Two Noble Gases

I just attended an ExplOratorium workshop called "Call & Response".
We played & sang & created & had a good time.
Here are two of the educational videos that resulted:
1. Noble Gas Chant
2. Noble Gas Song
Tataaa!

Papio anubis: baboon!

Come see my baboon page on wetpaint.com

The Spirit of Anna Anderson

This past week my class learned of the story of Anastasia -- the princess childhood of the Tsar's daughter, the Russian Revolution, the massacre of the royal family, and the mystery of what happened to Anastasia. They learned of Anna Anderson, who claimed to be Anastasia. Through her long life, she kept repeating her claim. Finally after her death, DNA testing revealed that she was a fraud.

But I am not writing about Anna Anderson; rather, I am writing about fraud. Yesterday, I wrote a "referral" for a blatant case of plagiarism -- one of my students had copied someone else's work and passed it off as h own.
[Note: I'm using h as a generic pronoun for him/her and his/hers and he/she.]
I met with the student and advised h to talk with h parents, so that they don't hear it first from the administrators.

The student was contrite and assured me that h would never do it again. I expressed my sorrow at the situation.
I told h that h grade for the assignment has be changed to a zero. H offered to redo the assignment; I said that the book on this assignment has closed, and the zero is permanent. To me and, I hope, to h, it serves as a reminder of what has happened.

The Anna Anderson film ended with Anna saying over and over "I lived this dirt.", claiming again and again that she had really lived the life she claimed. How sad. The DNA evidence revealed her to be lying: her whole life was spent being a liar, an imposter, a fraud.

Now those words seem more powerful, having witnessed the example of this young intelligent student, full of potential and possibility, paraded in front of me as, yes, a fraud... This plagiarism has marked this small part of h life as fraudulent. I deeply hope that h lives up to h words and does follow another more honorable path.

Why Sex Chromosomes Evolve Rapidly

Scientists are studying why sex chromosomes evolve rapidly.
Apparently the genes for sexual development (as a male or female) are quite conserved, but the sexual determination genes evolve rapidly. This seems to be because certain traits on autosomes can be more advantageous in one of the sexes, and so it would be beneficial to make that autosome a new sex chromosome.
Interesting!
XY XX

How do students learn? How do students store memories? How do their neurons learn?

Well, almost a quarter of the year is up, and I am not satisfied with how the classes are going. Oh, some students are learning quite well, but some are not. And I have a tendency to focus on the negative. When I was a child, I enjoyed playing those "Find-What's-Wrong-With-This-Picture" games.

Well, there's definitely something wrong with this picture. My beloved wife reassures me that I am doing an excellent job, and perhaps I am. But I am not satisfied, and it doesn't "feel" like I am being effective or particularly successful. And, by and large, the process of teaching has not been particularly fun.

That said, I must say that I like my students; I can't think of a single one I don't like. Oh, certainly some of them are quite trying, but they aren't being malicious. They're just being "teenagers" -- wild young adolescent primates that were meant to be swinging in trees and wrestling and travelling around in packs... good kids!

Anyway, I'm inspired to try some different organization in my classroom, and see if my classes can't improve upon their performance and education so far. Let's see... Hmmm... A schedule is good... And we could use some computers, some magazines, some planters and dirt, some molecular modeling kits, ...

I Powerpoint and Whales Die.

I've been working on next week's first Powerpoint: B6.1 Chromosomes.
It's 4 in the morning, and I've been working for two hours.
Who cares? Well, it is important work, and there are 160 students
who are directly impacted by my work.
I saw an article on Whales Dying on the coast of California. More than usual.
I love reading the newspaper.

Discovering a flowery voice

It's easy to put in links and photos:

and video too!


Photo Credit (URL)