Many of you may remember a time when music-stealing was rampant on the internet. Apple changed this situation by establishing a new kind of marketplace.
Now people pay for music and download it from iTunes.
What if there were a third party group, with an iTunes-like model, where scientific publishers would make papers available for purchase? Could this kind of model work? ... Read more
The Backstory: As it stands today,when one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides the funding for a scientific research project, and those results are published, they must be made freely available to public, within a set period of time. The reasoning behind this requirement is that taxpayers funded everything about the research except for the final publication, and so they have already paid for access.
The Research Works Act (#RWA), HR 3699, is a bill in the House of Representatives that would roll back this requirement ... Read more
This morning, I learned that congress wants to reverse the advances made by NIH and go back to restricting access to scientific publications. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (New York) and Congressman Darrell Issa (California) are co-sponsoring a bill to restore the limits on public access to NIH-funded research.
About mid-morning, my 16yr old daughter called me from school and asked me to help her get an interview transcript that was on her computer.
Four years ago, when my older daughter was in high school, I would have printed that document and driven to the school to deliver it.
Not today.
Today, I found the document on YD's computer, opened a browser, logged in to Google Docs, uploaded her file to my Google Docs account, and set the sharing settings so that YD could log in from school and get the document, which she did.
No one had to drive to the high school. No child had to stand outside ... Read more
Funding raising drives come and go but the need to educate the coming generations in science and math never goes away.
With your help, teachers can help their students.
DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that connects individuals, like you, to classrooms in need. The average public school teacher spends $500 - $700 on classroom supplies out of his/her own pocket, and students still go without critical supplies they need to learn. At DonorsChoose, teachers post requests for classroom equipment and supplies, like microscopes, DNA kits, even field trips to the zoo, and you can ... Read more
When I was a post-doc, I spent a few months seriously thinking about changing careers and teaching high school. I might have followed through on that plan, too, but I didn't know how to pay for it.
Today, if you have a background in science, technology, math, or engineering, you can retrain to become a teacher and the National Science Foundation will help. The Robert Noyce scholarship program has funds to help ease that transition to the classroom.
From the NSF web site:
The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program seeks to encourage talented science, technology, ... Read more
If you're in Seattle, Dr. Bruce Alberts will be talking tomorrow night (Jan 5th) at the Seattle Aquarium on science education and the role that scientists play.
There are also some really interesting talks at a day-long workshop, Wednesday (Jan 6th) at the UW South Campus Center.
The details and registration info are below:
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Tuesday:
COSEE Ocean Learning Communities & Washington SeaGrant Present
Redefining Science Education and the
Roles that Scientists Play in Society
Dr. ... Read more
I don't usually publish press releases, but I'm making an exception for this one, since your's truly is one of the Co-PI's. If you're a teacher within commuting distance of Seattle, the schedule and sign up information is here.
NSF AWARDS $1.3 MILLION TO NWABR FOR BIOINFORMATICS EDUCATION
Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) brings the understanding of how biology and information technology interact to teachers and their students
Seattle, WA - ... Read more
One of the newfangled ideas that's popped up in education in the past few years has been notion that more interactive methods of teaching will lead to better results.
Since I'm an adjunct faculty member at a couple of community colleges, I'm able to delete most of my e-mail with barely a glance.
But this one made my jaw drop!
Dear Educators:
Alliance Library System and LearningTimes are pleased to announce an
exciting conference featuring science and virtual worlds. On January
30th we are "Stepping Into Science" and taking the day to explore the possibilities of using virtual worlds to learn about and teach science.
The conference will be taking place entirely in Second Life and will
feature a keynote ... Read more
