teaching
sporte | October 28, 2015When my parents were young, summer made cities a scary place for young families. My mother tells me children were often sent away from their homes to relatives in the country, if possible, and swimming pools were definitely off limits. The disease they feared, poliomyelitis, and the havoc it wrecked were the stuff of nightmares. Children could wake up with a headache and end up a few hours later, in an iron lung, struggling to breathe.
Poliovirus colored by molecule in Molecule World.
Today, on Jonas Salk's birthday, I read in the NPR blog Goats and Soda, that…
sporte | September 8, 2015We've been fans of the Molecule of the Month series by David Goodsell, for many years. Not only is Dr. Goodsell a talented artist but he writes very clear descriptions of the ways molecules like proteins, RNA, and DNA work together and function inside a cell.
To learn about proteins and their activities, I like to go directly to the Molecule of the Month page, where I can find a list of articles organized by molecule type and name. Many of these articles can also be downloaded in a PDF format.
A really nice of his articles is that he includes PDB IDs for all the structures he discusses. The…
aardvarchaeology | October 2, 2014I did a fun exercise with my Umeå archaeology freshmen Monday: a role-playing debate about the ethics of burial archaeology. The framework was a hearing at the Ministry of Culture regarding a planned revision of the Ancient Monuments Law.
I assigned randomised groups of up to 4 students roles as archaeologists, neopagans, the Swedish Church, a housing development firm, Satanists, Saami nationalists and recently arrived Syrian Orthodox Turks. Each group got a slip of paper telling them what their opinions were about burial archaeology, above-ground curation of human remains and reburial. I…
aardvarchaeology | July 30, 2013Come September I'm scheduled to fulfil a major life goal of mine after over 15 years of impatient waiting. I'm going to teach Scandy Archaeology 101 for the first time, at the University of Umeå!*
The fall semester is divided into four modules of which I am head teacher for three: 1) Introduction, 2) Stone Age & Early Bronze Age, 4) Landscape & paleoecological methods. I'm going to use this blog entry as my draft notes for the introductory module, and I'd like to ask you, Dear Reader to help me improve them with comments, suggestions and questions. Let's make a list of the most…
sporte | March 3, 2013Yesterday, I wrote about students using science blogging as a way to develop an on-line portfolio and document their skills. One friend wrote me this morning and asked if my instructions to our students were really as simple as I described.
Well, no.
In fact, it wasn't easy to persuade my colleagues that we should let students blog. I had to promise them I would scrutinize every post and make sure no one got in trouble. Luckily, our student bloggers are responsible adults. Reading their posts has been a pleasure and there have only a couple of cases where I checked with them to make sure…
esiegel | September 25, 2012"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." -Albert Einstein
"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." -William Arthur Ward
On one side of the room, the interviewer's palms begins to sweat. Although the young man has done his research, his guest is unpredictable. His guest has an agenda, his guest has a polarizing position on a very divisive issue, and his guest may lie or make up facts right there on the spot. The moderator will step aside once the debate commences,…
drorzel | May 30, 2012In which we compare a couple of different systems for evaluating teachers, looking at what's involved in doing a fair assessment of a teacher's performance.
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Another casualty of the great blog upgrade, in the sense of a post that was delayed until the inspiration for it has been forgotten by most of the people who might want to talk about it, was this Grant Wiggins post on accountability systems:
[The Buckingham, Browne, and Nichols prep school where he taught in the 80's] had a state of the art teacher performance appraisal system back in the 80’s (we’ll need current or recent folks…
catdynamics | June 6, 2011There has been a lot of effort to try to figure out how to teach physics better, at the university level, in the US.
Of course, we know perfectly well how to do that.
To teach physics well, you provide an intensive, mathematically rigorous in-sequence series of classes.
You need at least two different parallel classes per term, each class a prerequisite for the succeeding class and coordinated syllabii for parallel and successive classes, providing an initial short review of the previous material.
You also need a parallel sequence of coordinated mathematics classes, such that the…
sporte | October 3, 2010Jonathan Eisen (@phylogenomics) shared this wonderful Lady Gaga lab spoof on Twitter the other day. It rocks.
And, it makes me wonder if my pals who've been thinking about getting students interested in careers by having scientists talk on camera might be going at this the wrong way. Sure, videos of scientists talking are totally fascinating (yawn..) and...
Oh right, where was I?
Well, here's the thing. If you want to get kids interested in something, you have to use something that interests them. Your strategy isn't going to work unless the kids find it intriguing enough to go watch…
rallain | September 2, 2010The first thing that I saw was this article from nola.com (The Times-Picayune) "New teacher evaluation method being proposed in Jefferson Parish". Let me summarize this article.
