Name: James
Bio: James is a science tech geek who appreciates the need for finding new methods to teach students science. Having worked in Kuwait and China for seven years he repatriated back to Canada in 2007. He has seen a great deal of new technology being used in the same old styles and it bothers him. He feels there is a unique challenge to integrating technology into science classes in a new, meaningful way. He is searching and occasionally creates a lesson or two he thinks is worth sharing. He hopes they are.
Posts by jlinzel:
- Science is not about giving equal balance to competing concepts or theories. It weights the total evidence accordingly and accepts the concept or theory which best supports the evidence. The rogue work will be rigorously investigated as to explain why it contradicts the currently accepted theories. The problem is many people root for the underdog champion. [Hence why we now know the Wakefield paper used falsified data!]
- Science may SEEM dogmatic for the reason above. When a huge amount of evidence supports the theory it seems like the theory never changes. It does not suggest that it cannot or will not change. The evidence needed to change the theory must be significant enough to justify the change(s).
- Explain the yearly trends for temperature and precipitation for the geographical region you have picked.
- State the weather for the region over the next week. Compare to the climactic expectations.
- State and explain the climate changes expected to occur for temperature and precipitation as predicted by the IPCC 4th assessment report or other reliable scientific community.
- Research, and state, the major land usage for the geographical region.
- Predict realistic effects the expected climactic changes could have on the regions environment and hence its economy, food production etc.
- 15 evolutionary Gems: An article from a leader in science publications, Nature magazine. It describes a large amount of evidence of evolution by natureal selection. 15 in fact.
- New Scientist has published an article on the top 10 evolution articles including: 24 myths and misconceptions, Evolution: What missing link!?, evolution of the bacterial flaggelum [irreducible complexity? I don't think so!], and more….check iT!
- Scientific American has an issue called “The evolution of evolution“. I have begun reading this one myself. Almost every school has a subscription to this journal. Time to have your biology students read it, thoroughly!
- Not to be outdone the journal Evolution: Education and Outreach has an entire issue dedicated to the evolution of the eye. The eye is another structure used by evolution denialists [we have climate change denialists so why not evolution denialists] as an example of irreducible complexity. Is it? No! This is a free journal so please get your students reading it.
Two For You
April 2nd, 2009There are two new websites I have been examining a little. Always more to do, always the same amount of time per day.
1. Academic Earth is a site dedicated to making the video lectures, such as the MIT opencourse videos, easily accessible. Educational institutions involved include Yale, MIT, Stanford, Berkley and Princeton. There are lectures on a wide range of subjects. It offers students an opportunity to watch what a university lecture is like. Some are better than others. I particularly love Proff. Lewin from MIT. A true icon of science.
2. Understanding Science is a great extension from Berkley. It is built upon the framework established from their fantastic Understanding Evolution website. It has been noted by others that Understanding Science makes the scientific process – often caleld the scientific METHOD, more realistic. Too often the scientific method is made to be a linear, sequential set of steps. Research is much more messy than the high school type method suggests. It i important for students to appreciate the messiness. That inspiration, curiosity, serendipity collude to increase the difficulty to do science. It also explains why brilliant people may never be awarded the noble prize in their field. They may simply be studying the wrong course of study or miss the pivotal discovery.
Be curious and enjoy.
A Step in the Right Direction!
February 24th, 2009Here is a change I been thinking about for awhile. A large school district is removing traditional grades to allow focus on ability, not grades. You can read the article for the details but I would like to state that I think this is an important step to change our school systems. They also discuss how students have input into lesson planning and goal development. It places focus on learning. Now we need to incorporate students in the design of the curriculum. It will be interesting to watch this develop.
More on Why Science Matters
February 16th, 2009I would think that you have read about this already. But maybe you haven’t so I cannot help but discuss it here.
And so science education meets the courts, meets mass media, meets anti-vaccination inaccuracies. I would use more harsh language to describe people who advocate for fewer or no vaccinations but this is an educational zone. If you vaccinate your children, thank you! You are not simply protecting your children but mine as well. If you are not vaccinating your children I cannot help but ask WHY!? From whom do you seek your science council? Jenny McCarthy? I hope not!
The last few weeks have shown that one of the popular science articles used by the anti-vaccine crowd, Wakefield et al. (1998), contained falsified data. I won’t re-hash the story. It is discussed by one of my favourite bloggers, Revere over at Effect Measure. I implore you to visit.
