Science Education
sporte | September 22, 2006and what is the volume of the sea?
This sounds a bit like the beginning of a poem but it's really the answer to the question we posed last week on a Digital Biology Friday.
We can see, in the sequence window, that two strands are both labeled 5' on the left side and 3' on the right. We call this direction "five prime to three prime."
But, when we look in the structure window, we see that the two strands are oriented in the opposite direction relative to each other. The 5' end of one strand is located across from the 3' end of the other strand.
(Note: I added the arrow and labels, this…
clock | September 21, 2006But this Science Fair project comes really close...
(Hat-tip: Pratie Place)
evolgen | September 21, 2006Tara has been given the task of pointing out some of the flaws in Chapter 7 of Jonathan Wells's The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design. From what I can gather, this is the chapter in which Wells claims that biology does not need evolution because evolution has no applications in medicine or agriculture. In doing so, Wells reveals he does not understand the difference between natural and artificial selection:
The clinical use of antibiotics creates a highly artificial situation. Antibiotic-producing microbes must be isolated from their natural surroundings and…
clock | September 20, 2006In Ormond Beach Middle School:
Developed by teacher Tucker Harris and School Resource Deputy Karen Pierce, the investigation program is an innovative way to teach sixth-grade science students the scientific method. The CSI class takes students out of the classroom and into a crime scene orchestrated by the deputy.
Pierce developed a fictional situation involving a property theft at the school. During the class, Pierce "briefed" the students on the crime, and the students received written statements from the victim and three suspects. The students then visited the crime scene, where they…
sporte | September 19, 2006Modified from the original post.
Playing around with molecular structures is one of the more entertaining activities that you can do with digital biology. I've become totally entranced with molecular structures, both because they're a fascinating art form and because every structure has its own story.
I learned this because I ended up writing 69 different structure stories for the "Exploring DNA Structure" instructor guide. This was never in my original plan but my friend Charlotte Mulvihill wrote to ask me about the functions of different structures. I blithely replied that sometimes the…
clock | September 17, 2006The coooolest thing ever!
My son's science teacher broke his shoulder so he had to be out for two weeks (he's the one who was instrumental in the district adopting the science textbook I like, and he teaches evolution "straight-up").
During that time, they had a substitute teacher. She gave them their first assignment - to find something interesting science-related and write a short report.
Then, she started listing which sources are legit and which are not. Then, my son raised his hand and asked if they were allowed to find information on science blogs, for instance on one his Dad writes…
clock | September 16, 2006The phrase "Living Fossil" is second to only "Missing Link" on my list of irks-me-to-no-end abuses of English language. Darren Naish now explains exactly what is wrong with the term, using as the case study the recent rediscovery of the Sumatran rhino. This is your Most Obligatory reading of the day!
clock | September 15, 2006...and it will stay hard for another 4 hours.
[That is Friday Weird Sex Blogging for this week....]
sporte | September 15, 2006Today, we're going to look for rainbows in double-stranded DNA and see what they can tell us about DNA structure.
First, we're going to get a structure for a double-stranded molecule of DNA and open it in Cn3D.
1K9L
If you want to do this at home and you haven't already downloaded a copy of Cn3D, you may want to read these instructions and get a copy. These directions also show how to download and open the structure. It's pretty simple once you've given it a try.
Hide a strand
Next, we're going to hide one of the strands. To do this, look in the menu bar for the Show/Hide menu and open…
sporte | September 12, 2006The Ask a Science Blogger question of the week asks if organic foods are really worth the hype. I'm afraid my answer can't fit into one blog post.
Let me start by telling you about my garden.
This year my garden has been a home to local wildlife, but during the years that I do garden, I have a semi-organic garden.
I don't use any pesticides but I do occasionally break down and use Miracle Grow and, sometimes Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate). Overall, though I don't see any justification for using chemicals that might be harmful to fish or other animals in my garden, so I don't.
Even in the…
sporte | September 11, 2006A long time ago, I saw a Star Trek episode where the crew encountered aliens who lived at a different frequency. I may have this backwards, but I think the aliens moved so quickly that no one knew they were there. And until problems struck, our heroes were happily oblivious to the existence of the others.
