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Category: critical thinking

do you google?

April 18, 2008 | Alison | critical thinking, scholarship biology

I'll bet you do – I use Google a lot myself. It's a great tool for finding images or information quickly. But – what about when you are looking for material for a biology assignment, or to broaden your knowledge on a particular topic?

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creationist argument #3: Darwin –> Hitler

April 9, 2008 | Alison | critical thinking, evolution

This one has been getting a lot of air time in the US lately. Basically, what it says is that Darwin's theory of evolution (they tend to call it 'Darwinism') was used by Hitler to justify the Holocaust, and therefore evolution is evil and should be rejected. This particular argument has the usual logical flaws […]

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fish oil & exam results

March 30, 2008 | Alison | critical thinking

Last year I put up a couple of posts to do with suggestions that taking fish-oil capsules would enhance exam performance. You might be interested in this latest comment from Ben Goldacre on the issue, following the Durham 'trial' of fish-oil supplements in the UK.

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some historical reading: darwin on human ‘races’

March 30, 2008 | Alison | critical thinking, evolution, human evolution, scholarship biology

The other day one of my students came by my office to ask about his essay. He’d found a book that suggested that the human species was split into 3 races (black, white, & oriental, in case you’re wondering), & that these races differed in things like fecundity and birth rate. Should he include this […]

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the nature of science (again)

March 4, 2008 | Alison | critical thinking, nature of science, scholarship biology

The new Science curriculum has the 'nature of science' right up there at the top. And why? Because it's so important for people to learn, not just science facts and concepts, but also about what science is: how it's done, the tools and methods scientists use, how they communicate, its history, & how science is […]

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cell phones & male fertility

March 1, 2008 | Alison | critical thinking, new science stories, scholarship biology

Orac's just blogged on a new study that seems to show that heavy cellphone use contributes to male infertility. No doubt this will be all over the headlines in a day or so – so I thought I'd get in first & give you some practice in critical thinking while I'm at it.

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(pseudo)science runs amok

February 26, 2008 | Alison | critical thinking, scholarship biology

 Those of you who've come to one of my Scholarship preparation days may have noticed that I've got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about pseudoscience. It really annoys me when I see science being mis-used to sell a product or promote a particular point of view. A good friend of mine has […]

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that milk ad on youtube

January 28, 2008 | Alison | critical thinking, evolution

Back to the dinosaur/caveman milk ad. (If you followed the link you may have found & watched a whole bunch of similar ads. All quite funny – I like the dino trying to wipe squashed caveman off its foot, in the one I linked to! – but all based on a (sadly) fairly common misconception […]

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fact & theory

January 21, 2008 | Alison | critical thinking, evolution, nature of science, scholarship biology

A couple of science concepts that people often seem to have difficulty with are fact and theory: what the terms mean, and how we distinguish between them. One of my scientific heroes, the late Stephen Jay Gould, covered this very well in a 1981 essay. I've just been re-reading it & thought I'd post the […]

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think carefully about what you read

January 17, 2008 | Alison | critical thinking, evolution, nature of science, scholarship biology

A headline in a recent edition of the New Zealand Herald caught my eye: "Revealed: a dino's bugbear". The article kicks off: Biting insects might have killed off the dinosaurs, rather than a cataclysmic meteor impact, a new theory claims. Scientists now say disease spread by ancient mosquitoes, mites and ticks was probably the major […]

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Swan girl - portrait of the author as a young scientist This blog in response to comments from secondary school biology teachers. I hope to use it as a way of encouraging critical thinking, looking at scientific papers that are relevant to the Level 3 curriculum and to Scholarship.

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