Another beautiful New Mexican Sunday has come and is spoiling me with its warmth and sunshine. These are the types of days that I need to appreciate and remember if I end up participating in the Mars Analog Food Study. I’ll just have memories of the sun’s warmth and the fresh air’s breeze. So enjoy the post and the content I’ve compiled, but then get off of the internet and go outside! And not just because there might be candy hidden.
Before you check out the videos and links, perhaps you can take a minutes to sign a petition to raise the allotment of tax money to increase NASA’s funding?
This guy is not quite as cuddly as the Easter Bunny
A very cool NPR story that I heard on the radio about using music to teach math and fractions!. Creative education that works is so wonderful!
A really creative fix that may allow us to utilize brown seaweed for biofuel! I wouldn’t mind going to the coast and helping with that research!
I’m afraid some of the sound clip links may not be functioning, but an interesting article nevertheless about how things sound on different planets! The thunder clips are my favorite!
I came across this video series (The Feynman Series) which serves as a compliment to the Sagan Series. Richard Feynman is another notable scientific communicator. This Nobel Prize co-winner was invaluable to the field of physics and made contributions both within his research and passion for teaching and popularizing the subject. What I really love about these series of videos is that they serve as such unique tools for inspiring interest in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). I want to soak up as many of these as possible so I can understand what I love about them most and try and use that to inspire my own attempts. I’ve found both more visual and awe-inspiring videos, such as the one above, and more silly attempts:
Another cool TED talk (can you tell I’m border-line obsessed with these?) by the author of Eat, Pray, Love. She talks about the notion of having your ‘greatest achievement’ accomplished and behind you, as well as the concept of ‘being’ a genius vs. ‘having’ genius.
Announcements are set for this week, but still no word from those in charge. I’m assuming that since today is Good Friday, and campuses are closed, then it’s very unlikely that they’d be contacting people. Perhaps the weekend? Monday? Another whole week??! All I know is that every time my devices make an email/tweet/ringer/random bleep or blip I tense up in excitement and anticipation.
Fellow applicant, Timothy Judd, has not been especially helpful.
Since I had hoped to use today’s blog to share the news of my excitement/disappointment and that will have to wait for another day….here are some little tidbits to keep you going.
The first contains another interview by Kim Binsted, skip to 17:29 for her part.
I was going to wait a bit until I talked more about this topic, but I’m excited to get it out of my brain onto a post! Earlier this week, I talked about how the Khan Academy has the potential to revolutionize education by allowing students to view video lectures at home and focus on mastering the concepts with help from teachers in the classroom. I’ve already watch a handful of videos myself and have found them very helpful and educational.
I’ve been watching videos though the Academy iPad app and have loved how convenient it is. I was able to download videos so that I could watch them during my bus ride (with no internet) back to New Mexico. I felt like could have been in a ‘The Future is NOW’ ad. I can’t help but smile and shake my head in amazement and the products we have available to us.
What’s even more amazing is the dedication that Apple and other companies have to the educationsystem. My friend Cornelius received a refurbished iPad as part of a larger donation to Teach for America. He currently uses it as a teaching tool at …. Hopefully we can convince him to write a guest post in the future!
What I’d really like to share with you today is Apple’s iBook2 announcement from January 2012. I was nerdy enough to watch the keynote speech the day this initiative was announce and was completely blown away and inspired by what they’ve created. I have long complained about the antiquity of textbooks, and it seems like the creative, talented people of the world are trying to insight a paradigm shift.
No heavy backpacks. No expensive, out-of-date texts. No boring walls of text.
Why did this take so long?! Actually, I’ve already purchased two e-books as required texts for my graduate classes, but this announcement still got me all riled up in a tizzy. After my initial, giddy reaction, I began to spread the good news like it had been passed down from Steve Jobs on high (and he only needed the one tablet). I could see no flaw in the design and expected everyone to be just as excited as I. Most were. But then, gradually different criticisms emerged.
eTextbooks are only available though iBooks 2 on the iPad
iPads are too expensive for most schools
Teachers will be reluctant to adapt new learning platforms
Students already have limited contact with print media. Too many ‘gadgets’ will actually prevent advancements in certain areas of their education.
Just a new way for students to be distracted in the classroom.
I believe many if these issues will be addressed in the years to come. Even just allowing access to the texts on a Mac computer will placate many naysayers. I’ve seen predictions of the Retina Display coming to the next generation of MacBooks, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that jump is announced alongside the new lineup of computers in the Fall. Certainly, there will need to be a transition period and different platforms will most likely attempt similar version (Kindle), however it is important to remember that initially teachers were not assigning schoolwork that required the internet or even word processors, but those are not integral parts of the classroom.
I’m already growing impatient with the current stale, lifeless textbooks I’m using this semester. After watching that first keynote, I turned my focus back to my studies. Assigned reading in my Statistics textbook.
I felt like my brain was moving in molasses in an attempt to learn the concepts. I had seen the future and now instead of reading and retaining information, all I could think about was how I could transform the text into an entertaining, interactive experience. I eventually got the chapter read, but it was very clear to me that hey, I could do this! And so, it is now that I announce, nay declare, that I, Meridith, will one day author a completely awesome eTextbook.
Until then, I’ll have to manage with the current system.
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Perhaps, if selected, I can convince the Hi-SEAS program to compile the joint experiences of the 6 Astro-Nots and 2 alternates into an iBook. I can easily envision a healthy collection of reports, media, and blog entries that would serve as content.
Can’t get to ahead of myself. Still one more week until the first announcements!
Questions of the Day: Do you think such a radical change can occur in the public school system? Are you a supporter? What do you think are the biggest challenges to this idea? What would you want to see in an end report/book from the 120-day Hi-SEAS food study?
Sweet Tea, Science 