Basically, one of the local School Board wants to use a learning tool (Interval Testing) as a teacher evaluation tool. The Interval Testing program gives students spaced out evaluations through out the year to help them (and teachers) assess the preparedness of the students. These are non graded assessments and have been shown to help students. Note - the purpose of the implementation of Interval Testing is to…
rallain | August 17, 2010I see that Doug at Nanoscale Views has fond memories of the hit show The Mechanical Universe. If you have never seen this show, it is quite excellent (even if old).
Perhaps the best thing about The Mechanical Universe is that it might be the best that traditional lecturing can provide. Oh, I know it isn't quite the same. Students can't ask questions while watching a video. But the main point is that if you want to go with some type of traditional lecture style format for a class, you would be hard pressed to do better than this. Or maybe something similar - there are other good video…
grrlscientist | July 20, 2010tags: Magnificent Frigatebird, Man O'War, Fregata magnificens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Magnificent Frigatebird, sometimes known as the Man O'War, Fregata magnificens, photographed at Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, Brazoria County, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 15 July 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
This bird is built for speed and agility in the air and is…
jstemwedel | July 20, 2010Today Americans for Medical Progress has announced two recipients for academic year 2010-2011 of the Michael D. Hayre Fellowship in Public Outreach, designed to inspire and motivate the next generation of research advocates. This year, I'm especially wowed by their project.
From the AMP press release:
Two Ph.D. candidates in neuroscience have been selected by Americans for Medical Progress as the 2010-11 Michael D. Hayre Fellows in Public Outreach.  Elizabeth Burnett and Scott Dobrin are in the Neuroscience Program at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North…
grrlscientist | July 20, 2010tags: The Secret Powers of Time, time, hedonism, future orientation, education, personality type, popular psychology, society, culture, lucifer effect, teenage pregnancy, Philip Zimbardo, Royal Society of Art, RSA, streaming video
In this video animation, Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.
Learn more about RSA Animate.
grrlscientist | July 19, 2010tags: Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens, photographed at Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, Brazoria County, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 15 July 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
This lovely species was nearly exterminated in the US by hunters who killed the birds for their plumes. The population is small…
grrlscientist | July 18, 2010tags: Black Kite, Milvus migrans, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Black Kite, Milvus migrans, photographed at Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 23 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D2X, with 600 mm lens with 1.4 extender, ISO 320, 1/350 sec f/5.6.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
You've seen this African species before, but may not remember, but there are plenty of family members in North America that you are familiar with, so if you cannot identify this…
grrlscientist | July 17, 2010tags: Gray Wren-warbler, Zambia Wren-warbler, Western Wren-warbler, Calamonastes simplex, Lesser Striped Swallow, Striped Swallow, Hirundo abyssinica, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird]Gray Wren-warbler (perched), also known as a Zambia Wren-warbler or Western Wren-warbler, Calamonastes simplex, and a Lesser Striped Swallow (flying), also known as a Striped Swallow, Hirundo abyssinica, photographed near the Pangani River Camp, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours]
Image: Dan Logen, 14 January 2010 [larger view].
Nikon D300s, 600 mm VR lens. ISO…
grrlscientist | July 16, 2010tags: White Tern, Gygis alba, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] The White Tern is known by more alternate names than a con-artist, also being known as the Angel Tern, Common White-tern, Common White Tern, Little White Tern, Little Fairy Tern, Fairy Tern, Little White-tern, Little Fairy-tern, and even (since it lives in tropical oceans of the world) as the Atlantic White Tern, Gygis alba (formerly; Gygis microrhyncha), photographed on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge -- one of the most remote coral atolls on earth -- a US territory in the north Pacific Ocean [I will…
grrlscientist | July 16, 2010tags: psychology, behavior, pedagogy, education, learning, teaching methods, model/rival technique, Avian Learning EXperiment, Avian Language EXperiment, ALEX, researchblogging.org,peer-reviewed research, journal club
ALEX the African Grey Parrot and Dr Irene Pepperberg.
Image: The ALEX Foundation.
Like anyone who has taught science courses, and probably like anyone who has ever taught anything to a classroom in the history of mankind, I've wondered how to motivate my students to really care about the material they are learning, beyond simply "studying for the test." For example, I have…
grrlscientist | July 16, 2010tags: The surprising truth about what motivates us, tasks, simple tasks, complex tasks, commissions, innovation, mastery, economics, financial rewards, purpose motive, blog writing, making the world a better place, RSA, streaming video
This video is really interesting for two reasons: first, it's a hand-drawn animation that evolves in front of your eyes, and second, I think it explains why scientists like to write blogs for the public about science -- for free! Adapted from Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, this fascinating video illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home…