KABT BioBlog

[ June 1, 2007 3:00 pm to June 3, 2007 3:00 pm. ] THIS June 1, 2, and 3 KABT will be traveling to Roaring River State Park. To make your camping reservations go to www.mostateparks.com and click on Make Your Reservation Now or call (877) 422-6766. Campground #2 still has the following campsites open as of this post: 106, 108, 110, 111, and a bit further away [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday I was involved in another interesting conversation about what student should know. The conversation unfortunately centered on K-12 preparing students for college and/or further work in mathematics and science. I say unfortunately because it is my opinion that by grade 12 all students should be fully prepare for a wide array of [...]

[Read more →]

I’m posting this info for Randy who is unable to attend and present at the 2007 KATS KAMP KABT thread. Randy was going to share a number of resources that he has tried out and found effective in his biotech courses and in AP Biology that deal with microarrays. These include:
Web animations such as this [...]

[Read more →]

When I was teaching, late spring was always one of my favorite times in the classroom. Despite trying to fit in all of the fine arts programs and rehearsals, despite trying to cope with the scheduling lunacy of spring sports and despite seniors losing focus on the end prize I enjoyed planning and getting [...]

[Read more →]

AAAS has sent the following to interested educators:

In conjuction with the publication of the genome sequence of the rhesus macaque in the 13 April edition of Science, we have created a special online collection. It includes an interactive poster with images, video and text, and a corresponding lesson plan for use in high school [...]

[Read more →]

Carl Zimmer at his blog the Loom , has a good article covering a new paper in Science on the macaque genome. Deeper understanding of human evolution continues to unfold.
BW

[Read more →]

There are any number of essays that work to explain the evolutionary process. An exceptionally well done essay recently appeared on Richard Dawkins’ website by retired evolutionary biologist, Carl Bajema. This essay cogently describes the relationship of the random or undirected processes of genetic variation and the environmentally directed processes of sexual and [...]

[Read more →]

Jonathon Wells from the Discovery Institute and supporter of Intelligent design has suggested in his criticisms that science and particularly science textbooks are essentially dishonest in their presentation of the famous Miller-Urey experiment that investigated if organic molecules could arise spontaneously in earth’s early abiotic conditions as understood at the time. Our understanding [...]

[Read more →]

With the Cenozoic fossil record in Nebraska and some parts of Kansas, I would think that using mammal evolution as a theme in evolution might be a good strategy in our part of the country. Lots of good details.
Earlier, I reported that a paper in Nature would, perhaps, change our understanding on [...]

[Read more →]

One of the essential tools in a biology teacher’s tool kit is the analogy. Analogies help students to form their own, personal biological concepts within a more familiar context. Analogies are truly a double-edged sword, (using an analogy to describe the use of analogy.) On one hand they help students to [...]

[Read more →]