouTube, BSCS, Bio-Rad, and a bunch of other science education sites but I can't find what I am looking for.
What I need: A 10-12 minute video for high school students that demonstrates career opportunities in biotechnology and/or the biologicals side of…
sporte | September 24, 2008Would you like to win a cash prize and maybe an expense paid trip to New York City?
If you're in grades 7-12 and like research, you might be interested in the 2009 Young Naturalist contest from the American Museum of Natural History.
Winners (2 from each grade) will receive cash awards, from $500 to $2,500, and an all-expense paid trip to New York City to attend the awards ceremony at the Museum.
The contest involves investigating questions in ecology, biology, Earth science and astronomy and writing an essay. More information can be found here.
gregladen | September 23, 2008We're talking about the Minnesota Science Standards and we're talking about nothing less than the Pope Mobile.
Consider the following statement currently part of the proposed Minnesota Science Standards:
The student will be able to explain how scientific and technological innovations as well as new evidence can challenge portions of or entire accepted theories and models including but not limited to cell theory, atomic theory, theory of evolution, plate tectonic theory, germ theory of disease and big bang theory.
Think about this for a moment. The standard is asking that the basic, minimal…
gregladen | September 23, 2008Good morning! I have important news, and COOKIES!
First, the cookies:
These are serious cookies. These are Ana cookies. If you want one, you better hurry, because they are NOT going to last long.
Now on to the important news: Melanie Reap has dropped something in my inbox indicating that the Rochester meeting to discuss the science standards went pretty well, and that this bit about biology being part of Middle School and not High School is not real. We are to read the standards thusly: If you see a "9" read it as "9-12." The coding system they used requires a single number in that…
sporte | September 23, 2008The National Girls Collaborative Project, as you might guess from the title, focuses on helping girls and engaging girls in science, technology, engineering, and math (aka "STEM").
photos used with permission from NGCP
Quoting from the NGCP website, (the emphasis is mine):
Numerous programs and initiatives seek to create gender equity in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have been implemented only to lose effectiveness or fade away. Had these programs had the benefit of collaboration with other girl-serving projects, organizations and institutions, and…
sporte | September 22, 2008Wow! One of my commenters, Ms. Baker, suggested an entirely new way that scientists can help with science education. The only requirement is that a science class have their own blog.
So, if your science class has a blog, let me know, so I can share the URL and maybe recruit some scientists or at least graduate students, to take a look.
I think this idea is so great! It doesn't involve any kind of traveling and many, many different scientists can participate, thus minimizing volunteer burn out. It also gives students a way to practice writing about what they do and interacting with the…