Excited for Biology?

You should be, because I’ve got some great news: 

SCIENCE IS AWESOME.

Especially biology.

In biology, we study the chemical reactions and living relationships that we all need to live on this rock we call home - we study everything from the smallest strand of DNA to the climate of the entire earth! 

Biologists save lives, take video of working human brains, create new cells, take apart DNA and put it together again, go to the deepest depths of the ocean and the driest deserts on earth to observe life, create models of extinct animals, and work with some of the weirdest and most beautiful creatures on our planet:

Ever taken an antibiotic? Thank a microbiologist!

Ever been to a national park? Thank an ecologist!

Ever eaten yogurt? Thank a food biologist!

Ever wondered what DNA looks like? Thank a biophysicist or geneticist!
Ever walked through a dinosaur museum? Thank a taxonomist, and a paleontologist or two!
They're all Biologists!

I love biology because there is always so much to learn, from the tiniest chemical reactions that make my body go on 10 mile runs, to the story behind gorgeous vistas like this one in Zion National Park:

Life is complicated and always changing, and WE are a part of it!

The study of biology also includes some of my heroes, great scientists who dedicated their lives to knowing more about the strange and fickle thing that is life.

Rosalind Franklin discovered the molecular structures of DNA and several viruses using x-ray photography. Two colleagues borrowed her work without her permission, and her contribution to the discovery of DNA was unrecognized during her lifetime.

Charles Darwin proposed “natural selection” as the driving force behind evolution, and persevered through his own struggles with his faith, his family, and the society he lived in.

Jane Goodall is the world authority on chimpanzees – she has studied them and lived with them, and is the only human to have been accepted into chimpanzee society.

Louis Pasteur proved that life doesn't just appear out of nothing, developed the vaccine for rabies, and developed the process we call "pasteurization."

For some hilarious biology comics, visit Beatrice the Biologist.
If you’re interested in the latest and most amazing stories in biology right now, go to IFLScience.com.
And for some really well-done videos all about what we'll be learning this year, check out the videos at Crash Course Biology, where Hank Green presents everything in a very fun and easy-to-follow way.

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The study of life is messy and complicated, and it frequently requires scientists and everyday people alike to ask some hard questions about what is right and what is wrong. If you’re interested in those ethical questions, you should look at these movies and books. 

• Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
• Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
• Origin of the Species – Charles Darwin
• Silent Spring – Rachel Carson
• The Double Helix – James Watson

There are also some great movies about biology and biologists. (Some of these are rated PG-13; watch only with parental guidance.)

• Avatar
• Awakenings
• Contagion
• Creation
• GATTACA
• Gorillas in the Mist
• Jurassic Park
• King Kong
• Lorenzo’s Oil
• March of the Penguins
• Microcosmos
• Never Cry Wolf
• Race for the Double Helix

Silent, savage inequalities

[[Note: This blog post is not related to SCED 4300: Literacy. If you're searching for a post in that vein, look for posts with the label "literacy."]]

I've only read one chapter into Johnathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities, but I know I am in for a ride. A bone-shattering, comfort-tearing, and terribly necessary ride.

Fair warning: I tend to fit in the "advocate" learner category - I learn by feeling and doing, and I do an awful lot of feeling. After the initial shock of the first chapter had sunk in, and the thought "There are still schools like this in America" had landed, I was furious.

But what do you do about it right? I mean, Savage Inequalities is 20-something years old? and besides, living in Utah, it's not like I can exactly force "people of color" into our public schools since not a great majority live in our state anyway. It's not my problem.

But if segregation has its roots in the institutionalized racism that has led people to live where they do (in generally mostly-white and non-white areas), and it is “not the problem” of any of those mostly-white schools to do anything about integration because “the blacks don’t live in our area,” then whose problem is it? Who is going to do the integrating?  When I and everyone else decide that it's "not our problem," it becomes nobody’s problem, and the non-white communities with families in lower socio-economic conditions have no one to pull their students in to the schools with all of the funding. 

What if, by making segregation nobody’s problem, we have created the problem of ongoing segregation that still exists in the United States? Segregation still exists, and in my lifetime, in all of my years in school, I have never once personally viewed an effort to integrate students of other races into the schools I have attended. 

I don't know the answer - I don't know what can be done about it, but I'd like to know - How did this happen? It needs to change, and if it needs to change, where on earth do we start?

An Introduction

Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I've never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl.

- Anne Frank

I'm with you, honey. I keep a private journal, but cringe at the idea of keeping a blog. Luckily, I don't think anyone will be plastering anything I write here all over Facebook. (Of course, that's probably what Anne Frank thought, too...) Let's get started:

 Hello fellow blaggers of the interwebs! 

Opening night of Captain
America at midnight? Yes please!

My name is Nicole. In the real world, I enjoy
singing and performing; reading George Elliot, poetry, and classic literature; running for hours; and eating peaches. I do research projects in biology and theater education, and I'll be speaking at TEDxUSU about it in October. I love spending time with my best friend and spouse, Ryan - together, we enjoy hiking, singing, cooking, and doing science in our kitchen.

In the interwebs world, I read xkcd and What-If, Sandwich Monday, and NPR. I like to stay updated on the latest news (and jokes) in science and technology, and current issues in the world, and I use Facebook and Twitter to stay connected with #OverlyHonestMethods, Mighty Girls, the BBC, and, of course, Doctor Who.

Biology and Drama are to me...

... two sides of the same bridge leading to discovery, examinations of human nature and human endeavor, and creativity. Through drama, I hope my students learn empathy, collaboration, intellectual rigor, creativity, problem-solving, and expand their abilities to reflect critically on their experiences and efforts. Through biology I want my students to learn team work, intellectual rigor, creativity, problem-solving, and expand their abilities to reflect critically on their scientific methods, results, and assumptions. I believe drama can be just as hard intellectually as biology, and that the study of science can develop students' empathy and sense of ethics and justice as much as any art. 

How did I get here?

I knew I was good at Biology, but I didn't want to let Theater go. So I did both. And it was only after I chose both that I became passionate about integrating each into the other. I see so much potential for student growth, and I like a good challenge!

Literacy Is...

... defined differently depending on the situation. A person could be functionally literate, but not culturally or critically literate. 

In my classroom, I want my students to attain "critical literacy" - the ability to read, understand and critally analyze both traditional and non-traditional texts, and apply their learning to discussions, experiments, individual and group projects, and their engagement with others within and without my classroom. Without critical literacy, science is nice, but not essential - drama is fun, but not important. Both are vital to a developing and imperfect society, and so I define (and will strive for) literacy in my classroom: the ability of my students to use what they learn to change their community, to change each other, and to change themselves. 

Thanks for Reading,

now go do something fun.