Science Education
clock | June 15, 2008Miriam points to this set of pictures of the development of the chicken embryo. As I have written before, I did have to learn how to precisely stage the chick embryos, both the older stages and the early stages, in order to manipulate them at exactly the right time. Cool pics.
clock | June 14, 2008You have to act quickly, though:
We've been airing audio comments on our new national public radio
show, The Takeaway (http://www.thetakeaway.org), for the past couple
of weeks. On Monday, we want to highlight your scientificky thoughts
on "THE INCREDIBLE HULK" and "THE HAPPENING".
There's a lot of genetics and plant biology and global warming stuff
there to sink your teeth into. Here's what we're looking for: By
Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern, tell us two things about whichever movie you
saw:
1. ONE-PHRASE CAPSULE REVIEW -- IT'S QUICK AND EASY!
Say, "It was __________". Put an adjective or…
clock | June 14, 2008Anne-Marie found this article:
London's Natural History Museum is to decorate the ceiling of one of its major rooms with a permanent art installation, inspired by evolutionary theory, in honour of Charles Darwin's bicentennial. The 10 shortlisted entrants have now been announced and their ideas are on display.
You can see a slideshow of the proposals, but the article does not say exactly who is doing the choosing. Some internal committee, public at large?
Which proposal do you like the best? Perhaps we can influence the choosers if we write about this all over the blogs.
sporte | June 12, 2008Students in the United States take many convoluted and unnecessarily complicated paths when it comes to finding careers in biotechnology. If Universities and community colleges worked together, an alternative path could benefit all parties; students, schools, industry, and the community.
The image below illustrates the current paths and the approximate time that each one takes.
I was at two meetings recently, one in Arizona and the Bio-Link workshop in Berkeley, where we spent time discussing the paths to careers in the biotech industry. You might think, if you consider the number of years…
skookumchick | June 12, 2008Newsweek isn't really my mag - I'm more of a Ms, Mother Jones, Yes! magazine reader, or would be if I didn't have so much other stuff to read too - but I got a subscription as a gift, and it serves in lieu of conversation as my breakfast companion. Two articles of note this week:
A great piece on why biology should be a general education requirement for everyone, by Sally Hoskins, a professor at the City College of New York. She writes, "Science isn't old information pressed like crumbling fall leaves between the pages of forgotten books. It's alive - growing and shifting and blossoming…
clock | June 11, 2008Today, Wednesday, June 11 at 6 to 8 pm, SCONC, the Science Communicators of North Carolina, meets NESCent, the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center:
Science communicators are invited to meet some NESCent researchers at the frontiers of evolutionary biology and hear from guest speaker Rob Pennock of Michigan State (who has appointments in evolutionary biology, computer science and ... philosophy?! Whoa.) talking about how evolution can be demonstrated in fast-forward by "digital organisms," a stroke he hopes will put creationism in retreat. Munchies and bevvies, of course. RSVP Kristin…
jlynch | June 10, 2008Two quick shots ...
Firstly, ASU is planning to install a 2 megawatt roof-top solar grid that will provide over 20% of the power to our campus. The installation is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
That’s enough to run 4,600 computers and reduce carbon emissions by 2,825 tons per year, or the equivalent of taking 530 cars off the road for a year. Long-term plans call for up to 7 megawatts of solar-generating capacity to be built at ASU in Tempe, with additional solar installations at its campuses in downtown Phoenix and other locations.
Secondly, Lawrence Krauss (of The…
sporte | June 9, 2008What are you learning in school?
xkcd has the inside track on the really important stuff.
skookumchick | June 4, 2008It has been proposed by the fabulous Pat of FairerScience and other places that the developing genre of "women in science" blogs might be used as a way to recruit girls and young women into science and engineering careers(see a good outline and guidelines here). Women who write about their passion for doing science, their ideas for balancing work and family, their professional desires and challenges may indeed encourage girls who are readers to consider science - I think about it as an online version of seeing women as role-models in science.
I'd like to get your thoughts on the subject, in…
sporte | June 4, 2008I'm in Berkeley right now at the annual Bio-Link Summer Fellows forum. We're getting to hear talks from people in the biotech industry, listen to enthusiastic instructors describe their biotech programs and ideas, and try out new educational materials.
Yesterday, two speakers (Damon Tighe and Jason Baumohl) from the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, CA, gave a fun talk about DNA sequencing and sequence assembly.
