science outreach
sa smith | February 13, 2009When the hell was someone going to tell me John Lynch is Irish?
Me: WTF! Youre Irish?!?
John (in an Irish accent):... I dont type with an accent...
Me: I DO DANG NABBIT!
No one told me John was such a great presenter, either (Irish accent helped with that). A perfect combination of 'funny' and 'facts'.
My favorite funny, paraphrased: "There are no such thing as 'Darwinists'. Its just a pejorative used by Creationists cause it sounds like 'MARXISTS!', and it makes it seem like scientists are in this big cult where we all gather on Darwins birthday to sing songs and eat cake... *trails off…
sa smith | February 12, 2009HAPPY MONKEY!
Few random quickies for today--
1. I think a YEC challenged me to a dual. Or something. A friend was having a 'debate' with some random radical Christian pastor/reverend/whatever via letters to the editor in the Yukon Review, and cited some things he had learned from me and ERV. Random weirdo bawwwed to his 'professional' YEC butt-buddy. YEC butt-buddy took radical weirdos place in the 'debate', and now for some reason Im debating this guy:
*gasp!* Uh, oh... hes a lifetime member of American MENSA, people. I think Im in over my head here. lol.
2. SEED has up a ton of…
sa smith | February 11, 2009Well Im glad you all have been having fun while I zipped up to MO for the weekend :P
Cool news for Oklahoma college students!
Explain Why Darwin's Views Remain So Important Today.
Deadline: 15 August 2009. Maximum Length: 500 words. Submit essays to: essaycontest@ou.edu. Open to all college students in Oklahoma. Essays will be judged on originality and quality of writing by a panel consisting of individuals selected by the Darwin 2009 Steering Committee. Winners will be announced by a ceremony on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in November 2009.…
sporte | January 9, 2009The HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is a non-profit organization that opened it's doors in April, 2008. One of the great things about this institute is it's commitment to sharing biotech knowledge with the surrounding community.
For the general public, HudsonAlpha has a ongoing written series on biology topics called Biotech 101. Teachers will probably find this useful too. There's a great description of Copy Number Variation written by Dr. Neil Lamb, their director of educational outreach. Some of the other pieces discuss Microarrays, Epigenetics, and RNAi.
School programs…
sporte | January 7, 2009I don't know if any DIY biologists are looking for projects, but I think engineering yeast with a gene to detect heavy metals might be a good DIY biology project and I have some ideas for how to do this.
What are the advantages of using yeast and working on this kind of problem?
This could have a socially beneficial result. Contamination of soils, water, and even toys with heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and others, is a growing problem. If DIY biologists could make a cheap test, it could be helpful for a large number of people.
Yeast, at least the ones I'm thinking about, Saccharomyces…
sporte | January 4, 2009My oldest daughter's favorite sweatshirt is one from the Seattle Children's Theatre Drama School, with the motto, "What's your motivation?"
I was reminded of motivation the other day, as I talked about projects with the DIY biology group. It's pretty clear that you can't pick a project without knowing whether you're motivated by the discovery or the application.
Many of the people I've known in academia, either researchers or science educators, are motivated by the prospect of discovery. They either want to discover something new or help their students make discoveries. Inquiry-based…
sporte | January 3, 2009This afternoon, I attended the first meeting of a DIY biology group in Seattle, after a kind invitation from one of the founders.
DIY, for those of you new to the acronym, stands for "Do It Yourself."
But, you say, there are lots of people who do biology on their own. Some people keep pets. Some have children. Others raise tropical fish, go bird watching, or mushroom hunting. Some people even make yogurt or cheese, or brew beer, or make wine. What makes DIY biology so different?
This isn't your grandfather's home brew
Well, lets say for now that it's a little more technical,…
sporte | November 6, 2008Before mammals, before dinosaurs, before bacteria, or plants, there was something else; a protocell containing RNA.
The Exploring Origins Project has excellent animations of protocells, a timeline of life's evolution, and best of all- fantastic animations of the RNA world.
You can see how RNA folds, ribozymes (RNA that catalyzes chemical reactions), and learn about the role of RNA when the Earth was young.
BTW- I made this ribozyme image with Cn3D. The RNA is synthetic - made by humans with machines, that is, and this molecule can cut chemical bonds.
sporte | October 8, 2008Over the years, I've seen many biotechnology education programs at community colleges embrace outreach to high schools as part of their mission. This kind of enthusiasm for outreach seems unique to biotech. No other kind of science or engineering program seems to do this sort of thing, at least not on the nationwide basis that I've seen demonstrated in biotechnology.
And yet, even though I've always admired and often participated in these efforts, some aspects are a little puzzling.
How do the colleges reconcile the energy spent in outreach efforts with the energy spent towards educating…
sporte | October 4, 2008Long Branch, NJ, is a lovely town on the Atlantic Ocean, with long beaches and brand new shops and condos. It is also part of an area in, central New Jersey, where biotechnology education is entering an exciting time thanks to efforts of NJBEC, Bio-1, and a WIRED grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.
