The Scientific Toolbox

Georgia’s lawmakers have proposed a bill that would require the state-wide curriculum to correspond to the national standards. Check out the following articles that were published in the Athens Banner-Herald over the last couple of days:

Concern over evolution prompts curriculum bill (February 10, 2004)

Evolution flap prompts curriculum bill (February 9. 2004 )

Note: Read more about the National Science Education Standards here.

A number of other weblogs (e.g., “So you want to be a science teacher” and “Pharyngula“) have already posted about the fact that putting the word “evolution” back into Georgia’s K-12 science curriculum doesn’t solve the problem with the proposed life sciences curriculum. However, since I feel very strongly about this topic and I wanted to post about this topic on “Citizen Scientist” as well.

For those of you who haven’t already read it, I recommend that you read An Analysis of Georgia’s Proposed Standards for Life Science, written by Reed Cartwright, a doctoral student in Genetics at the University of Georgia. This article highlights how Georgia’s proposed standards for the life sciences differ from those recommended by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

You should also check out the following websites which Reed has linked to off his own website:

I would also like to refer you to a recent post on Jeff Hellman’s blog So you want to be a science teacher about why evolution should be taught in school.

via Alan Boyle’s Cosmic Log:

“Turn science into child’s play: Sally Ride, the first American woman to go into space, has had her share of somber duties as a member of the investigative boards for the Challenger explosion as well as the Columbia tragedy. But she also is involved in happier chores, such as helping with the second annual TOYchallenge.”

“TOYchallenge gives students in grades five through eight the opportunity to exercise their skills in science, engineering and design by coming up with new ideas for games and toys. Ride created the contest, along with Hasbro Inc. and Domenico Grasso, director of Smith College’s Picker Engineering Program. The idea is to inspire young people — and particularly girls — to pursue careers in science and engineering.”

“The registration deadline for this year’s competition is Feb. 16. Design teams, consisting of kids in grades five through eight plus an adult coach, can work on a project in one of seven categories, leading up to regional and national showcases. But don’t dally: The written project proposal has to be submitted by March 1. The top prizes include a trip to space camp and personalized action figures. “

Check out the guidelines and the contest timeline on the TOYchallenge website.

AP news is reporting that Georgia’s superintendent of schools, Cathy Cox, is recommending that the word “evolution” be put back into the curriculum (see CNN.com for details).

All I can say is: “HOORAY!”

Check out these applets that were created to help with the visualization of various concepts in math and physics (written by Paul Falstad, a software developer). Although not an applet, I especially like the pictures he took of objects around the house with a thermal camera.

[Note: My husband, who happens to be a physicist, found the link to this site on geekpress.com. ]

I found the link to this activity at Rhosgobel: Radagast’s home. At World66, you can create maps of the US states or world countries that you have visited.

Here are the states that I have visited (in red):


create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

I have never posted one of these quizzes on my site before, but I thought this particular one (found via Dave Does the Blog) might be fun since a lot of people associate the word “scientist” with “geek.” Obvious, that association doesn’t always hold true. I am 100% scientist, but only 8% geek (*grin*). Have fun with it…

You are 8% geek

OK, so maybe you ain’t a geek. You do, at least, show a bit of interest in the world around you. Either that, or you have enough of a sense of humor to pick some of the sillier answers on the test. Regardless, you’re probably a pretty nifty, well-rounded person who gets along fine with people and can chat with just about anyone without fear of looking stupid or foolish or overly concerned with minutiae. God, I hate you.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

I found the PathFinder Science web site while surfing the web. Their tagline is “creating student scientists, not just science students.” What a great philosophy!! PathFinder Science is a national and international collaboration of teachers and students from over 1,000 registered classrooms in 21 differnt countries. The classrooms share data and work together in order to answer questions about our world. Collaborative projects include:

I have been meaning to post about this ever since I read about it on Ms. Frizzle’s web site last week…

Donors Choose is an organization which is set up to help fund grant proposals written by NYC public school teachers. The teachers write up short proposals to be posted on the web site. Prospective donors (people like you and I) can go to the web site and browse the projects…and then decide to fully or partially fund one of the grants. You can browse proposals by discipline, grade level or by amount. The site also allows you the list of proposals by keyword.

What a great idea!!

I had been meaning to post some links related to the recent Mars Exploration Rover Mission, but Jeff Hellman of “So you want to be a science teacher” has beaten me to it. Check out his blog for links to Web sites with information about the Mars mission.

(Martian horizon captured by the Panoramic Camera on the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell)