science outreach
sa smith | May 18, 2010You laugh, you lose:
Learn to better communicate your research to non-scientists at the
Workshop on Communicating Science & Engineering with Chris Mooney
When: May 24, 2010-9am-1pm. Lunch will be provided.
Where: MIT- Room/Bldg TBA
Why: These days, amid ongoing media controversies over climate change, the teaching of evolution, the safety of vaccines, and many other scientific topics, researchers are increasingly asking themselves questions like these: Should I be doing more to communicate about my work to the public? And if so, how should I go about preparing for media encounters--and…
sa smith | April 21, 2010Hey you remember last year, OU had all these super cool presentations by scientists and evilution-themed activities for Darwins 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of 'Origin'?
Remember how OK politicians and religious radicals had a conniption fit over it?
Well, the professor who spearheaded the Darwinabration, Piers Hale (comrade of the nefarious John Lynch), just won 'The University of Oklahoma's 2010 General Education Teaching Award'!
The University of Oklahoma's 2010 General Education Teaching Award has been presented to Piers Hale, Assistant Professor of the History of Science.…
sa smith | April 8, 2010Steven Pinker will be speaking tonight at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chicasha!
Steven Pinker asks audacious questions about the human mind -- then boldly sets out to answer them. Recently named one of TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World, he is enormously popular in the media and highly respected in scientific circles. On April 8, he takes center stage in Chickasha as the keynote speaker for the fourth annual Emerson-Wier Liberal Arts Symposium. The evening presentation is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. in Te Ata Memorial Auditorium on the campus of the…
sa smith | February 26, 2010Boy, do I have egg on my face!
After I just made fun of the absurdity of Chris Mooneys 'building bridges with antivaxers' or 'ladders to heaven' or 'rope swings to Creationists' or whatever strategy, Mooney is named a Templeton Foundation 'fellow'.
Like most of you, my initial response was "What a douche."
But then I realized-- This is THE answer to my prayers.
All these years I have been so goddamn frustrated with the level of stupidity coming out of religious institutions regarding HIV-1.
But there was nothing I could do about it because Im not nice and Im a stoopid scientest tat dunt…
jstemwedel | February 24, 2010When I told you about the infuriating tactics extreme animal rights activists are turning against Dario Ringach for even daring to express his view that animal research can be important, a number of you asked in the comments, "What can we do besides signing petitions and writing blog posts?"
David Jentsch offers some concrete ideas about where to start making your stand:
For those that support research or researchers, I offer a number of possibilities that will allow you to become involved in this struggle:
1) Participate however you can in supporting science and scientists. This may…
jstemwedel | February 8, 2010Here are some of the thoughts and questions that stayed with me from this session. (Here are my tweets from the session and the session's wiki page.)
This was sort of an odd session for me -- not so much because of the topics taken up by session leaders Tamara Krinsky and Jennifer Ouellette, but because of my own sense of ambivalence about a lot of "entertainment" these days.
The session itself had lots of interesting glimpses of the work scientists are doing to help support filmmakers (and television producers, and game designers, and producers of other kinds of entertainment) who want to…
sporte | January 13, 2010A common theme I hear in talks on personalized medicine, is that increased access to genomic data and medical literature are changing the relationship between doctors and patients. Patients are through being passive recipients of paternalistic health care. They are demanding to participate and be treated as partners with health care providers.
Citizen science can serve a similar role.
Just as personalized medicine is starting to make it possible for individuals to monitor and participate in their own personal health, citizen science is making it possible for people to participate and…
sporte | January 11, 2010Do citizen science efforts ever go beyond "feel good" contributions? Do the data get published in peer-reviewed journals?
In an earlier post, I started a list of citizen science projects that allow students to make a contribution. Many commentors are graciously adding to that list and I thank you all! I'm glad to learn there are so many interesting projects and ways for people to get involved. Science is so empowering!
My question today concerns things like outcomes and deliverables. We'd like to assume that good things are coming from citizen science because people are involved, but I…
sporte | January 8, 2010Next Saturday afternoon, at ScienceOnline2010, the science goddess, the chemspider, and I will be presenting a workshop on getting students involved in citizen science.
In preparation, I'm compiling a set of links to projects that involve students in citizen science. If you know of any good citizen science efforts, please share them in the comments.
Here we go!
Before I start listing links, I am limiting this list to projects that allow both students and citizen scientists to participate. I know of plenty of student projects, where students can isolate phage and annotate their genomes or…
sa smith | January 5, 2010I volunteer my ovum in the service of cloning more Carl Zimmers.
Hes got a laymen-science appropriate-yet-not-dumbed-down-to-the-point-of-being-wrong article on the New York Times on one of the many ways we use viral evolution in the lab.
A decade ago, scientists began running experiments that suggested the idea just might work. In one study, Dr. Lawrence A. Loeb, a University of Washington geneticist, and his colleagues eradicated H.I.V. in vitro by applying a mutation-increasing drug to infected cells. Reporting their results, Dr. Loeb's group dubbed this kind of attack "lethal mutagenesis…
sporte | January 4, 2010If you're in Seattle, Dr. Bruce Alberts will be talking tomorrow night (Jan 5th) at the Seattle Aquarium on science education and the role that scientists play.
There are also some really interesting talks at a day-long workshop, Wednesday (Jan 6th) at the UW South Campus Center.
