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.
THE WORLD QUESTION CENTER 2004 Jordan Pollack Pollack's Law Progress requires the Pareto Optimization of Competitiveness and Informativeness The simple idea that Nature is "Red in Tooth and Claw" lends a religious fervor to those promoting Competition as the right organizing principle for open-ended innovation, e.g. in Laissez Faire Capitalism, government procurement, Social Darwinism, personnel review, and even high-stakes educational testing. Through the use of mathematical and computer models of learning, we discovered that competition between learning agents does not lead to open-ended progress. The exciting new "law" is that progress can be sustained among self-interested agents when both competitiveness and informativeness are rewarded. A measurement of innovation rate. Consider a black box that takes in energy and produces bit-strings. Platonic Density = P / LC Pollack's Law of Robotics Start over with Pinball Machines.
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)
This Awesome Urn Will Turn You into a Tree After You Die | Design for Good | Big Think - StumbleUpon You don't find many designers working in the funeral business thinking about more creative ways for you to leave this world (and maybe they should be). However, the product designer Gerard Moline has combined the romantic notion of life after death with an eco solution to the dirty business of the actual, you know, transition. His Bios Urn is a biodegradable urn made from coconut shell, compacted peat and cellulose and inside it contains the seed of a tree. Once your remains have been placed into the urn, it can be planted and then the seed germinates and begins to grow. I, personally, would much rather leave behind a tree than a tombstone. Editor's Note: The Bios Urn is a patented design of Estudimoline, the design company of Gerard Moline, a Catalan artist and product designer who designed Bio Urn for animals in 1999.
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.
Eccentricity (behavior) From Medieval Latin eccentricus, derived from Greek ekkentros, "out of the center", from ek-, ex- "out of" + kentron, "center". Eccentric first appeared in English essays as a neologism in 1551 as an astronomical term meaning "a circle in which the earth, sun, etc. deviates from its center." Five years later, in 1556, an adjective form of the word was used. 129 years later, in 1685, the definition evolved from the literal to the figurative, and eccentric is noted to have begun being used to describe unconventional or odd behavior. A noun form of the word – a person who possesses and exhibits these unconventional or odd qualities/behaviors – appeared by 1832. A person who is simply in a "fish out of water" situation is not, by the strictest definition, an eccentric since, presumably, he or she may be ordinary by the conventions of his or her native environment. Eccentrics may or may not comprehend the standards for normal behavior in their culture. Psychologist Dr.
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.
Laurie A. Couture | Coaching I specialize in supporting parents who wish to heal their children’s emotional, behavioral and educational struggles through attachment parenting, natural learning (including unschooling) and alternatives to psychiatric drugs. I provide coaching for parents of children ages pre-birth through late adolescence. I also provide specialized attention to the unique parenting needs of single parents, adoptive parents, grandparents and step-parents. Laurie specializes in trauma and severe emotional and behavioral problems in children… She confidently and compassionately assists parents with healing solutions for any level of challenge! I offer a variety of flexible, life-changing services for parents and for professionals who work with families. Choose from the services that best meet your needs below. Attachment Parenting Coaching I offer one-to-one coaching and support to parents of children of all ages- Pregnancy through late adolescence. Contact Me Parenting Workshops, Trainings and Seminars
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.”