NJBEC, Bio-1, WIRED? What do all these acronyms mean?
I get these things confused all the time, so I'll take a quick moment and explain.
NJBEC is the New Jersey Biotechnology Educators Consortium. Bio-1 is a partnership between five counties and several schools in central New Jersey, that…
sporte | October 1, 2008ScienceBlogs and science bloggers, in general, have enthusiastically supported fund-raising efforts by DonorsChoose for the past two years, and we're doing it once again for 2008.
DonorsChoose works like this: teachers write descriptions of what they want and how they'll use it for teaching, and submit their proposals to DonorsChoose. We pick the projects we like and if you like them, too, you can help get these projects funded.Donate to schools! Win a prize!
Last time I did this, we ended up funding three cool projects in biotechnology education. Students in Mrs. G's classroom in South…
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 21, 2008What do you do if you're a scientist and want to volunteer in a classroom?
How do you find the right place to go and right kind of activity that suites your talents?
One of my commenters asked about this a few weeks ago. With the new school year up and running, it seems like a good time to tackle this question.
What kinds of volunteer activities do scientists do?
Your effort can be big or small. Small efforts can involve speaking in a classroom, mentoring students via ea-mail, judging science fair projects, or assisting with homework questions. Larger efforts can entail doing or…
sa smith | July 17, 2008Im mad about SIZZLE.
I didnt like it. I thought it was dumb. Like, genuinely *dumb*.**
But I liked Randy. I liked what he is/was trying to do. So rather than write a one word review ('ugh'), I tried to make some positive points, and push him in the direction of the aspects of SIZZLE I thought were good. Sure SIZZLE might stink, but maybe his next one will be awesome! YAY!
No yay.
Randy and the Framing Company dont give a crap about any of our reviews.
They sent out screener copies to ~50 bloggers, and they dont care what we wrote.
And so I'd like to make a suggestion: Could it be that,…
sa smith | July 14, 2008Man, Randy, you were close with SIZZLE. You were really close, I think. I wish you would have let us preview the movie earlier, or just bounced some ideas off of us.
1-- The scripted portions of SIZZLE were painful. Painful. Very awkward. Not at all believable. Your 'producers' could have been cut out entirely. The crew didnt 'need' to be 'gangstas', they just needed to be Average Joes (or... Average Dions... *wince*). Muffy was just there to push the plot.
2-- You should have burned the script... and made a damn documentary!!! I think it was on accident, but you stumbled on…
sa smith | July 2, 2008Remember Christina Comer? The woman who was EXPELLED from the Texas Education Agency after forwarding this disgusting, hateful, explicit email to her coworkers?
Shes suing TEA.
No, not for a million dollars (like the DI wants-- theyd be happy as clams if public schools went extinct). Shes suing for:
Her lawsuit seeks a court order overturning the TEA's neutrality policy on teaching of creationism and declaring that her dismissal was unconstitutional. The suit also seeks her reinstatement to her old job.
Good luck, Ms Comer! May your fish has many noms.
sa smith | May 28, 2008This is a repost from the old ERV. A retrotransposed ERV :P I dont trust them staying up at Blogger, and the SEED overlords are letting me have 4 reposts a week, so Im gonna take advantage of that!
I am going to try to add more comments to these posts for the old readers-- Think of these as 'directors cut' posts ;)
I was going to drop this. I was going to drop this, because I thought Premise had dropped it. But they finally served papers to XVIVO (I probably wouldnt have done that if Yoko/EMI were suing me, but Im not drunk on Jesus Juice, so there you go), so I am going to rip Premise a…
sa smith | May 28, 2008The judge is supposed to rule on Ono/EMIs suit some time this week. This reminds me of one of the best scenes from one of the best movies with the best music:
The Good-- David Bolinski. Dude just trying to defend the honor of his company after William Dembski and his grimy 'Christian' bandits stole and raped his baby, 'Inner Life of the Cell'. Trying to carry on after being stabbed in the back by a 'friend', Harvard University (saving a rant about those spineless pussies for another post... if its necessary). Just a guy trying to run his own company and share his love of science with the…
sa smith | May 21, 2008With a guest appearance by Eugenie! I didnt know she was there until I clicked on "Feeding and Gloating for More: The Challenge of the New Creationism, Jerry A. Coyne, The University of Chicago" (having a little trouble with a few minutes of that vid, but might just be me).
From RNA to Humans: A Symposium on Evolution
sa smith | May 18, 2008Sciencewoman has been covering the Intel Science and Engineering Fair, and YAAAAY!! Three chickadees won the top prizes! Sweet!
While the fact three girls won did get a nod from a random troll, it hasnt really been the main topic of the discussion. More people have been wondering "How the hell did a high school kid get the opportunity to study 'Computation of the Alexander-Conway Polynomial on the Chord Diagrams of Singular Knots'? If a different promising student from say, Guymon, Oklahoma, got the same opportunities, wouldnt they thrive just like a lucky kid from Nassau County, New York…