teaching
grrlscientist | October 9, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Already, dear readers, you are making a difference. For example, a few days ago, a classroom in North Carolina learned that they will be able to learn how to identify wild birds because you donated enough for them to fulfill their funding request. Thank you!
Of course, I will be sharing all updates with you that they send during the upcoming school year.
Dear GrrlScientist,
Thank you so much for funding my request for binoculars. Your gift was especially…
grrlscientist | October 8, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Already, dear readers, you are making a difference. For example, today, a classroom in Connecticut learned that they will be able to study anatomy because you donated enough for them to fulfill their funding request. Thank you!
Of course, I will be sharing all updates with you that they send during the upcoming school year.
Dear GrrlScientist,
Thank you so much for your generosity. You cannot imagine how thrilled the sixth graders will be to get such a…
skookumchick | October 6, 2008The PBS News Hour reports out on the Barefoot College in India. The reporter talks with grandmothers learning to make solar lights, and with the founder who believes educating men is a lost cause because they're lazy. He argues that women use their education to get good jobs, and then use the money they earn to support their families, bringing it back to their villages, while men use it to get the worst jobs they can. It's a compelling story, and one that reminds us of the value of microlending, particularly for women's education and businesses.
See photos of the Barefoot College students…
grrlscientist | October 6, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Today's featured project is below the fold.
This teacher's proposal has only 26 days left to be funded, but only $25 has been donated so far! Mrs. R, who is starting her second year as a teacher, needs another $513 to add a special science lesson to her curricula. I think that Mrs. R has shown a lot of initiative by completing summer workshops that prepare her to teach science in her classroom, and when you read her proposal, you will find that she is especially…
grrlscientist | October 4, 2008tags: John Scopes, Scopes Monkey Trial, Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial, evolution, creationism, religious fundamentalism, education
Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial: John Thomas Scopes.
Image: Watson Davis (1896-1967), courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution (copyright free). [larger view].
Description: Taken the month before the Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial. June 1925
Creator/Photographer: Watson Davis
Medium: Black and white photographic print
Dimensions: 4.25 in x 3 in
Culture: American
Geography: USA
Date: 1925
Persistent URL
Repository: Smithsonian Institution Archives…
grrlscientist | October 4, 2008tags: John Scopes, Scopes Monkey Trial, Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial, evolution, creationism, religious fundamentalism, education
Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial: Privies outside the Rhea County (Tennessee) courthouse with "Read Your Bible" sign.
Image: Watson Davis (1896-1967), courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution (copyright free). [larger view].
For the first time ever, a series of 39 original photographs from the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial are now available for your viewing pleasure.
Description: Taken during the Tennessee v. John T. Scopes Trial. July 1925
Creator/…
grrlscientist | October 3, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Already, dear readers, you are making a difference. For example, today, a classroom in North Carolina learned that they will be able to study a variety of microscopic life using prepared slides that you purchased for them. Thank you!
Of course, I will be sharing all updates with you that they send during the upcoming school year.
Dear Grrlscientist,
"More Than Meets the Eye," funded in your honor by ANONYMOUS, is now becoming a reality for the students of Mrs. M…
grrlscientist | October 3, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Today's featured project is below the fold.
This is a rural high-poverty school in North Carolina. The teacher is a bird watcher who also lives with pet birds, and she seeks to instill this love for birds into her students. In this proposal, she and her students will learn about the diets of owls by dissecting owl pellets and examining the remains of insects and bones from small animals that the owls cannot digest.
"Whooo's in the Forest?" Part II
I teach a…
grrlscientist | September 30, 2008tags: DonorsChoose2008, education, public school education, fund raising, evolution education, nature education, bird education
Today is a special day because today is the first day of my DonorsChoose Challenge. DonorsChoose is a fund-raising campaign where the public can help classrooms throughout the United States to raise the funds necessary for educating children in grades K-12. Each ScienceBlog writer who is participating will raise funds for the entire month of October. Each participant has chosen a subset of the listed classroom proposals to fund based on their own special criteria.…
sporte | September 30, 2008I learned via e-mail yesterday that the biotechnology program, that I taught with for ten years during the 90's, is ending due to low enrollments.
I also learned yesterday, via the Seattle Times, that a resurrected version of ICOS called CMC Icos Biologics is planning a $35M expansion of their biotech manufacturing plant in Bothell and talking about hiring lots of students with two-year degrees.
The irony isn't lost on me.
We struggled with variable enrollments too, when I was at Seattle Central Community College. A couple of years saw way too many students and troubles finding enough…
sporte | September 30, 2008HealthMap is a great site that could be an excellent resource when teaching a biology, microbiology, or health class. Not to mention, I can picture people using it before they travel somewhere or even just for fun.
