teaching

In our last episode, I wrote about embedding Google forms in my classroom wiki pages. Recently, we've been working on a project where students enter results into a Google Docs spreadsheet, via our classroom wiki. All the students were able to enter their results. Except for one. When other students went to the spreadsheet page, they saw this:

This quarter, I'm using a wiki with my bioinformatics class and posting sometimes about the things that I learn. Two things I've been experimenting with are:

1. Setting up pages for individual students so they can take notes while they're working.
2. Embedding a Google form into one of my wiki pages for student assessment.

Here's a diagram showing some of the pages in my bioinformatics class wiki site.

Want to learn more about Parkinson's disease? See why a single nucleotide mutation messes up the function of a protein? I have a short activity that uses Cn3D (a molecular viewing program from the NCBI) to look at a protein that seems to be involved in a rare form of Parkinson's disease and I could sure use beta testers. If you'd like to do this, I need you to follow the directions below and afterwards, go to a web form and answer a few questions. Don't worry about getting the wrong answers. I won't know who ... Read more

I heard some intriguing presentations this week about education in Second Life, but I happen know that there is an open-source, free (?) alternative called "Croquet." Do any of you have experience with Croquet vs. Second Life? I'd love to hear about it in the comments. I attended two talks, hoping that someone would compare different platforms, or at least give the audience a chance to ask questions, but no such luck. I think these multi-user virtual environments are really interesting, but I have some reservations about educational institutions making substantial investments ... Read more

Experimenting with on-line worksheets I know some people who always teach their classes the same way, semester after semester, year after year.. Not me. I always want to experiment and try new things. This fall, I'm experimenting with using a wiki in the classroom, in addition to my blog. This wont be my first wiki experience. We've long used wikis where I work, and I've used them to collaborate with people in different locations, but this is the first time that I'll try one in a teaching situation. The wikis in my past My earlier ... Read more

Why should professional scientists have all the fun? Researchers have been engineering glowing cats, and selling glowing fish at pet stores. High school kids can do genetic engineering too, if ... Read more

I learned via e-mail yesterday that the biotechnology program, that I taught with for ten years during the 90's, is ending due to low enrollments. I also learned yesterday, via the Seattle Times, that a resurrected version of ICOS called CMC Icos Biologics is planning a $35M expansion of their biotech manufacturing plant in Bothell and talking about hiring lots of students with two-year degrees. The irony isn't lost on me. We struggled with variable enrollments too, when I was at Seattle Central ... Read more

Calling all scientists and science-fans: you can help with science education by letting students know you're interested. How? Go and comment on classroom blogs and wikis. I've been gradually collecting some blogs from different classes and I've even had some brave volunteers offer theirs for review. So here goes:

1. www.missbakersbiologyclass.com/blog
2. Ms. Hoffman's AP class blog
... Read more

Wow! One of my commenters, Ms. Baker, suggested an entirely new way that scientists can help with science education. The only requirement is that a science class have their own blog. So, if your science class has a blog, let me know, so I can share the URL and maybe recruit some scientists or at least graduate students, to take a look. I think this idea is so great! It doesn't involve any kind of traveling and many, many different scientists can participate, thus minimizing volunteer burn out. It also gives students a way to practice writing about what they do and interacting ... Read more

David Ng from The World's Fair has made this wonderful video on public speaking. Or shall we say the funnier side of public speaking? I really enjoyed it!