Science Education
tsmith | May 18, 2006Via coturnix, I found Project Exploration, a non-profit organization "founded in 1999 by University of Chicago paleontologist Dr. Paul Sereno and educator Gabrielle Lyon, to make science accessible to the public-with a special focus on city kids and girls." coturnix has more of the background on Serento and the organization in his post, so I'll highlight some facts 'n' figures:
Students participating in our field programs are graduating high school at an 18% higher rate than their peers.
Students are pursuing science in college--25% of all students and 34% of our girls declare science as…
tsmith | May 18, 2006Welcome to the new edition of Animalcules!
First, a few housekeeping notes. If you note the schedule, I've not yet extended it beyond June 1st. I think that, at least for the summer months, Animalcules will be a once-monthly carnival, rather than every other week. If things pick up after that, I'll change it back to the current set-up, but that will be dependent not only on entries but also on additional hosts. So, if you'd like to host in July, August, or September, drop me a line (aetiology AT gmail DOT com) an I'll get you on the schedule.
Okay...on to the entries!
We have a few…
tsmith | May 16, 2006Regular readers know that teaching science is an area of interest. Mike has a post up asking, How would you teach science? He suggests:
I think the problem is that we do a very poor job of teaching the basics. By basics, I mean arithmetic and basic scientific facts. Without that foundation, it is very difficult to get to the next level. If you can't read basic French, what chance do you have with Sartre (in the original, of course)? Or to put it another way, you won't succeed in algebra, if you can't perform basic arithmetic.
Several commenters weigh in with their own suggestions. I've…
evolgen | May 16, 2006I remember watching this movie (WARNING: link to a large file) during my sophomore year of college. It now appears that some folks at Kenyon College plan to do a remake. For those of you too lazy to follow the links, the movie depicts protein synthesis using people acting out the roles of mRNA, tRNA, amino acids, ribosomes, and other assorted players. And it was made in 1971. And it involved interpretive dance. And hippies. Good shit, yo.
(Via Neil Saunders.)
tsmith | May 8, 2006He's been trying so hard to defend his profession, but it just keeps getting worse. Just unveiled is a brand new "dissenters from Darwinism" list: Physicians and Surgeons for Scientific Integrity.
As medical doctors we are skeptical of the claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the origination and complexity of life and we therefore dissent from Darwinian macroevolution as a viable theory. This does not imply the endorsement of any alternative theory.
(Continued...)
Compare this to the Discovery Institute's document:
We are skeptical of claims for…
tsmith | May 6, 2006Just a few things that have either been sitting in my drafts box and I know I won't have a chance to get to, or stuff I saw elsewhere that deserves a mention.
Check out this excellent (and hilarious) post by Skip Evans on creationists and boobies.
I've posted previously here about our eagles here in Iowa. Phil at the Bad Astronomy Blog gives links to 2 webcams, where you can watch the nests of eagles or peregrine falcons (another favorite bird of mine). They've shut down the eagle one because the eggs didn't hatch and the parents left the nest, but there's a fluffy white falcon chick (…
evolgen | May 6, 2006Grrl Scientist got a complementary copy of the Daily Kos science e-book. She's got a review of it here. Does reality have a liberal bias? Anyway, she also got into a screening of Flock of Dodos. She doesn't have a review up, but she did post some comments here. Apparently Randy Olson is familiar with blogs about science (ie, Carl Zimmer's site), but he doesn't know about blogs written by scientists. If Olson does read ScienceBlogs, here's a message: have a screening in Pennsylvania.
tsmith | May 5, 2006I missed this story last week: If Einstein were a blogger...
At first glance, the wild, wooly world of blogs and the sober, serious world of science shouldn't mix. After all, blogs -- or personal Web logs -- are all about opinions and attitude, with logic playing second fiddle to outrage.
Turns out, however, that science and attitude combine quite well. The growing number of science blogs - very loosely defined as blogs about scientific topics or blogs written by scientists -- are not only adding to the national debate on issues like intelligent design and global warming, but these e-diaries…
evolgen | May 3, 2006The Journal of Clinical Investigation has published an open access article calling all scientists to step up and defend science in American schools. The article focuses mostly on combating the anti-evolution movement, but the themes can be extended to all of science. Apparently the last time the JCI published an article dealing with intelligent design they received quite a few letters asking why a legitimate scientific publication should deal with pseudoscience. This time, the publishers included a pre-emptive statement justifying their actions.
If you care about the state of science…
tsmith | April 30, 2006I am soooo going to show this trick to my kids.
Candy + pop + science = perfect combination. Even better than sparking wintergreen lifesavers. (And this one doesn't involve blowing up stuff that could actually, y'know, really harm you).
And finally, since I've not participated in poetry pimpin' at Scienceblogs yet, I offer an ode to Mentos on this, the closing day of National Poetry Month:
A Mentos Poem
by Rachel from Michigan
What can I say about Mentos,
They make my life complete.
They taste nothing like pimentos,
And is why I will eat.......them.