The Plants In Motion movies remind me of that episode.
Since plant movement occurs much more slowly than movements we can easily observe, we tend to think that plants don't move. These movies prove that idea wrong. Filmed with time-lapse photography, these short movies show seeds…
evolgen | September 11, 2006
DonorsChoose is a non-profit organization that helps teachers in the United States get funding for in-class projects. ScienceBlogs readers and Seed Media Group raised over $30,000 to support educational programs through the DonorsChoose program earlier this year. DonorsChoose is now making a push to raise over $1 million by September 30. To participate in the Back to School Challenge, click on the banner above, on the Donors Choose link on my sidebar, or here. I have a list of projects that I found interesting here.
sporte | September 9, 2006"And it's a hard, and it's a hard, it's a hard, and it's a hard, And it's a hard rain's a-gonna fall. "
- BoB Dylan
Tired of Simpson reruns and the exploits of Friends?
[From the WSTA]
NOVA is broadcasting an entire series of shows on hurricanes, Katrina, and what the experts predicted would happen should a hurricane ever hit New Orleans. Check out the schedule below.
NOVA Presents "Storm That Drowned a City"
Broadcast: Tuesday, September 12, 2006http://www.pbs.org/nova/orleans/
(NOVA airs on PBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Check your local listings as
broadcast dates and times may vary. This…
sporte | September 8, 2006Why do I love Cn3D? Let me count the ways.
What does Cn3D do? (Hint: say "Cn3D" out loud).
Seriously, Cn3D is a program that draws lovely pictures of molecular structures by using experimental data from techniques like X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Surprisingly (to some), and in contrast to many bioinformatics programs, Cn3D is really easy and fun to use.
Have you ever used programs like MS Office? Using Cn3D is at least 10 times easier.
An added benefit is that you don't have to try and find old copies of Netscape or other bits of obsolete software…
clock | September 8, 2006You may remember this chart from three days ago. Now, Rob Loftis updated his chart after the inputs of a number of bloggers and commenters over the past few days, and John Dupuis has his own chart he uses in teaching about the flow of scientific information.
sporte | September 7, 2006No biology course is complete these days without learning how to do a BLAST search.
Herein, I describe an assignment and an animated tutorial that teachers can readily adopt and use, and give teachers a hint for obtaining the password-protected answer key.
Development of the tutorial and the activity were supported by funding from the National Science Foundation.
This is reposted from the the original DigitalBio blog.
This popular activity, designed to accompany the BLAST for beginners tutorial, has been updated to incorporate student comments and teacher requests. Originally developed for…
sporte | September 6, 2006How can you win a nerd contest if you don't dress the part?
Last year, I started a shop at CafePress to help distribute lab materials and fund my adventures in science education. Part of the fun has been making molecular merchandise to help show everyone that molecular models are beautiful, in their own special way, and help people engage in random acts of science education.
Here are some of my suggestions for molecular wearables that can help you explain why science is fascinating to people that you meet in the grocery store or the coffee shop.
Kissing DNA. Unfortunately, the DNA…
clock | September 6, 2006As a scientist and a blogger and someone very interested in science communication, I was quite delighted with Rob HelpyChalk's series of three charts depicting traditional communication between scientists, traditional communication between scientists and general population, and the new two-way communication between scientists and general population (here is the third chart):
Bill and PZ have some comments on the chart as well. Leave your comments on Rob's blog.
tsmith | September 6, 2006I mentioned previously a pending proposal in Ohio to reinsert "critical analysis" language into the school standards (see this post and this follow-up). Over at Panda's Thumb, RBH has a post updating the situation:
The "critical thinking"/teach the controversy template proposal takes a legitimate passage (originally taken directly from the National Science Standards) in the current Scientific Ways of Knowing section of Ohio's Science Standards (10th Grade Indicator 2 under Benchmark A, pp. 90, 146, 237) and sabotages it by tacking on a section directing students to apply it preferentially to…