Favorite Images of 2017

As we all prepare to say goodbye to 2017, I want take time to share my favorite images of 2017. Looking back, this year has been one of much excitement as I have had chances to expand my work in what I am calling "Sciencetelling" to new audiences thanks to presenting at several science education conferences as well as joining up with the great folks at National Geographic Education where I am contributing to their blog on a regular basis.  You can find my updated author page HERE! 

These exciting additions to my life resulted in fewer opportunities to get out and shoot images this year, but I still had a great time on vacation this summer in Utah and Colorado where I fell in love with the Red Rock Country of the intermountain west! In addition to shooting nature as I have done for years, I have begun to explore shooting local theatre productions in North Texas where I live. In particular, Allen's Community Theatre, where my wonderful wife, Robyn both acts and directs. You can expect to see tidbits of both of these in my year end retrospective as well as some images I took on a final walkthrough of the science building I worked in for the past 27 years - it's was demolished in June as we replace it with a new, state of the art science center. 

Thanks for visiting and I am looking forward to utilising this space for a wider range of sciencetelling and photography in the coming year!  HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

Western Landscapes (click to view high res versions) 

Black Canyon National Park

View from top of Grand Mesa

Lone Pine at Colorado National Monument

Balanced Rock at Colorado National Monument

"Weathering Sentinel" at Colorado National Monument 

The Coke Ovens - Colorado National Monument

"Verticality" at Colorado National Monument

The Long & Winding Road"  - Canyonlands NP

Animals (click to view high res versions) 

Utahraptor stalks a small child - Moab Giants -, Utah

T. Rex at Moab Giants - Utah

 

Yellow Bellied Marmot - Colorado

"Sharptooth" at Colorado Gators Reptile Park

Camouflaged Gator at Colorado Gators Reptile Park

"Cruisin'" at Colorado Gators Reptile Park

            The Old Science Building (click to view high res versions)

Warning sign in the Science Lecture Hall

"Break it Early...."

Faucet & Nozzle

"Impossible is Nothing"

Theatre (click to view high res versions)

Victor Von Frankenstein - from Young Frankenstei  

Reanimating the Monster - Young Frankenstein

"Ride in Ze Hay" - Young Frankenstein

The Monster - Young Frankenstein

King Henry and Alais - Lion in Winter

Queen Eleanor & King Henry - Lion in Winter

Off to South Africa!

Greetings Blue Lion friends! This post is to give you a preview of what’s going to be happening on the Blue Lion Blog over the coming weeks. I am in the process of getting ready to depart on a 3 week trip to South Africa that I am looking forward to sharing with all of you. 

The first part of my trip will occur once I land in South Africa from July 6th – 12th. I’ll be spending that time at the unique NThambo Tree Camp – a really interesting small safari camp located in the Klaserie Nature Preserve just west of Kruger National Park. This camp attracted me because of its small size and very small eco footprint as the camp only houses a maximum of 10 guests in 5 rooms (or “chalets” as they are called). Each of these chalets is basically a high quality tent that sits atop a 20 foot tall platform. I’m excited at the possibility of having any of the wildlife in the area potentially sleeping under my floor on any given night!  Check out this video that was shot in May of a Cheetah kill that was next to the chalet I’ll be staying in! 

Promo video for Nthambo Tree Camp

While at NThambo I’ll do my best to share images and video, but WiFi connection in the South African bush are pretty spotty, even on a good day. 

On July 12th I’ll fly back to Johannesburg and have a great opportunity to reconnect with Dr. Lee Berger and his team at Wits University. During my time here, I will be working to help develop curricular materials surrounding the Rising Star Expedition’s discoveries from 2013. The over 1700 fossils that were recovered during a challenging month long excavation in a cave located within the Cradle of Humankind near Johannesburg.  During the expedition in November 2013 Dr. Berger's team live tweeted the daily events and I then created a "Twitter Play by Play" which is here on the blog - Rising Star Expedition Blog Post - 11/2013 . You'll hopefully hear about results of Rising Star in the news once the findings are officially published in scientific journals.

During my time there I will be studying fossils from Rising Star as well as the nearby site of Malapa where Australopithecus sediba was discovered in 2009. I will also be interviewing researchers involved with both projects so that my future students, fellow teachers, and the general public can gain a better appreciation of the science and the scientific process behind such discoveries. 

Skull of "Karabo" a young male Australopithecus sediba individual.

Please feel free to revisit the Blue Lion Blog to stay updated on my my photographic & scientific adventures this coming month. Also feel free to post comments and questions below. I’ll do my best to reply! 

HELP CREATE & NURTURE A YOUNG SCIENTIFIC MIND!

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! 

John

MicroSafari – Stentor the MicroTrumpeter

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.

MicroSafari – Up Close With Paramecium

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! 

Way to go Exo!

WELCOME TO THE MICROWORLD!

I am pleased to begin sharing another way I really enjoy seeing our natural world. These days, many folks feel there is little left to explore. They feel there are none of the great romantic “blank areas on the map” that so enticed earlier generations of explorers. While there are certainly fewer unexplored spaces, there is a way that everyday folks can explore the natural world without traveling to the ends of the earth. I have long been thrilled by the adventures and excitement that Mother Nature shares in the microscopic world. Over the years, I've enjoy exploring many “MicroWorlds” with my students as they appreciate the “WOW Factor” of the seemingly invisible world all around us. While most Blue Lion Blog readers know that I treasure my African safari experiences, I have the ability to go on a different type of safari most every day! I deem my safaris under the microscope “MicroSafaris” as we get to explore all sorts of microscopic creatures who can appear with no predetermined script. For 21^st century students who have the digital world at their fingertips, seeing these “unknown” critters changes how they look at their worlds and opens up a new found sense of creativity and possibility.

Over the past few months I have gotten to know the dedicated folks over at EXOLABS (www.exolabs.com), a Seattle based startup. They have created a wonderful iPad based camera that is designed to work with any microscope. After having worked with other less successful microscope cameras/software, their FOCUS microscope camera is the tool I have long sought to help share my passion for microworlds with you. Over the coming months I will be creating a series of MicroSafari videos to introduce you to various denizens of the microworld. Following that, we’ll begin to expand our exploration as we head out to see differing microscopic ecosystems and how their micro citizens go about their “little lives”

I chose this first video because it’s the microscopic creature most folks are familiar with – AMOEBA!  If you’ve ever looked through a microscope in school then you probably got to see these blob like protists. Here I have been able to capture them in both real time and time-lapse video to give you a uniquely exciting view.  Enjoy the view and please feel encouraged to share this video with a young person in your life! 

A Primate Primer - Part 1

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!