I would like to focus on how this is a classic example of why science education matters. Across the subject areas we (should) consistently teach about using a variety of valid sources for information. Yet the variety and percentages, I argue, should be proportional to the amount of evidence available. Any good critical thinker or well educated science student should have been aware of, and read, the Wakefield paper back in 1998. Good science acts by looking at the evidence and moving the science forward. Originally the paper was criticized about its sample size – very small – and the implications of the study. When science attempted to re-create the findings on a larger scale, the same conclusions could not be reproduced and have not over the ten+ years since. Yet emotion and psychological factors I do not understand sustained the anti-vaccince movement. I cannot help but think money is involved as well. It is because science tends to be thorough that it was recently shown that the Wakefield paper was a fraud. The data was massaged to fit the hypothesis.
So two points I really need to stress:
The above two points [and more] need to be highlighted in our science curriculum. Its what we call the ‘nature of science’. Almost every person has some degree of science education. We all learn a tremendous amount of facts but I truly feel [only supported by anecdotal evidence] most people do not appreciate the PROCESS of science.
The mass media perpetuate the misunderstanding. Reporters are taught to provide both sides of the story equal time and footing. The evolution/creation debate is an excellent example. Science has no evidence for design and creation by or from a supernatural being. There may be one, but it is not part of science to investigate. The evidence wholeheartedly and overwhelmingly supports modern evolutionary theory. Because of the vast amount of evidence, evolution SEEMS dogmatic and unchanging. Science class should not be providing any time for creationism as a theory. It does not fit the criteria of having supporting evidence. Evolution does.
Similarly with vaccinations. The evidence in support of vaccines as an effective measure against disease is deep and wide. The evidence linking vaccines to autism is fraudulent.
We all benefit from a well vaccinated population. Termed herd immunity, the immune protect those lacking immunity. If those lacking immunity becomes a large enough portion of the population the disease can take hold and evolve in manner which decreases or eliminated the immunity of those who were vaccinated. The whole population is then at risk.
I don’t have the data easily available but I hope to follow this story with one showing how the anti-vaccine movement, via the media and misunderstanding of science is encouraging parents to not vaccinate. As a result, rates of measles, mumps and rubella are on the rise. It puts us all at risk.
Do you, and my children a favour, please vaccinate. There is no good reason not to.
15 Evolutionary Gems
February 13th, 2009The journal Nature is regularly regarded as the pinnacle of scientific publication. Being published in Nature is like winning the Superbowl or World Series. You made the big time!
I recently mentioned that 2009 is the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birthday which I celebrated yesterday in most of my classes by providing a brief synopsis of evolutionary theory and Darwin’s original contributions: descent with modification and natural selection. At every level, from grade nine to grade twelve, I am often surprised at how misinterpreted and misunderstood evolutionary thought, and science in general, are. And I think I know why.
At least in Ontario, Canada, the curriculum refuses to use evolutionary theory as the grand unified theory of biology. The connections to, the implications of, and the unification of most other branches of biology cannot be adequately performed without this central theory. Biology is regularly taught as a group of distant ‘units’ with some connection to each other. Often the sections are broekn apart as chemistry of life, organism anatomy and physiology and ecology. As an example, molecular genetics, gene structure, and mutation contrasting with [I'm just picking ONE example] R and K growth curves, habitat and biotic/abiotic factors. They can be so easily be relegated to distant unconnected sections of the year long course. Yet, so easily connected by the umbrella of evolutionary thought. They should be connected.
We don’ teach chemistry by ignoring atomic theory. Atomic theory is the glue that explains so much of matter and its changes. Atomic theory is often begun being taught in middle school. It forms the basis of explanation of macroscopic properties, bonding, reactivity, periodicity, and more. Why do we ignore evolutionary thought until the senior grades? I cannot help but feel it is the misunderstanding of the process of science and the use of evidence to substantiate claims. Every curriculum I have been expected to teach places too much focus on information retention and not enough on information generation and analysis. People, all of us, simply have difficulty gathering and using information properly. We all too readily ignore connections between the data we acquire.
A colleague of mine entered my chemistry class at the moment I was discussing evolutionary theory and made a comment about how he will be the antagonist of the debate and I can be the protaganist. I immediately stated – there is no debate! Not within science class. He immediately told my students they were being taught dogma and need to think critically. I think my colleage needs to go back to science class. First of all the scientific process is the opposite of dogma. Dogma is defined as a religious belief which does not undergo alteration. Science is not based on belief. Science bases explanations of the natural universe based on evidence acquired through a reduction process. Science, by its very structure, incorporates new evidence to allow theories to become more accurate descriptions of the natural universe. It is the opposite of dogma because it is meant to change with new data. Please, dear reader, you need to undertand this.