They also showed some very nice Flash animations, made by Damon Tighe, at the JGI, that illustrate how DNA sequencing is done. There's no sound, but the animations are…
sporte | June 3, 2008A little over ten years ago, Dr. Elaine Johnson obtained funding from the National Science Foundation to start Bio-Link, an Advanced Technology Education center, focused on biotechnology. Since that time, Dr. Johnson has become a national leader in biotech education, enlisting the country's top educators and industry captains to ensure that community college students receive a quality education and the best preparation possible for entering the workforce.
In this radio interview from Tech Nation, Dr. Johnson talks with Dr. Moira Gunn about the easiest way to a biotech career.
A Career in…
gregladen | June 3, 2008Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture (DIY Science) is a new book by Robert Thompson. The premise is simple. The coolest thing in the world is a home chemistry set like this one from Gilbert, which combined both chemistry and microscopy:
Chemistry Set Combine the sciences of Chemistry and Microscopy in one big laboratory set! Microscope has a magnification of 60 power, plus unique Polaroid device that shows the brilliant colors of specimens under the lens. Set includes "Fun With Gilbert Chemistry", "Gilbert Microscope", "Glass Blowing" manuals and dissecting…
clock | June 2, 2008Go to http://www.slideworld.org, type in a keyword, and it will do a search of slideshows that contain that word. I typed "circadian" and found a lot....
Hat-tip: Ana
clock | June 2, 2008Another SCONC event:
RENCI to Show the Power of Visual Communications at Lunchtime Bistro:
The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) invites the public to a Renaissance Bistro lunchtime demonstration and lecture from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, June 26 in the Showcase Dome room at the RENCI engagement center at UNC Chapel Hill.
The Bistro is free and includes lunch on a first-come, first-served basis.
RENCI experts, Eric Knisley, 3D visualization researcher, and Josh Coyle, new media specialist, will demonstrate three-dimensional visualizations and interactive touch screen displays. Attendees…
sporte | June 1, 2008In part I, I wrote about my first semester of teaching on-line and talked about our challenges with technology. Blackboard had a database corruption event during finals week and I had all kinds of struggles with the Windows version of Microsoft Excel. Mike wrote and asked if I thought students should be working more with non-Microsoft software and what I thought the challenges would be in doing so.
I can answer with a totally unqualified "it depends."
First, I think knowing how to use a spread-sheet program is an advantage in many different kinds of fields and even in real-life, outside of…
clock | June 1, 2008More from SCONC:
Tuesday June 17 at 6:30-8:30 pm
Science Café - A 'One Medicine' Approach to a Changing World
NC State's Barrett D. Slenning MS, DVM, MPVM will share with us the view that knowing about diagnoses and treatments of animals can benefit humans. The opposite is also true, given the fact that about 60 percent of all human pathogens are zoonotic diseases, transmissible between animals and people. Join us to learn how human and veterinary medicine can join forces to protect us with rapid responses to the outbreak of disease.
Location: The Irregardless Cafe, 901 W. Morgan Street,…
clock | May 31, 2008News from SCONC (Science Communicators of North Carolina):
On Thursday, June 5 at 7 p.m. in the Banquet Hall of the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill, NC:
Public Lecture:
The Beautiful Mind: Breakthroughs and Breakdowns of the Brain,
with Dr. Ayse Belger.
sporte | May 28, 2008On-line courses were a still a new phenomenon when I was teaching full-time. Our school was pretty gung-ho about on-line education but many instructors were skeptical, some were still lamenting having to learn how to use a computer and losing the services that used to be provided by departmental secretaries. Other instructors simply distrusted the entire idea, seeing distance learning as the equivalent of an educational scam, a kind of "get rich quick scheme" that would allow the school to collect more tuition dollars without paying instructors.
I never did teach an on-line course during…
clock | May 27, 2008Registration now open for the first National Conference on Science and Technology in Out of School Time - Chicago, September 17-19, 2008:
Join us at the first National Conference on Science in Out of School Time, September 17-19, 2008.
Registration is now open at www.scienceafterschoolconference.org
The conference is being organized by Project Exploration and the Coalition for Science After School; it's designed for program leaders, researchers, funders and policy makers. We're putting a particular emphasis on equity and access issues. Conference features include:
- A special welcome…
sporte | May 27, 2008In part I, I wrote about the shortage of technicians in the biotechnology industry and the general awareness that this problem is getting worse. This part will address the challenge of getting more students into programs that will prepare them for jobs in the biotech field. I've also been asked to write a bit more about finding jobs in companies, that post will be a bit later. Before proceeding, there are two points that need a bit of discussion. The first point is the whether there's a shortage at all and the second applies to the kind of shortage.
It's hard to see the forest when you're…