Ron Schott, who is the geoblogosphere’s Bora Zivkovic, hosts Geology Office Hours on Google+ every Monday and Thursday. It’s a time for geo professionals and the geocurious to get together, chat about whatever topic comes to mind, and sometimes show off our rocks. Anybody with a webcam and a G+ account can get in on …
Category Archive: education
Sep 14 2011
“Adorers of the Good Science of Rock-breaking”
“Make them like me adorers of the good science of rock-breaking,” Charles Darwin told Charles Lyell once, long ago. This, from a man who also once said of Robert Jameson’s lectures on geology and zoology, “The sole effect they produced on me was the determination never as long as I lived to read a book …
Sep 10 2011
This Student Gives Me Hope
I don’t know who she is, only what she has done. And what she has done is this: become a banned book library. When her school decided upon a list of things the kids absolutely must not read, due to parental outrage and a belief kids can be kept from great literature and harsh truths, …
Aug 18 2011
Hook ‘em While They’re Young
I need to hang around more young children. Most non-geologically inclined adults look upon my hand samples as a personal quirk, one of those odd things about Dana that’s of a piece with her LOTR decor in the bedroom, and not quite as interesting as that. They like the pretty samples with the nice crystals …
May 26 2011
Mathematical Memories
There’s this post, you see, up at a new blog called Hyperbolic Guitars, that’s dredged up some old memories: We should have, as a goal, to never hear the question “why are we learning this?” again. No one asks why we learn to read. The same should be true for basic mathematics. Once students go …
Oct 25 2010
Is There No End to Inanity?
By now, the more perceptive of you may have realized I haven’t been writing about pollyticks lately. That’s not because I’ve lost interest, it’s because I’ve been awash in a target-rich environment. After so many hours of exposure to ever-increasing stupidity, day after day, my poor brain crawled out a convenient ear canal and ran …
Jul 19 2010
Why Science Education Matters
Yes, this is going to be one of those annoying adult “if I’d known at your age what I know now” screeds. Get the fuck over it.* One day you, too, will be pouncing upon innocent young things screaming the same phrases you now denounce, up to and possibly including “Get off my lawn!” It’s …
Jul 18 2010
Unacceptable
Most of the time, I feel pretty good about living in the very-nearly-enlightened state of Washington. This, however, is not one of those times: In this respect, Washington is no better than Arizona, the land where anyone with an accent can be bunged into jail for not presenting papers. Both states are highly rated for …
Jul 17 2009
Right-Wing Fucktards Axe Lincoln
Work continues apace as shit-for-brains rabid right fundies take a wrecking ball to the Texas curriculum. The latest: According to a draft of the proposed new textbook standards, “biographies of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Stephen F. Austin have been removed from the early grades.” At the same time, Peter Marshall wants more teaching of …
May 11 2009
The Amazing Adventures of the Abstinence Fairy
Bristol Palin’s decided to crusade for abstinence. The opportunities for mockery are endless: Bristol Palin has successfully shed her image as a jilted unwed mother. Through the magical gullibility of Republican voters and the mainstream medias’ ability to completely suspend their viewers’ disbelief, Bristol Palin has been miraculously transformed into… the Abstinence Fairy! Faster than …
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