The Science Media Centre has just released its ‘Science Q&A’ – a set of questions put to all main political parties. As a voter I’m interested in all the responses, but today I’ll wear my science educator’s hat & look at the responses to this question: Not only does New Zealand have problems persuading young […]
Continue readingYear: 2011
you could probably sell anything with the right sales pitch
My post about zeolite & the supposedly ‘chemical-free’ nature of various dietary supplements containing the stuff led to some interesting comments, & generated a few ‘I wonder if…’ moments. After all, as Krebiozen said (in the comments thread to that post): With the right sales pitch you could probably persuade some people that eating feline […]
Continue readingvisualising a curriculum
I’m always looking around for ways to improve my teaching, & my students’ learning. (The two go hand in hand. I might think I’m a good teacher, but unless my classroom practices improve my students’ learning experiences & outcomes, then I’m not. Not really.) Part of my search involves quite a bit of reading from […]
Continue readingdeconstructing zeolite
Years ago, when my old dog Bella was still alive, I was the happy recipient of several doggy haiku verses. One of them read: The cat is not all bad./She fills the litter box/with tootsie rolls. I was reminded of this when reading the comments thread on a recent post by Orac. Some commenters were […]
Continue readingthe end of the world is nigh. again…
So, it seems that Harold Camping is back – this is the man who said the world would end in May this year. Apparently he Got It Wrong, and the deadline is now 21 October ie Friday next week. Given where NZ sits relative to the dateline, I’m sure we’ll be among the first to […]
Continue readingold fossils on a spoil heap
It wasn’t all koala-spotting on our trip across the ditch (the Tasman Sea, for those readers not familiar with New Zild as it is spoken, lol). Apart from the glories of Melbourne (lovely old buildings, the stunning King Tut exhibition in Melbourne Museum, floral Doc Marten boots mmmmmm – & of course the restaurants of […]
Continue readingwe saw koalas!
We’ve just got back from a holiday over in Australia – hence the lack of blogging after the last burst. (If I’d done anything work-related I suspect I’d have experienced a rapid divorce!) Of course, before we left our friends were all saying "we hope you spot some koalas." We hoped so too, but after […]
Continue readingsigh – another on-line hoax
I joined up to Facebook a few months ago – it was a good way to keep in touch with friends, plus it’s made ‘talking’ with various NZIBO colleagues easier in the sense that we can have group chats. But it’s also been a bit of an eye-opener in that it’s turned out to be […]
Continue readinga response from ‘scientists anonymous’
Rather to my surprise (I wrote the original post quite a while ago), I’ve had a response from the subject of that post: ‘Scientists Anonymous’. This group was drawn to my attention by a friend who’s a secondary school biology teacher, concerned that Scientists Anonymous had done a mass e-mailout to NZ teachers to promote […]
Continue readingare students really as tech-savvy as we think?
Technology in its various manifestations looms ever larger in our lives – & that includes education. For example, many schools require their students to have laptops or – more recently – ipads. I’ve wondered previously whether this is done for a particular pedagogical reason, or whether it’s more a case of "the technology’s there – […]
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