(More about the experiment on Steve…
evolgen | April 26, 2006If you know anything about bioinformatics, you know that programmers love to come up with clever names for their applications. NCBI's BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) programs are some of the most used tools, but behind every successful program is a stupid acronym or cute name. Do the people who name these programs realize the confusion this may cause?
Many of these bioinformaticians provide list serves for updates on their software and public discussions. TIGR (The Institute for Genomic Research, another acronym) developed a genome annotation tool and named it Manatee. A…
tsmith | April 26, 2006Both RPM and Chad beat me to posting this survey [edited to add: and Janet too! Freakin' quick triggers...] which I've had in my drafts box for almost 2 weeks now. So, before absolutely everyone else beats me to it, I thought I'd pose the questions to y'all, and see how you would answer the question, "What is one science question every high school graduate should be able to answer?"
Here were the questions offered by the experts:
1. What percentage of the earth is covered by water?
2. What sorts of signals does the brain use to communicate sensations, thoughts and actions?
3. Did dinosaurs…
evolgen | April 25, 2006Via BioCurious comes this article on ten "science question[s] every high school graduate should be able to answer." Read the list -- most of the questions are bullshit. Ok, they aren't bullshit, but they are trivia. "What percentage of the earth is covered by water?" "What sorts of signals does the brain use to communicate sensations, thoughts and actions?" "Why is the sky blue?" "How old are the oldest fossils on earth?" I'll take potpourri for $400, Alex. Here are some questions every high school graduate should be able to answer:
What is a hypothesis?
What is a theory?
What is…
evolgen | April 25, 2006Bora has been pushing the idea of publishing original research (hypotheses, data, etc) on science blogs. This post is part of a series exploring the evolution of a duplicated gene in the genus Drosophila. Links to the previous posts can be found below. Part 2 of this series (The Backstory) can be found after the jump.
Previous entries:
Part 1 - Introduction
The Backstory
The enzyme fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase (hereafter referred to as aldolase) is responsible for splitting fructose-1,6-bisphosphate into glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate and dihydroxyacetone-phosphate during glycolysis.…
tsmith | April 25, 2006Have some money to burn? Don't get enough creationist readings on teh intraweb? How about getting a Master's Degree in "Creation Science?" After all, it's academically rigorous:
Each MS candidate is required to take six science education courses, three science courses and two electives. Applicants must already possess a bachelor's degree in a field of science or in science education. All 11 courses will be offered online.
Or, not:
Each online course approaches the content the same way ICR's scientists approach the study of origins: if an idea, scientific or otherwise, is contrary to God'…
evolgen | April 24, 2006Bora has been pushing the idea of publishing original research (hypotheses, data, etc) on science blogs. As a responsible researcher, I would need to obtain permission from any collaborators (including my advisor) before published anything we have been working on together. But what about small side projects or minor findings that I don't expect to publish elsewhere? As it turns out, such a project has been laying dormant since I first started working on it at a class project a few years ago. I will reveal more information about this project in subsequent posts, but suffice it to say this…
tsmith | April 18, 2006Coturnix has a really good overview of what's found on various science blogs, for anyone new to the genre or just looking for some new blogs. It's a pretty extensive discussion of different categories, with examples of each.
He also notes:
I'd like to see more bloggers post hypotheses and pilot (unpublished, negative or unpublishable) data. When is it going to happen?
As a new PI, I've considered this--and decided against it. I really haven't discussed my own current research much at all (or even prior, as-yet-unpublished research). For one, I still have collaborators, and I don't know…
tsmith | April 18, 2006As I mentioned, I spent yesterday morning talking microbiology to a bunch of 3, 4, and 5 year olds in my son's preschool class. It was fun, actually--I took along a prepared slide to show them some bacteria under the microscope, and then took a scraping from my son's tongue and Gram-stained it to show them a more realistic bacterial sample (a mixed sample of Gram negatives and positives of different shapes). I also passed around some pictures of bacteria and viruses.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I'm used to giving lectures and talking science with high-schoolers and college-age…
evolgen | April 18, 2006Read this article. It deals with scientific literacy, politics, and religion in the United States, focusing on stem cells and evolution. Here's a taste:
To measure public acceptance of the concept of evolution, Miller has been asking adults if "human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals" since 1985. He and his colleagues purposefully avoid using the now politically charged word "evolution" in order to determine whether people accept the basics of evolutionary theory.
To find out what I think about rephrasing the question and substituting "develop" for "evolve…
evolgen | April 13, 2006I tend to blog in spurts. When I have nothing interesting to say (or lack the motivation to put together one of the 'BIG POSTS' I have waiting in the queue) I don't try to fill my blog with, well, filler posts. That's just the way I am. Inspiration tends to come in one big surge, at which point I'll write a bunch of entries in a matter of days. That's why this blog has laid dormant for nearly a week while the rest of the ScienceBlogs army trudges onward.
Despite what I said above, I felt a bit of an obligation to post something, regardless of how filler-esque it seems. So, I give you a…