I learned about HealthMap awhile ago from Mike the Mad Biologist, but I didn't get time to play with the site until today.
Here's an example to see how it works.
How do I use HealthMap?
I begin using HealthMap by changing the number of diseases selected to "none."
Then I scrolled through the list until I found something interesting. I chose "Poisoning." The number of…
sporte | September 29, 2008Calling all scientists and science-fans: you can help with science education by letting students know you're interested. How? Go and comment on classroom blogs and wikis.
I've been gradually collecting some blogs from different classes and I've even had some brave volunteers offer theirs for review.
So here goes:
www.missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog
Ms. Hoffman's AP class blog
Tomorrow's table from Pamela Ronald. This is going to be used for two months by students in a Genetics and Society class.
Biology in Action
Evolution and Diversity (Biol 124) at http://darwinslegacy.blogspot.com…
sporte | September 22, 2008Wow! One of my commenters, Ms. Baker, suggested an entirely new way that scientists can help with science education. The only requirement is that a science class have their own blog.
So, if your science class has a blog, let me know, so I can share the URL and maybe recruit some scientists or at least graduate students, to take a look.
I think this idea is so great! It doesn't involve any kind of traveling and many, many different scientists can participate, thus minimizing volunteer burn out. It also gives students a way to practice writing about what they do and interacting with the…
purepedantry | September 12, 2008Philosopher Thomas Nagel, writing in the journal Philosophy and Public Affairs, criticizes the exclusion of Intelligent Design from science classes on the grounds that evolutionary science too rests on an assumption: the naturalistic assumption. He argues that both evolution based on natural selection and ID have untestable assumptions.
Frankly, I think that Nagel is wrong partly because he doesn't understand the people pushing ID and partly because he doesn't understand science. With respect to the first, he seems to give the IDers like Michael Behe credit as honest brokers pushing a…
sciencewoman | September 10, 2008A few weeks ago I solicited suggestions for how NOT to give a talk, and I was overwhelmed and greatly amused by the volume and enthusiasm of responses.
At about the same time, Dave Ng over at The World's Fair was thinking along the same lines. He claims to have created the most evil powerpoint slide ever. Take a look; it's pretty heinous. He also made a totally awesome video montage of things to avoid while speaking publicly.
I'm not as video savvy as Dave, nor will I lay claim to the absolute slide ever. But I did manage to put together a pretty darn awful powerpoint presentation. Before I…
sporte | September 2, 2008David Ng from The World's Fair has made this wonderful video on public speaking. Or shall we say the funnier side of public speaking? I really enjoyed it!
I'd say Dave's video ranks right up there with one of my other favories, the classic: "Chicken chicken chicken"
rallain | August 29, 2008I teach classes. I ask questions in class. I wait for answers. All faculty do this, so who cares. If you are in a class or teaching a class, how long do you wait for someone to answer your question? Well, I asked two questions of my class this week.
1. Estimate how long I wait when I ask you questions.
2. How long should you (ideally) wait in a class for someone to answer?
Here is the data I gathered: (and I will tell you how long I actually wait)
This is a class of about 30 students. Below is a histogram of how long they estimate I wait for an answer. To make things work out, I…
sporte | August 21, 2008One of the things that drives me crazy on occasion is nomenclature. Well, maybe not just nomenclature, it's really the continual changes in the nomenclature, and the time it takes for those changes to ripple through various databases and get reconciled with other kinds of information. And the realization that sometimes this reconciliation may never happen.
One of the projects that I've been working on during the past couple of years has involved developing educational materials that use bioinformatics tools to look at the isozymes that metabolize alcohol. As part of this project, I've been…
sciencewoman | August 20, 2008One class I'm teaching this semester is a senior seminar focusing on oral communication. It should be a really fun class, and I'm looking forward to it. A major assignment for the semester will involve the students presenting a journal-club style talk on a scientific paper. Before I make them give a talk though, it only seems fair that I should have to give one myself. So I am going to borrow an idea from a colleague and attempt to give my talk using all the things one should NOT do during an oral presentation. (This is going to be really painful for me to do - but hopefully also kind of fun…
sciencewoman | August 19, 2008
'Twas the week before classes and all through the hall,
the students were scurrying to register for fall.
The syllabi were printed on many colored sheets
and the profs were already tired of needing to meet....
The textbooks lined shelves in neat little rows,
just waiting for students to open, read, and doze.
As hard as it is to believe that I've been on the job a year, I'm about to roll into my second fall semester. People keep asking me if I'm ready for classes to begin, and I'm honestly not sure how to answer. I've got my syllabi written, but not photocopied. I've read a couple of chapters…