As a science teacher, I know that INSPIRATION is a critical ingredient when it comes to the success of most students. I also know that one of the greatest signs of who will be a successful student (in any field) is how much they read when they are young.
If I have a student who is an avid reader, I know he or she will most likely accomplish a great deal more than others who have minimal reading interest. The benefit of reading is obvious to me in two ways - first, readers become more skilled at finding and synthesizing data than non readers over time. Second, readers wind up having a much broader horizon of interests because they have simply encountered a wider range of topics through reading than their non reading peers. Common Sense Media recently released "4 Alarming Findings About Kids' and Teens' Reading" which details where today's youth are in regards to reading - and it's not an encouraging story, but worth seeing and acting upon!
Another great take on the significance of reading among the young is Frank Bruni's op/ed in the New York Times, "Read Kids,Read"
Based on the above simple take on things, I am inviting YOU to help me begin to craft a collection of meaningful science related books that had an influence on you as a youth. My long term goal is to create a curated list of "science themed" books that my middle school students can benefit from when they are assigned outside reading books in my class. As part of the curating process I like the idea that they could see comments from "real people" about why a book was interesting / inspiring.
SO - please take a few minutes and think about what "sciencey" books made an impression for you and which you think could help inspire science students of this next generation!
I really appreciate your willingness to share you thoughts in the comments below as well as hopefully passing this posting on to other friends/scientists/teachers who might themselves add their ideas.
Thanks for taking a few minutes to help make a difference!
This episode of my Microsafari series features one of the most distinctive single celled protists - Stentor! Watch this video and learn why I call it the "MicroTrumpeter". I hope you enjoy this foray into the micro world and feel free to share this with all the young (or old!) science lovers in your life! The entire series can be found on my YouTube Channel.
With apologies to Samuel L. Jackson's film "Snakes on A Plane," I could not help but title this Microsafari episode "Snakes on a Slide" because that is what most of my students think of when they see the long snakelike ciliate protozoan named Spirostomum. As you'll see in the video they hold a world record and are important in many aquatic ecosystems! I am creating these Microsafari explorations to open up a new world of science exploration to young people --- please feel free to share these with the young scientists in your life as well as with any science teachers you know! It's greatly appreciated! If you want to find more Microsafari stuff- I'm using the hashtag #MICROSAFARI to allow folks to follow & share these more easily!
This installment in my MicroSafari series focuses on the famous single celled ciliate Paramecium. Most students never get to see a good up close view of what actually is happening inside a paramecium because they tend to move very quickly and appear as “herky jerky” blurs to most folks unless you place them in a solution of “ProtoSlo” (methyl cellulose – I call it jello for microorganisms). This keeps them from swimming so fast and lets us see them in one spot where a higher power lens can focus on their internal activities such a food vacuole formation (eating) and contractile vacuole filling and contraction (drinking & peeing). When you get close enough to these creatures to see these things, you also get to appreciate their cilia and how quickly they beat. So – take a couple minutes and get up close with this most famous citizen of the microworld! Congratulation to my friends at EXO LABS ( www.exolabs.com) who created the FOCUS Microscope Camera I use for these videos - the FOCUS camera was recently featured in Apple's 30th anniversary video for the Mac - at 38 seconds into the video you can see students using the FOCUS camera with an iPad to view what's under their microscope!
Today's post is the second episode of my introductory presentations on primates. This longer video covers some details about prosimians, New world monkeys, and Old world monkeys. The video concludes with a look at my assessment of some of Hollywood's most famous primates....
Just click on the video to view it. I recommend clicking the "full screen" icon in the lower right to make the video larger. I look forward to your feedback!
This post represents the beginning of an expansion of the scope of the Blue Lion Blog to include my work with biology education as well as my nature photography. Over the more than 20 years of teaching, I have had lots of parents express a desire to be able to visit my classes to learn some of the topics their children come home and talk about over the dinner table. In order to make this something of a reality, I have decided to take certain concepts and create short five to ten minute videos that can serve as introductions to topics that are not always covered in traditional biology classes. Over time, I hope to develop a wide range of these videos that can serve as a mini course for people who wish they knew more about science, but never has a positive science experience in school.
Initially, the choice of topics will relate to what I am teaching in class as these productions will serve my middle and high school students as well as the readers of the Blue Lion Blog. As such, the first "installment" deal with and introduction to primates as that is the topic of the coming week for my students as I prepare them to better understand human evolution.
Just click on the video to view it. I recommend clicking the "full screen" icon in the lower right to make the video larger. I look forward to your feedback!
