teaching

tags: Weekend Project, Potato Gatling Gun, DeRose family, trailer, entertainment, engineering, physics, streaming video Do you wish you could do something fun with your family? This video shows how one family designed and built a potato gatling gun, which was shown at this year's Maker Faire. This looks like so much fun that it almost makes me want to have kids! [4:29]
tags: House Sparrow, Passer domesticus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] House Sparrow, Passer domesticus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Richard Ditch, 3 June 2005 [larger view]. Date Time Original: 2005:03:06 17:34:01 Exposure Time: 1/30 F-Number: 8.00 ISO: 500 Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.
tags: Juvenile Martial Eagle, Polemaetus bellicosus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Juvenile Martial Eagle, Polemaetus bellicosus, photographed in Nakuru National Park, Kenya, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Dan Logen, 29 July 2006 [larger view]. Nikon D2X, 200-400 VR lens at 200. ISO 200, 1/2000, f 5.6. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.
tags: Cliff Swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery birds] Cliff Swallow, Petrochelidon pyrrhonota, photographed at Attwater Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 30 May 2009 [larger view]. Nikon D200 ,Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/350s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.
tags: medicine, surgery, robots, Catherine Mohr, TEDTalks, streaming video In this video, surgeon and inventor Catherine Mohr tours the history of surgery (and its pre-painkiller, pre-antiseptic past), then demonstrates some of the newest tools for surgery through tiny incisions, performed using nimble robot hands. Fascinating -- and very graphic. This is an inspiring presentation, but she neglected to mention all the other people who contribute to this technology, from engineers and computer designers to scientists. [21:28] TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and…
tags: Pigeon Guillemot, Cepphus columba, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Pigeon Guillemot, Cepphus columba, photographed at Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Terry Sohl, 8 June 2009 [larger view] Photo taken with a Canon 50D, 400 5.6L. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.
tags: Pied Avocet, Recurvirostra avosetta, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Pied Avocet, Recurvirostra avosetta, photographed in Walvis Bay, Namibia, Africa [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Dennis Paulson, April 2007 [larger view]. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.
tags: Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrororum, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrororum, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Richard Ditch, 12 November 2007 [larger view]. Date Time Original: 2007:11:12 09:11:15 Exposure Time: 1/639 F-Number: 8.00 ISO: 400 Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.
I was surprised to learn that the fringe animal rights activist group, the Humane Society of the United States, has formed the Humane Society University which was recently granted a license to grant bachelor's degrees in three areas; animal studies, animal policy and advocacy, or humane leadership. They also are licensed to grant certificates for graduate study in those same areas. Required courses are offered online or at their Washington DC site starting autumn term in 2009. All students, who must have attained junior status elsewhere, are required to take two courses: Animal Protection…
tags: Sanderling, Calidris alba, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Sanderling, Calidris alba, photographed at Galveston, East Beach, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 19 May 2009 [larger view]. Nikon D200 ,Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.
tags: BBC America, natural history, nature programming, television, entertainment, education, streaming video I just wanted to let you all know that every one of you with a television is the subject of my enduring envy because I just learned from Nicole Wetzold that my favorite radio news and television programming source has done it again: BBC is now bringing all of its natural history content together under one brand, BBC Earth. This programming is available in the United States on BBC America. As a taste of what to expect, here is a video they sent me to share with you. It is a tiny bit of…
tags: Bohemian Waxwing, Bombycilla garrulus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Bohemian Waxwing, Bombycilla garrulus, photographed near Brandon in Minnehaha County, South Dakota. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Terry Sohl, 12 February 2005 [larger view] Photo taken with a Canon 20D, 400 5.6L. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.
tags: BBC America, natural history, nature programming, television, entertainment, education, streaming video I just wanted to let you all know that every one of you with a television is the subject of my enduring envy because I just learned from Nicole Wetzold that my favorite radio news and television programming source has done it again: BBC is now bringing all of its natural history content together under one brand, BBC Earth. This programming is available in the United States on BBC America. As a taste of what to expect, here is a video they sent me to share with you. It is a tiny bit of…
tags: Green Heron, Ardeola virescens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Juvenile Green Heron, Ardeola virescens, photographed on a farm pond in central Kentucky. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Mark Selter, 14 June 2009 (thanks to Roger Brown for sharing) [larger view]. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.
tags: Purple Gallinule, Porphyrio martinica, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery birds] Purple Gallinule, Porphyrio martinica, photographed at Anahuac Wildlife Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 19 May 2009 [larger view]. Nikon D200 ,Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.
Science has an award for online education resources (cutely named "SPORE"), and they want nominations by June 30. Here are their criteria: Rules of Eligibility for SPORE-2009: * The project must focus on science education. * The resources described must be freely available on the Internet. * The project can be targeted to students or teachers at the precollege or college level, or it can serve the informal education needs of the general public. * The Internet resources must be in English or include an English translation. * Nominations are welcome from all sources. Both…
tags: Bateleur Eagle, Terathopius ecaudatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Immature Bateleur Eagle, Terathopius ecaudatus, photographed in Tarangire National Park, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Dan Logen, 31 August 2007 [larger view]. Nikon D2X 200-400 NIkon VR lens, at 400 mm. ISO 400, f4.5, 1/250 sec. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.
When I was designing my summer session class, I ran into a problem. If I really wanted my students to achieve the course goals, they would need to spend a lot of time on a computer. In a 3-times-a-week lecture course, I might expect them to do that work outside of class, but we were going to be meeting for two hours a day, four days a week - they wouldn't have much time between classes (especially if they were taking other classes and working). And I didn't want to lecture for two hours a day. So, if I wanted them to get in-class practice doing things that related to their goals, I needed to…
tags: National Center for Science Education, NCSE, religion, fundamentalism, creationism, intelligent design, streaming video This video gives you a brief overview of what the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) does to protect our schools from the tyranny of religious brainwashing posing as "science" [3:19]
tags: Mountain Plover, Charadrius montanus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Mountain Plover, Charadrius montanus, photographed in Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Richard Ditch, 25 December 2007 [larger view]. Date Time Original: 2007:12:25 10:06:24 Exposure Time: 1/319 F-Number: 10.00 ISO: 400 Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.