Category Archives: Science Education

Now that the school has started, we (meaning ‘ScienceBloggers’) are getting feedback messages from science teachers who were able to buy supplies for their classes because you, our readers, pitched in back in June and donated mountains of money through the DonorsChoose program.
I want to thank you all again for doing such a good deed. And, as far as I can see, none of us has removed the DonorsChoose button from our sidebars, so you can always add some more to the science teaching projects of your choice.
P.S. The first note I got very early and do not have it any more in my mailbox The last note I got is this:

Dear Coturnix,
Thank you very much for the DNA and genetic kits. Working in Los Angeles has brought some difficulty. There are not many tools that we can use in the middle school that keep projects hands-on and keep the students engaged and stay within the standards of the subject matter. My administrator could not justify this purchase. I think he had no idea what really came out of doing these labs. Again I want to thank you. I will enjoy teaching this subject area with these new materials.
Sincerely, Donna Taylor
Curtiss Middle School

The school has started and I have not yet met my son’s teachers, but he brought home his science textbook yesterday. Of course I had to take a look….and I really liked it! It is North Carolina Edition of McDougal Littell “Science” for 8th grade.
While I am still stunned that all of science is bunched together this late in schooling (I had physics, chemistry, earth science and biology as separate subjects from 5th through 12th grade every year), but at least the way this is bunched looks good. It is divided into five units, each taking, I guess, about two months to cover. The first unit is earth science, second is biology, third is oceanography, fourth is chemistry and fifth is again biology.
The earth science unit covers structure of Earth and plate tectonics; the geological time scale, rocks and fossils (connection to biology); and natural resources, including energy sources from oil to wind power.
The water unit covers water cycle, fresh water, frozen water and underground water; fresh water as a resource; ocean systems, currents, waves and tides; and oceanic environments (connection to biology) and resources.
The chemistry unit covers atomic structure, elements and the periodic table; chemical bonds and compounds; chemical reactions and energy; and carbon-based molecules (connection to biology).
The second biology unit covers the cell structure and function; biochemistry, energy and membrane transport; cell division; growth, development and health; and bacteria, viruses and protists.
But it is the first biology unit that I was really interested in, as it covers evolution, classification and population ecology. I have to say that I was very impressed with the evolution chapter. It is long, it is clear and explains evolution very well. It explains the scientific method, defines the scientific (as opposed to colloquial) meaning of ‘theory’, tells the story of Charles Darwin, and explains natural selection in a nice, easy-to-grasp way. Nothing wishy-washy about it.
I am just as happy with the classification and ecology sections as well, except that I am not so sure about their continued use of the Six Kingdoms division of Life – is the Three Domains system still that new and controversial, or did the authors think that the old division is easier to teach?
I particularly like the long chapter on evidence for evolution. It is divided into three parts: fossil evidence, biological evidence (i.e., comparative embryology, anatomy, physiology and behavior) and molecular evidence. For the latter, they printed a sequence of a gene, placing the human and mouse versions of the same gene one below the other and highlighting nucleotides that differ. When I looked closely, I realized they chose to use the sequence of Clock gene! I felt right at home. That sequence has been known for only about ten years now. We certainly did not know anything about this back when I was in school.
I’ll have to get in touch with the science teacher to see how closely the curriculum follows the book – I’ll be very happy if it does. At least here in Chapel Hill there should be no fear of any parents complaining about evolution for dogmatic reasons.

Educators, i.e., science teachers, are not too unhappy about the change in taxonomy of planets. Some argue they can use it as a lesson in the way science always changes.

Jennifer Ouellette and her commenters discuss how: Geek grrls: the next generation

Talking about the need to have popular scientists out there, I think the term “rock-star” was an unfortunate choice. Some people in joking, some people in all seriousness, started looking for people with PhD’s who can play musical instruments.
That is, of course, irrelevant. We are not looking for scientists who are also rockstars, but for scientists who are as well known, as universally respected and as seriously taken as the rock stars were back in the 1960s. The idea is to have a scientist or two or three being so well known that anyone and everyone in the country and the world is at least vaguely familiar with their name and who they are. Thus, when they say something, the media reports it and the people repeat it around the water-coolers, in churches, on front porches and online. People who can demystify science and break down the scientific stereotypes, as well as show that scientific careers are fun and profitable and that doing science is not such hard work as it is often believed.
Chad is absolutely correct in noting that popular culture is more fragmented today than at any point in the past (while at the same time being even more global than before), as well as in noting that nobody takes entertainers seriously any more.
So, in this fragmented (and Long Tailed) society, is there anyone who is known by EVERYBODY in the USA, who is respected and listened to almost universally?
I finally remembered: Oprah! She likes a book – everybody reads it! She legitimizes people and ideas by showcasing them on her show.
Can we put a scientist on TV on a talk-show? It could look somewhat like “Don’t Ask Me…” That 1974 – 1978 British show made its resident personalities into real stars! Magnus Pyke even appeared in the TV spot for Thomas Dolby’s She Blinded Me With Science which was a big hit at the time. It certainly made science look like fun, it gave serious answers to serious questions, and made science more accessible. Where’s Magnus now? How about a more Oprah-like female scientist, more motherly, with a compelling life story (rags-to-riches including surmounting-big-obstacles)?

Well, our big Scienceblogs DonorsChoose action is officially over. Our readers have donated a total of $22,554.38. This was matched by SEED Media with additional $10,000. Readers of Pharyngula, Stranger Fruit, Evolgen, Questionable Authority, Cognitive Daily and Terra Sigillata funded their challenges to completion. For each one of those, DonorsChoose adds another 10%, which, in this case, adds up to $1447.30. Thus, the total raised is $34,001.68.
I would also like to particularly thank my readers who donated – there may not be many of them, but those who donated were very generous, pitching in a total of $1,167.45 and completing 11 out of 25 projects. I was too ambitious, but hey, you stepped to the plate and helped 11 teachers bring science to their students. If you are one of those donors, do not forget that there will be prizes and to put yourself in the hat, you need to forward your DonorsChoose confirmation e-mail to sb.donorschoose.bonanza@gmail.com.
Just because the Big Drive is over, does not mean that you cannot donate in the future. It only means we are not going to collectively bother you every day with begging (like NPR pledge drives!), nor there will be prizes. Still, there are many unfinished projects on DonorsChoose. I will keep the little thermometer thingy on the sidebar at least for some time, so if you ever feel generous, you can always put a couple of bucks there:

The fifth part of Kevin’s snake research in rural China is coming up on this blog today at noon. How do you think Kevin became such a scientist at such a young age? And how can we get more Kevins? Answer: science teachers in our schools. That is why we need to help teachers make science alive and exciting for their little charges. Just lookk at what is needed:
How about Dino-Mite!, in which a SC teacher needs just $221 dinosaur books for the school library.
Or Scientists in the Making, for a teacher in a Gifter & Talented Magnet school in rural North Carolina in which 48% of the students are from low income families. They need just $308 to subscribe to Scholastic’s Super Science magazine.
Or Bacteria All Around Us!, in which an 8th grade teacher needs an agar plate kit for growing bacteria. Only $180 are still needed for this project to be fully funded.
Or a 1st grade teacher in a San Jose, CA, school with 74% low-income students? Science Experiements, Reading and Writing, all in One needs just $714 to buy the needed books.
Or look at other projects on my list, or lists of other SB bloggers. Ten dollars is enough, if many of us contribute.