The details and registration info are below:
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Tuesday:
COSEE Ocean Learning Communities & Washington SeaGrant Present
Redefining Science Education and the
Roles that Scientists Play in Society
Dr. Bruce Alberts
Tuesday,…
sa smith | August 29, 2009During my 'debate' with Creationist Charles Jackson, he let loose lots of funny accusations like "People like you are why kids think science is boring!" heh. See, Chuck wanted kids to 'debate' Creationism in science class, and I wanted kids to, you know, learn in science in science class. If you the kids dont have a basal level of science literacy, they werent really 'debating' Evilution vs Creationism-- they were parroting talking points they had learned from their elders (both sides).
Science is a foreign language, and you have to learn the words first. We do need to make this as…
sa smith | August 6, 2009Welp, Mooney chickened out. Again.
I feel bad for Reggie, because this is totally my fault-- Reggie is a very congenial interviewer. Hes been earning street-cred since the internet was born, interviewing top dogs like Eugenie Scott, Richard Dawkins, Ken Miller, James Randi, Barbara Forrest...
But after I alerted you all to Mooneys appearance, apparently the thought of answering questions critical of 'Unscientific America' from you all was too much for Mooney. Hes not going to be on IG anymore. I guess he has to wash his hair, or something.
SOOOOOOOO Im going to be on tonight instead!…
sporte | April 23, 2009Usually, I'm kind of a hermit, but I heard there would be Bacon and so, I'm going to leave the house next Weds, night and attend a science blogging event at the University of Washington.
I think it will be fun. Not only will there be Bacon, there will be pizza and other bloggers, who may or may not be entertaining.
Others who will be there (besides me) are:
Dave Bacon, Quantom Pontiff
Maria Brumm, Green Gabbro, who is NOT really an intern with the Discovery Institute
Keith Seinfeld, KPLU, Science and Wonder
http://kplu.wordpress.com/
Alan Boyle, MSNBC, Cosmic Log
Eric Steig, UW Earth…
sa smith | March 30, 2009Okay, if any of you ever get the opportunity to see Carl Zimmer speak, GO!
Last night in Tulsa, Carl gave the John Wesley Powell Memorial Lecture on the topic of 'What is Life?'
I was geared up and ready for a fight, honestly. Virologists have been getting into fights with people about 'what is life?' for ages. And we are used to getting riled up about childish, scientifically outdated 'arguments'. I didnt know whether Carl was savvy or not... But he was. Yay!
As an audience member, I found his presentation fun and educational (I even learned new stuff). He told a story with science, and…
sporte | March 26, 2009I don't usually publish press releases, but I'm making an exception for this one, since your's truly is one of the Co-PI's. If you're a teacher within commuting distance of Seattle, the schedule and sign up information is here.
NSF AWARDS $1.3 MILLION TO NWABR FOR BIOINFORMATICS EDUCATION
Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) brings the understanding of how biology and information technology interact to teachers and their students
Seattle, WA - March 26, 2009 - The Northwest Association for Biomedical Research (NWABR) has been awarded a $1.3 million dollar…
sa smith | March 7, 2009Chelsea: Hey, Scott just called.
Me: ... Yeah...?
Chelsea: Were on the volunteer list.
Me: $^&#(&!! I never got an email from that chick telling us what to do! I thought they didnt want us?!?!
Chelsea: Me too... But we might as well go get a free T-shirt!
Me: FREE T-SHIRT! Ill be in Norman in 15 minutes!
When I got to Norman, I was expecting a circus.
Instead I was greeted by several hundred people casually standing in line, happily chatting with new friends about our dip-shit legislators, having a grand ol time.
So my 'volunteer' duties consisted of doing what I do best: Being…
sa smith | March 5, 2009People dont understand why I love Oklahoma so much.
This is why.
Evidently Todd Thomsen, some Oklahoma legislator dude (Republican) has written an 'official' resolution denouncing Richard Dawkins.
THAT the Oklahoma House of Representative strongly opposes the invitation to speak on the campus of the University of Oklahoma to Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, whose published statements on the theory of evolution and opinion about those who do not believe in the theory are contrary and offensive to the views and opinions of most citizens of Oklahoma.
THAT the Oklahoma House of…
sa smith | March 4, 2009So as a reward for sitting through almost 4 hours of Casey Luskin and John "hard for Hitler" West baaaaaawing about their beating in Dover, PA, Nick Matzke is coming to OU to give his side of the story!
w00t!
He was supposed to be giving a talk this afternoon, so I got into the lab at the buttcrack of dawn so I could leave early, guilt free... But then Nicks flight plans got mixed up, and he wont be able to present until tomorrow!
Balls!
SO! If you want to meet one of the stars of the Dover Trial-- Nicks presentation has been rescheduled for TOMORROW!
"The Evolution of Anti-Evolution"…
sa smith | March 4, 2009Ive decided not to go see Dawkins this Friday.
Do I want to see him? Of course! But Ive decided not to for the following reasons:
There are no tickets for this event. The first ~2500-3000 people in line get in. The line is going to be a nightmare. Nightmare. About 100 people from OKC Atheists and local unis offered to help with line craziness (chairs for older folks, water coolers, snacks, etc), and it was decided that we were not needed. Ive spoken to people who are planning on starting to stand in line up to 12 hours before the talk starts... On top of it all, weve got repressed…