“Why would an Eskimo need an air conditioner?” “SUMMAH!”

June 4, 2008

For those of you lucky enough to never see a Rex commercial, the title of this post will make no sense. Heh.

Anyhoo, today was my second day of Summer Vacation. Yay! It’s nice not having to work. Of course, today I was at the school, but that was mostly for a Design Team meeting about the new school (and the architects provided lunch for us – woohoo). Yesterday, however, I spent a nice day hanging out with Linus. He basically sat down beside me or on me no matter where I was in the house. I even got my first assignment done for my summer course.

Now that summer is here and I can breath again, I’ve been working on B-WISER preparations. I found 1GB USB drives for $5.99 a piece and bought the store out (45 bought – and I’ll need to get a few more because we’re up to 49 girls now as of my last correspondence with the camp coordinator). The drives arrived today and they’re just what we need for the computer class. And they’re very cute. (Oh, and I’d tell you where I bought the USB drives from, but I’ll wait until I get the others ordered – don’t want you folks buying out my second choice, also $5.99 a piece!)

One thing that I worked on yesterday and today was an image gallery for my website. OK, so it uses up my last database on my webhost, but it’ll be very helpful for getting B-WISER photos out to the girls. (I used to just bung ’em into folders on my website – this way the girls can actually SEE what’s there.) I’m using Coppermine Photo Gallery (one of the photo galleries that Fantastico can automatically install) and I like it. Especially now that I have it working. Heh.

I already had 2005, 2006 and 2007 photos from B-WISER on a folder on my webhost, so I wanted to use the Batch Add Files option that the program provides. Only every time I tried to use it, I’d get a couple of different warnings. One was a permissions warning, the other a warning from either ImageMagick or GD version 2.x (the programs used by Coppermine to make thumbnails etc). I posted a question about stuff to the InMotionHosting support forum, and one of the techs asked me to PM her with more details. However, before she got back to me, I slogged through things today and found out the problem. Coppermine *said* that either permission levels 777 or 755 would suffice (which all of the folders were). But the program worked only when I set all of the folders to the more permissive 777 setting.

So now I’m fixing and tweaking and making the place look more inviting. I don’t, for the moment, want to have user accounts for the site, so I’ve disabled that, I think. I’m playing with the morpheusXgreen theme, though if I later find it’s not standards compliant, I may switch to one of the default themes. (One of my summer goals is to update my website and go to XHTML 1.0 transitional and be as standards compliant as I can.) Check out the B-WISER photo gallery thus far.

Glad I got that out of my system!

April 3, 2008

For my Masters program this semester, I had to make a presentation either on Science & Religion or on Science & Policy. I’d been meaning, for some time, to tackle the so-called controversy over evolution but didn’t think I was ready for it. However, last week during our class’s discussions on science & religion, I decided I would do it. So I made a presentation on Impress (StarOffice/OpenOffice.org‘s presentation software) and uploaded it to Slideshare (sort of a YouTube for PowerPoints). And then posted it on my science blog for my classmates and anyone else to read it. Check out the entry with slide show here.

I’ve actually been updating my science blog each Wednesday since early February, which I’m very pleased about. I hope it’s something I can keep up. (I have two more misconceptions I want to cover in the next two weeks, so that’s April covered for the most part.) If you’d like to see the posts as they show up, I have created an LJ feed for the syndication: tls_scienceblog.

One Down, One to Go!

December 2, 2007

I have just turned in my final project for my Informal Science Learning class. Basically, I turned in a document directing the instructor to my science blog. In addition to the framing article and the Viral vs Bacteriological article, I finished up an entry on Centrifugal Force today. I hope it makes sense to a non-physics person! (Or even to a physics person.) It seemed clear in my brain after writing it, but I’m not sure how it is for other non-me people.

