teachers

I usually write my annual back to school post earlier than this, but I was distracted by various events. There are three themes here. 1) You are a science teacher and I have some stuff for you. 2) You have a student in a school and you want to support the school's science teacher. 3) You have a student-offspring or elsewise and are looking for a cool back to school gift. First, for themes 1 and 2, a mixture of traditional back to school blog posts and some items that may be useful and happen to be on sale at the moment so now's your chance. My For Teachers Page has posts providing some…
A well known anti-science "think" tank has sent around, to teachers, a mailing including an antiscience book, a movie, and nice letter and, oddly, a pamphlet exposing the fact that the mailing is entirely politically motivated. Most science teachers will ignore this. A few science teachers are science deniers, and they already had the material in the mailings. So, I think this was a huge waste of money and effort. But it happened and you should know about it, and you should warn anyone you know that is a teacher. The real concern, in my opinion, is not this falling into the hands of science…
After an unforgettable 2014 Expo with over 2000 visitors stopping by their booth, Science Buddies is proud to return to the USA Science & Engineering Festival in 2016 as a media partner. Science Buddies recognizes USASEF’s commitment to improving the lives of all students through STEM learning and is excited to once again help inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. Science Buddies empowers K-12 students, teachers, and parents to quickly and easily find thousands of FREE project ideas and resources in all areas of science, from astronomy to zoology. Science Buddies helps…
Teachers in the D.C. Metropolitan area- we are now accepting applications for the Nifty Fifty (x4) Program! Click here to apply NOW to host a speaker at your school during the 2014/2015 school year. Nifty Fifty talks will take place during the months of February, March and April of 2015. The deadline to apply is Friday, November 21, 2014. Submit your application by following this link and select your top speaker choices. Speakers are available for middle and high schools in Washington D.C. and surrounding areas. Some of the new speakers joining our program include: Deborah Bass, Ph.D. - The…
“If you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it.” -Frank Zappa Inside of every student I've ever taught lives a passionate, curious mind that can either flourish or stagnate, both inside and outside the classroom. The teachers that get it -- that get you -- are the ones that help bring you there, but that is not all teachers, not by any means. I think everyone, by this point in their life, has had experience with at least one teacher that stands out…
Here is a way you can support the Life Science teachers in your local school. Give them a poster or a hat or a T-shirt or a book or something. I'll tell you why in a moment. First, you have to find the teachers and start up a relationship with them. I have various relationships with various teachers around the Twin Cities area, but strangely enough my efforts to strike up a relationship with the Life Science teachers at Coon Rapids has led to nothing. The school is very close to my house. I go by it every day to do one thing or another. But when I've emailed the staff there I've never…
Imagine the opportunity for your kids to chat one-on-one with some of the nation's top scientists, engineers and other professionals in such fields as medical research, the CIA, oceanography, microbiology, and technology intellectual property law! They'll get the chance at the finale Expo at the end of this month when the Festival, in association with the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), hosts its Meet the Scientists/ Engineers sessions. These informal gatherings, part of the Festival's STEM Career Pavilion initiative, will allow students to conduct in-person interviews with a wide…
Register now for the YCDTRC contest and attend a free teacher/coach workshop on August 14th from 1pm - 3:30 pm at The National Electronics Museum. Student names are not due until October 1st! The Rubik's Cube Tournament will place K-12 teams in competition for the fastest time to collectively solve 25 Rubik's Cubes. The top six finalists will compete for the championship at the USA Science & Engineering Festival Expo on the National Mall on 10/23. Prizes range from $100 to $1,000 and will be awarded by Dr. Erno Rubik, inventor of the Rubik's Cube To learn more about the tournament click…
Teachers' Domain, a digital media resource for teachers, profiled Karmella Haynes, one of my amazing labmates! There's a fun video of Karmella talking about her work on synthetic biology devices to track cancer cells and about careers in science streaming on the Teachers' Domain website. You should all check it out, she's an incredible scientist, artist, and teacher--a true inspiration!
Hits of the week: Savage Minds (with a spiffy website redesign) asks Why is there no Anthropology Journalism? Jerry Coyne takes sharp exception to both a paper and a SciAm Mind Matters article by Paul Andrews and Andy Thomson arguing that depression might be an evolutionary adaptation. Dr. Pangloss punches back. (NB: 1. I was founding editor of Mind Matters, but no longer edit it, did not edit the Andrews/Thomson piece, and don't know any of these people. 2. While my recent Atlantic article presented an argument for how a gene associated with depression (the so-called SERT gene) might be…
The American Association of Physics Teachers just published a study of 1,000 likely U.S. voters about science, religion, evolution, and creationism. The results are frightening. Here are some of the "highlights" of their study: 38% of Americans are in favor of the teaching of religion in public school science classrooms. 65% of Americans do not think that it is an important science goal to understand the origin and diversity of biological life on Earth. 47% of Americans believe that the earliest humans lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. 21% of Americans do not believe that the…