Entries from August 2008
August 31st, 2008 · 1 Comment
The following information on the Steven Pinker Lecture was cut and pasted from the KCPL Website.
What: Lecture on his newest book - The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature
Where: KC Public Library - Central Branch, 14 W. 10th Street
When: September 9, at 7pm
In The Stuff of Thought, recently released in paperback, [...]
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Tags: KABT News
This past school year, I became aware of a competition that fosters student appreciation and knowledge of Kansas wildlife (not entirely statewide but growing). Now, I will be trying to organize a group of my environmental club students to participate.
For those, like me, that have been clueless or busy over the past decade or more that this [...]
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Tags: Nature · Teaching Resources
While surfing around for ways to modify and expand my freshman classification project (i.e. insect collection), I happened upon the Lost Ladybug Project. The introductory paragraph at the site sums up their inspiration for the project:
Over the past twenty years several native ladybug species that were once very common have become extremely rare (see details on [...]
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Tags: Nature · Student Research Ideas · Teaching Resources
Last year I posted a number of resources that could help you and your students explore that age-old question–”Why do leaves turn color?” While on a “nature walk” with my 6 month old granddaughter, last week I was reminded again as we observed a number of early turning leaves.
Sumac
Almost all of the bright red leaves [...]
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Tags: KABT News
August 29th, 2008 · 1 Comment
Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses Web Page
As a Kansas biology teacher, I’m sure you are asked all the time: “What flower is this?” “What’s the name of that grass?” Over the years I’ve watched Mike Haddock’s web site grow into a fine resource. You can find flowers listed by color by season or by both as [...]
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Tags: Nature · Teaching Resources
Here’s something that folks that teach Natural History classes may be interested in: iNaturalist This is an intriguing application that merges Flickr, Google Maps and a database to record observations of organisms from around the world. Bora at A Blog Around the Clock has a good description of the project. The project is just starting [...]
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Tags: KABT News
Several years ago Chip Taylor asked me to go along with him as he was exploring Baker Wetlands brainstorming potential ideas/questions that his introduction to research class could investigate. It was there that I first became aware that many of our local plants had extrafloral nectaries. Before, I thought EFN’s were primarily [...]
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Tags: KABT News
From Science Daily–a new wiki–3-D encyclopedia of molecular structures based on J-Mol: http://www.proteopedia.org/ You’ll find a very rich resource, here. Consider contributing yourself–that’s what wiki’s are all about. The wiki features educational applications from teaching resources to student projects. David Goodsel is now using the site to complement and extend his “Molecule of the Month” [...]
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Tags: KABT News
Showy Partridge Pea (Chamaecrista fasciculata)
Scott Sharp was correct–good powers of observation. Now the 2nd question remains–What is the structure that commands the ant’s attention? Hint: Try googling EFN and Partridge Pea
Here’s the promised close up:
BW
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Tags: KABT News
David Warlick at My 2cents suggested a nifty little application that creates a word cloud of your blog–Wordle. Here’s the result for the KABT BioBlog:
Word Cloud from KABT BioBlog
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Tags: KABT News