My other class, Critical Thinking, is also winding down. We’re in the middle of a debate. I’m in Team B of the debate. And although I was really worried if I’d even be able to come up with arguments when it was my turn to respond, I actually did spot some logic holes with which to exploit! I wrote up my argument this morning and afternoon, but I haven’t posted it yet – just waiting on some team members to respond to my suggested rebuttal before I do so. (Will probably post it in the morning.) I wound up with 7 references for the argument! (Thankfully, 3 were suggested by a teammate. But that means I found 4 on my own.) Once we finish the debate, we’ll have the final exam. I got a 74% on the midterm – I intend to do better on the final!

December 7th is the last day for our fall semester. Then we have until mid January until the next semester begins. I’m looking forward to the intellectual break. For one thing, I want to simply read in my library for pleasure for awhile. And I have my Sooper Seekrit Project which I’m working on for Christmas.

It feels good to be almost done. 🙂

Feed me, Seymour!

December 1, 2007

I decided to create a syndicated LJ feed for my science blog, just in case anyone is interested in friending it. tls_scieceblog is the name of it. (And, horror of horrors, it wasn’t until I just pasted the name in here that I realized I misspelled science! Gah! I’ve put a support request in for it to LJ, but I dunno if they can change feed names or not. *sigh*)

Thanks to everyone who’s voted so far in my Science Misconceptions poll. If you haven’t yet, please check it out and add your thoughts. So far it’s looking like I should write my next blog entry on Centrifugal Force. Should be interesting! 🙂

Poll: Science Misconceptions – your opinion requested!

November 30, 2007

For my Masters class on Informal Science Learning, I have to make an informal science learning “thing” as my final project. I created my science blog for this purpose. Now that I’m working on the final project, I want to make some informal science learning posts to it. And I want to cover science misconceptions. Being physical science-oriented, I’ll probably focus on physics and chemistry questions. (However, my first one will be biological, thanks to a question a co-worker asked me recently.)

Since physics is so counter-intuitive, I’ll probably single it out more than the others. Still, I’m open for suggestions from you folks. I’ve created a poll to see what you think about some of my topic ideas. Vote on ones you’d like to see covered, or things that you think OTHER people really need to see covered. And if you have some ideas on what you wish someone would explain to you or to other people, comment on it and I’ll see what I can do.

Thank you for voting in this poll. And please tell friends to come and vote in it – the more feedback I can get, the more useful I can make my science blog (which I intend to keep going after this quarter is over).

Book Review: Stones & Bones

November 18, 2007

I don’t often write book reviews. I suck at writing reviews. Basically, when I finish something, I can tell you “I like it” or “I didn’t like it,” but I’m not all that good at actual reviewing. Still, for this book, I’m going to try. (The goal is to come up with something to put up at amazon.com in support of this book.)

Stones & Bones by Char Matejovsky and Robaire Ream is a lovely children’s book. Robaire’s beautiful illustrations bring to life Char’s poetic description of the process of evolution. There are big words (and a glossary of pronunciation) for kids to get their mouths around. And of course, dinosaurs – who doesn’t like a book with dinosaurs in it?

When you finish reading the book, you can listen to the CD which is included. The Santa Rosa Children’s Chorus sings “Stones & Bones” as well as “The Song of the Meadowlark.” So you can sing-along while you read the book. (And “The Song of the Meadowlark” is a beautiful and very catchy song. I hope the pair work together on making a book about that song as well. There need to be more children’s books about Earth stewardship.)

It’s refreshing to read a science children’s book that has very good science in it AND is fun to read (and look at). If you have any children around you who want to know about evolution, get them this book. Or donate one to your local library. Or your school library.

OK – so that’s the review. Does it make you want to buy it? Or at least read it? Lemme know and I’ll see if I can improve upon the review before I post it to amazon.

A Sciency Weekend!

October 13, 2007

After last weekend’s Food Fest, I’ve been feeding my brain this weekend.

On Wednesday, I watched the National Geographic Channel for 2 hours. I really should do more of that since I enjoy science documentaries, but usually when I plonk down in front of the set, I watch my DVDs instead. (Yes, some of the DVDs are science documentaries, too.) I was watching the network because we had to write a critical review on either a television program or Internet blog for my Masters class on Informal Science Learning. I decided to do the TV show for a change of pace. (I read Internet stuff daily.)

