Microscopes for Microbes Everyday over 160 students enter my classroom to the world of STEM, within a Title I school. My classroom is a hands-on learning environment where students get to build, test, and reflect on science labs. These microscopes would allow my ... more Everyday over 160 students enter my classroom to the world of STEM, within a Title I school. My students are future scientists and investigators questioning and trying to solve the world around them. Students will be using the high powered microscopes to investigate the microbiological world around them. Students will be using the high powered microscopes to investigate the microbiological world around them. I am ordering multiple microscopes to allow for a 1 microscope to 4 student ratio, allowing for more hands-on time per student to interact with the microscope itself. My students need microscopes with high powered zoom and focus capabilities for investigations.
Albert Einstein Told Marie Curie To Ignore The Haters In November 1911, Marie Skłodowska-Curie was weeks away from being awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. She received her first Nobel in 1903 for Physics, and the new award meant that she was the first person ever to receive two Prizes. She remains the only person to be recognized in two different sciences. Though her extraordinary work as a scientist should have been all anyone cared about, it seemed that many were preoccupied with her personal life. Pierre Curie died in 1906, leaving Marie as a widow. Curie, Langevin, and about 20 other scientists were invited to an elite, invitation-only conference in Brussels in the fall of 1911. Albert Einstein—who had just recently been introduced to Curie at the Brussels conference—was disgusted by the media’s actions, prompting him to write this letter to his new friend: Translation: Haters gonna hate. (Sidenote: “Perrin” refers to Jean Perrin, a family friend of the Curies and Langevins, who defended Curie in the aftermath)
Genetic link to autism found, known as CHD8 mutation -- ScienceDaily In a collaboration involving 13 institutions around the world, researchers have broken new ground in understanding what causes autism. The results are being published in Cell magazine July 3, 2014: "Disruptive CHD8 Mutations Define a Subtype of Autism in Early Development." "We finally got a clear cut case of an autism specific gene," said Raphael Bernier, the lead author, and UW associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the clinical director of the Autism Center at Seattle Children's. Bernier said people with a mutation in the CHD8 gene have a very "strong likelihood" that they will have autism marked by gastrointestinal disorders, a larger head and wide set eyes. In their study of 6,176 children with autism spectrum disorder, researchers found 15 had a CHD8 mutation and all these cases had similar characteristics in appearance and issues with sleep disturbance and gastrointestinal problems.
Scientists Create First Living Organism With 'Artificial' DNA For billions of years, the history of life has been written with just four letters — A, T, C and G, the labels given to the DNA subunits contained in all organisms. That alphabet has just grown longer, researchers announce, with the creation of a living cell that has two 'foreign' DNA building blocks in its genome. Hailed as a breakthrough by other scientists, the work is a step towards the synthesis of cells able to churn out drugs and other useful molecules. “What we have now is a living cell that literally stores increased genetic information,” says Floyd Romesberg, a chemical biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, who led the 15-year effort. Each strand of the DNA's double helix has a backbone of sugar molecules and, attached to it, chemical subunits known as bases. Test-tube letters Scientists first questioned whether life could store information using other chemical groups in the 1960s. Alien control This story originally appeared in Nature News.
PanelPicker This past year, students from around the world came together to collaborate on world issues affecting their communities, taking the concept of global learning and turning it into a reality. In GlobalCOlab (GCL), Students teaching students from around the world, has connected students and educators from different cultures and religions from around the world to cross-cut disciplines, curricula, and traditional subjects to empower participants through student-led and student-created topics. These topics are based around global issues affecting each student’s community. GCL educators will discuss the need for an educational paradigm shift towards a global classroom in a one hour panel format. Additional Supporting Materials Questions Answered Speakers Organizer Brian Jones GlobalCOlab Show me another
Next Generation Science Standards In Kentucky Draw Hostility From Religious Groups Supporters and opponents of the Next Generation Science Standards sparred during hearings in Kentucky last week, as critics took issue with the standards’ teaching of evolution and climate change. The new standards were developed with input from officials in 26 states –- including Kentucky –- and are part of an effort to make science curricula more uniform across the country. While supporters feel the standards will help beat back scientific ignorance, some religious groups take issue because the standards treat evolution as fact and talk about the human role in climate change. The Kentucky Board of Education adopted the standards in June and held hearings to get public feedback on the standards last week before they were presented to the state legislature for official approval. Matt Singleton, a Baptist minister, is one of the opponents who spoke to the board about why the standards should not be adopted, according to The Courier-Journal. Earlier on HuffPost:
House GOP: National Science Foundation grants should ‘secure the national defense’ House Republicans launched an attack on the National Science Foundation this week, following Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn’s successful push last month to strip college political science departments of NSF funding. Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, the chairman of the House Science Committee, has drafted a bill that would restrict the NSF from issuing grants to projects that did not “advance the national health, prosperity or welfare” or “secure the national defense.” The legislation could give climate change deniers and Creationists the power to weigh in on the merits and possible applications of research projects conducted under rigorous academic standards. Democrats and scientists have already responded harshly to Smith’s proposed legislation. Watch host Melissa Harris-Perry and science education activist Zack Kopplin discuss Smith’s bill and more on the May 4 edition of “Melissa Harris-Perry.”
ProgresivTeachr : An example of a brain map made... ProgresivTeachr : One of the funniest photos... Bill Nye: Creationism Threatens U.S. Science LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The man known to a generation of Americans as "The Science Guy" is condemning efforts by some Christian groups to cast doubts on evolution and lawmakers who want to bring the Bible into science classrooms. Bill Nye, a mechanical engineer and star of the popular 1990s TV show "Bill Nye The Science Guy," has waded into the evolution debate with an online video that urges parents not to pass their religious-based doubts about evolution on to their children. Nye has spent a career teaching science to children and teens with good-natured and sometimes silly humor, but has not been known to delve into topics as divisive as evolution. Christians who view the stories of the Old Testament as historical fact have come to be known as creationists, and many argue that the world was created by God just a few thousand years ago. The brief online video was not Nye's first foray into the combustible debate, but "it's the first time it's gotten to be such a big deal." Online: