Over on ‘of trees and birds and other things’ Jarrod points out why it’s not a terribly good idea to base your view of a scientific issue on a single story in the popular press… (& hat-tip to David Winter on the atavism, who alerted me to this new evolutionary blog!) For the teachers & students […]
Continue readingMonth: November 2011
what about archaeopteryx?
As a distraction (or should that be ‘procrastination’?) from what’s currently filling up my diary (ie processing student enrolments), I’ve decided to look at another of those ‘science’ statements from the school documents I linked to in my last post. "What about the archeopteryx?" they ask. Well, what about it? This, from their webpage: The […]
Continue readingwriting about environmental history
Over lunch today I had a really interesting conversation about environmental history and why it’s a Good Thing to know about. Much of the discussion was around the environmental history of Palmerston North, where I lived for about 22 years, first as a student at Massey University & subsequently as a teacher (first in various […]
Continue readingpicking & choosing what to believe in…
In my last post on a ‘creationist biology curriculum’ I asked the question: what, exactly, do they teach? Over on the Sciblogs site (where this blog is syndicated), a commenter answered by pointing me at another school’s curriculum. As I read through it, I could feel the area beneath my collar getting distinctly heated. This […]
Continue readingwhat, exactly, do they teach?
I was spurred to write this by a comment Grant made on my previous post on the various NZ political parties’ stances on science education. In that post I linked to the website of a ‘special character’ school: one with a religious underpinning & which states that they replace ‘evolution’ with ‘creation’ in the school’s science […]
Continue readingElection time: Science Q&A – education
The Science Media Centre has just released its ‘Science Q&A’ – a set of questions put to all main political parties. As a voter I’m interested in all the responses, but today I’ll wear my science educator’s hat & look at the responses to this question: Not only does New Zealand have problems persuading young […]
Continue readingyou could probably sell anything with the right sales pitch
My post about zeolite & the supposedly ‘chemical-free’ nature of various dietary supplements containing the stuff led to some interesting comments, & generated a few ‘I wonder if…’ moments. After all, as Krebiozen said (in the comments thread to that post): With the right sales pitch you could probably persuade some people that eating feline […]
Continue readingvisualising a curriculum
I’m always looking around for ways to improve my teaching, & my students’ learning. (The two go hand in hand. I might think I’m a good teacher, but unless my classroom practices improve my students’ learning experiences & outcomes, then I’m not. Not really.) Part of my search involves quite a bit of reading from […]
Continue readingdeconstructing zeolite
Years ago, when my old dog Bella was still alive, I was the happy recipient of several doggy haiku verses. One of them read: The cat is not all bad./She fills the litter box/with tootsie rolls. I was reminded of this when reading the comments thread on a recent post by Orac. Some commenters were […]
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