Thursday evening, the National Museum of the US Air Force (formerly Wright Patterson Air Force Base Museum) was having the first Educator’s Night in years (since the museum began, according to one lady who welcomed us to the event). I signed up for it when I first read about it, especially since I knew we had the following day off and figured I could be out “late” at night that Thursday.

The museum usually closes at 5pm, but they stayed opening that evening and at 5:30 we were allowed to look through the museum, collect a large variety of free educational resources (mostly science, math and social studies), and watch several on-going demonstrations on different components of flight (fluid dynamics, microgravity, radios, density, etc.) I grabbed every freebie that I could (except for a packet on social studies) and watched a microgravity demo. At 6pm, they had a free showing of the IMAX movie Roving Mars. I watched that and sat pretty much dead center in the theater. That was neat!

Supper was available from 6-8pm, so after the 45 minute movie, I headed to the cafe for sandwich fixin’s, chips and cookies. I love a free meal! I watched other educators around me – most were in groups and not all of them were science and math teachers. (I wondered if the English teachers were bored, if any of them came.) I didn’t see any of my coworkers, so I’m guessing I was the only freeloader from Newton. Heh.

After supper, they showed another IMAX movie Deep Sea. This was even more visually stunning than the Mars one. There were some really weird sea creatures there which was cool to see. They had a bit of a preachy moment near the end when they talked about the danger that the reefs are in (boy are they ever!) but it wasn’t too cloying to turn people off of being good stewards of the earth.

Although the museum was open until 9pm, I was mostly ready to go after the second movie. I went around to see other demonstrations – there were some neat ones going on. And I avoided the movie-ride they have there, Morphis. It looked like the type of virtual ride that makes me ill. When I was in the gift shop area, I bought a couple of physics toys (of course). And then it was time to go home.

Another assignment that I have for my Informal Science Learning class is to do a case study of a science museum. Since I had Friday off, I asked dad if he wanted to join me on a trip to Boonshoft Museum of Discovery. (Mom worked, or I’d’ve had her along as well.) Boonshoft isn’t completely a science museum, but it’s not far away and I figured I’d have some science displays I could check out.

The place was loaded with kids. We weren’t the only school that was out that day (basically any school with an OEA associated union was out Friday but went to school Monday) though there were a couple of school buses there. The main section of the museum is a really neat play area. Most of the kids were playing there rather than looking at displays and learning science. Go figure. 🙂

Dad and I had a nice time that day and even learned something. Neither of us were aware that the coyote was not an Ohio native. Farmers in the area have been having coyote troubles for years, but the coyote only arrived in Ohio in the early 1900s. So there ya go.

We book ended our day out with food. Lunch was at Indian’s Pizza (where we both had leftovers – yum!) and we stopped at Kroger’s on the way back for some sushi. There’s a newly built Kroger’s in Englewood which has a wonderfully upscale deli and a sushi bar, so we stopped there. They have wine tasting (25 cents a taste or $1 for a flight of 5 different wines) which father partook of. He liked the one he tasted enough to get a bottle. They also had cheeses to sample and we both found one we liked and bought that too. In the deli, you can sample the various items and so I sampled some curried cous cous, which I liked, and some Baba Ghanoush, which I liked even more and so bought some. We bought our sushi & other items and returned home.

Today I’m working on my science classes and I have finished my paper for the Critical Reflection of a Television Program. I have copied the paper into my science blog, so if any of you are interested, you can check it out. If you’d looked at the blog back when I first posted about it, you’ll notice it looks different now. I found another theme that I like and I think I prefer it to the other one. Alas, it means I no longer have hergrace and judiang on the blog! But I think I’ll probably use that photo for a future post when I write about optical illusions. In addition to changing the theme, I have made it so that people can actually comment to posts. So give it a try, comment away! (I can moderate the comments though, bwa ha ha ha!)

Bloggedy Blog Blog

October 3, 2007

It’s funny when I think about it. I mean, I haven’t been doing a good job at updating this weblog – what makes me think I can keep another one going? Well, actually, it’s an experiment and possibly useful for one of my current university classes.