Why does science SEEM dogmatic? It is a result of the mountain of evidence some theories have supporting them. Atomic theory/quantum theory is probably the most scientifically supported and accurate model in science. It is incredibly powerful at prediction. So to is modern evolutionary theory. The vast amount of evidence supporting these theories prevents them from being quickly or radically being altered. Yet it could happen if the evidence is provided. They simply have a great deal of evidential inertia. They SEEM dogmatic as a result.
I’ll be surprised if you are still reading so I’ll drop in a quick link to Nature’s 15 Evolutionary Gems. A good read and resource.
http://www.nature.com/nature/newspdf/evolutiongems.pdf
New, Recently Discovered Transitional Fossil
February 6th, 2009In the world of science evidence is of primary importance. When Einstein first proposed the concept of gravity bending space and the effect it should have on light itself, it took experimentation and the acquisition of evidence to convince a number of physicists of his day. And rightly so. Evidence is key.
The same critical thinking skills are required in the field of evolution. Fossil evidence is difficult to find simply due to the fact that we expect to find petrified remains of biological tissue embedded in the lithosphere. Yes the lithosphere seems stable enough throughout a human lifespan but archeologists search for fossils that are hundreds of millions of years old. The lithosphere is not as stable over this period of time.
Yet we do find some amazing fossils that support current evolutionary thought. Although many a creationist will claim there are no transitional fossils [a lie perpetuated via lack of investigation] science has unearthed a great number of these transitional fossils. An easy to find list exists at wikipedia.
Just recently a new discovery has been unearthed in Pakistan. The fossil contains the remains of two organisms, one reportedly male the other a pregnant female, showing the transition from land based mammal to water based mammal. They have short limbs showing these organisms spent time on land but also in aquatic environments. They are an ancestor of the modern whale.
The entire scientific report, with diagrams and photographs are available through PLOSone. PLOSone is an open source, free scientific journal that has greatly increased its impact factor in the sciences over the last year.
If you are a biology teacher this is a great chance to show your students a ‘real’ report of a significant find.
The Ubuntu Pocket Guide
January 28th, 2009You don’t know me very well but I like linux. Here is a new friend of mine. You can download ubuntu and most of its variations for free.
Here is a new pocket guide for you to help you along the way:
http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/
Enjoy!
Science – Do it Right
January 16th, 2009A good video summarizing some science principles.
Climate Related Thoughts
January 10th, 2009A while ago I designed an assignment for a lower high school science course based upon climate and weather. I thought it was a good assignment and it connects to a few resources I have recently discovered Climate Change] or some other reliable governmental organization.
The original assignment can be seen in this blog post here.
It has five parts:
The assignment does require the student to understand what climate means. If they know, then finding graphs of precipitation and temperature is quite easy. Most major cities can be found at the weather network site or better yet [my opinion] the wunderground. Travel websites also have these.
The second set of data is also easy to find. Once again the obvious choice are weather websites, but local media outlets, online and traditional, will have this information.
The most difficult part of the assignment, in my opinion, challenges the student to find reliable, scientifically supported data about the regions expected climate changes. However, some excellent resources have become recently available.
The Fourth Assessment of the IPCC – Synthesis Report.
As well as the School of Geography and the Environment containing the UNDP Climate Change Country Profiles. An example of these country profiles can be found here.
Why discuss this topic now?
I have stumbled upon a number of articles that made me think of the assignment. The first was a report on the Oil Sands development occurring in Western Canada – Alberta to be exact. The article has been published by the UN and discusses the total destruction of the environment from Oil extraction. You can find the report here. I’ll actually embed: [if it works] I don’t want you to be able to ignore the article. Maude Barlow, Canadian and recent appointment to the UN on water issues described the Oil Sands as ‘Mordor’. It is embedded below:
This article, along with a news article published by the Financial Post titled “Oil Sands players to lobby Obama” made a strong connection in my mind and made me think of that old assignment.
There was another article published as original research but I won’t discuss it here. It was generally higher a post-secondary/graduate level article assessing the degree to which observed climate changes in the Arctic and Antarctic were natural or anthropomorphic.
Hope these might be useful.
Cheers – and ride your bike to work!
Happy 150/200 Darwin!
January 4th, 2009If you hadn’t heard, it is 200 years since Darwins birth and 150 years since the publication of one of science’s most important tomes. You know the one, The Origin of Species?
In honour of these anniversaries there are a number of excellent teaching resources that have become recently available for evoutionary studies. In no particular order:
Evolution is the central unifying theory of biology. Not teaching evolution would be like not teaching atomic theory in chemistry class or ignoring Newton’s Laws in physics. It just cannot be done properly.
Cheers and Happy Holidays. Peace on Earth and treat others as you would be like to be treated.