I have created a Science Blog on my website. For our Informal Science Learning class, we’ll eventually have to make something that’s a way of doing some Informal Science Teaching. One option was a blog. And since my website has a database that isn’t being used and the ability to install WordPress, I thought, “Why not?”

I haven’t made up my mind yet on the theme I’m using, but you can check it out and let me know what you think. The current photo, BTW, is hergrace and judiang at Epcot on New Year’s Eve 2003. I love the shot which captured the writing from the light up toy. (I use the photo in one of my physics classes on optical illusions – and I spin the pictured toy which now says “Physics is Phun!”)

More on Masters

September 9, 2007

My Masters program started on August 29th, a week after school started. I have two courses this semester, Critical Thinking and Informal Science Education. Before classes began, I was looking forward to Critical Thinking more, but now that we’re underway, I think I’m going to like the Informal Science Education better.

It turns out that the Critical Thinking class is basically a Logic class for Science folk. Apart from some very simple program logic which I learned for physics instrumentation, I’ve never studied logic. So I’m reading a lot of terms that I’ve never heard of or never knew what they meant. (Enthymeme anyone? Syllogisms?) Even terms I am familiar with may have somewhat different meanings when talking about logic. So I’ve found the best way to work with that class is have a dictionary beside me while I read the presentation slides and the chapter readings. The best part of the class is the class discussion. After the first lesson made no sense to me, I read through the discussion so far and was finally able to start wrapping my brain around stuff. With the second lesson, I had my references (let’s hear it for Wikipedia!) handy and tried to do it all without help from the others. And then I read what others said and found out that I was on the right track. That sounds good to me!

The class on Informal Science Learning is about teaching & learning science in an informal setting. Like watching a science program on TV or visiting a science museum. The course is taught by a lady who works at a science museum in Buffalo, NY. Cool. And my assignments are to watch a science program or read a science blog online (anyone have any favorites?), to visit a science museum (woohoo! Boonshoft here I come!), and to read from science journals or books (something I do on a regular basis actually). And as with the other class, the course discussion board is lively and informative. I think I’m going to like this program!

As I suspected, my biggest weakness in this program is my procrastination. This week in particular I was bad. Although I read the book readings on Wednesday, I didn’t actually finish the week’s work until today. But I spent over four hours in my library with my dictionary (and sometimes Linus) by my side. And I got the week’s work done. I’m hoping to do better this coming week and work on material throughout the week.

I rode a balloon!

June 17, 2007

Today is the first day of B-WISER 2007. I got up at a decent hour and was on the road by 8:15am. I had breakfast at McDonald’s on the way. And was in Wooster within 3 hours. Wherein I had lunch – from McDonald’s… No matter, it was lovely seeing my friends once again.

Around 2 we headed off to the classrooms to get our rooms ready. Dee and I set up the physics room, and then I went off to Taylor with Carolyn and Joyce to check out the computer lab. Alas, the room was locked, but there were computers in it. Woot!

At 4, we introduced ourselves to the girls and at 5:15, headed off to supper. As usual, the food in Lowry was excellent. I had lasagna, salad, an apple & banana, and dessert (brownie & chocolate chip cookie). Tasty tasty! We teachers managed to all sit together (there’s only 9 of us staff this year) and we chatted for quite awhile catching up with our lives. (Two of our group have spent a year retired and are really enjoying themselves.) Around 6:30, Carolyn, Wanda and I headed to Walmart for a few forgotten items. I picked up a Belkin wireless router for our room (only $40) for camp and will have to put it with my other B-WISER items for future camps, if we can have them. As you can see by this post, the router is working just peachy keen.

Once we were back, the girls were in the basement of Douglass (the dorm we’re all staying in) learning about hot air balloons. And then the balloonists went out and began inflating the balloon. They took girls up 3 at a time for a short ride (tethered the whole time) and when the finished the alumni girls, they let teachers go. Well, of COURSE I had to go. So Joyce and I went up for a short hop in the balloon – my first time in a hot air balloon. It’s cool, cuz you don’t realize you’ve left the ground.

I, of course, took photos.