stuff on MY desk

When looking at my desk the first thing you may notice are numerous manilla folders. I use manilla folders to hold loose papers and specifically organize them by subject. for instance, underneath my right hand there is a manila folder with the words "biowriting" written on it. In it you will find handouts, drafts and papers that i have brought to Biowriting class or received during biowriting class. There is another folder laying right underneath the biowiring folder. when i lift the biowiring folder i see that this folder hs "Stats" written on it. If you were to open this folder you would find print outs of SPSS statistical outputs. The second thing you might notice are a number of different books spread all over my desk. One reads "Botany work book" which is laying of "Principles of botany" (a textbook). Under neath both of these you will see a statistics book.
thats it for now, more later.

Dont believe everything you read

I taught male and female gametogenesis of flowering plants today. The topic is a not difficult to understand although students do struggle with the number of steps involved and with the idea edible fruits are plant embryos, endosperm, and ovaries. some students were ready to swear off popcorn after they say the endosperm and embryo under the microscope. I was kind of funny. I digress to when i was teaching them about the embryo sac. I had mentioned the class before and the students were going through their notes to recall what i had said when one student points out that i had taught them something wrong. I asked what that was and the student pointed to the book to an image of an ovule showing the 7 megasporangia inside. The two polar nuclei were surrounded by a cell membrane labelled as the embryo sac. I had taught that the embryo sac contained all megaspores not just the polar nuclei. My feet started sweating a little when another student pointed out that another image in the same textbook indicated that the embryo sac did in fact include all megaspores not just the polar nuclei. I was relieved but aggravated that this mistake had found its way into the text book. No matter, I needed to know which one was correct. I was certain that the way i had taught them was correct but i needed a second opinion. I briefly stepped out of class and found an expert. It turns out I had been teaching the correct definition of the embryo sac. This lesson applies to all books, articles and blogs. Dont believe everything just because it is written somewhere.

I was reading a description of flora (asteraceae only) in New Mexico. I ran across the description of a plant in the genus that i study. I though found it amusing that this plant was the only one that the author decided to describe as " although very ugly, it ...." !?!? wtf since when does you opinion find itself into a descriptive published document. 

The author wrote this under "supplemental information" where a bit of history about the plant is outlined. It seems that the author did not talk to much time to investigate the history of this genus/species and decides to throw some opinions in. Shame shame. Maybe he thought no one would read it, maybe he though it was funny, either way the fact that he decided to publish this indicates amateurism and ignorance. 

The aim of assessment (tests) is for me the instructor to see how much and how well the student have learned the a subject or concept. All concepts taught are important but some are weighed more heavily. for instance the process of Photosynthesis is is tested more thoroughly than basic plant morphology. This is not to take away from plant morphology which can be a course on its own.
There is a fundamental problem when we (instructors) favor these difficult subjects and often explain them in much more detail. Students start to see the components and processes as memorization tasks rather than a concept. Thus come test time, many students can regurgitate fine details but fail to explain the broader concept. When the broad principle is no longer in the minds of students then these minute details that they have memorized are worthless.
How then do we teach kids the principles and the details? given that almost all instructors are limited by time, one must choose to focus on the details or the concepts.

A good day in the field

Although rain showers were forecasted for the entire day, our time spend in the field we mostly rain free. That is not to say it was not wet. We spent about 6 hours kayaking up and down the "upper part" of the blue river. This river is one of the only  naturally un-dammed rivers in oklahoma. WHat this means is that the river has several "rapids", water moving from a higher elevation to a lower elevation in a relatively short distance. The blue river could never be a place for adrenaline junkies to seek the thrill of the white water. These "mini rapids" turned into an energy drenching barrier, requiring us to portage frequently and sometime over 100m. At least we were out of that dang poisoned ivey.

Going to the blue river tomorrow. I am pretty excited to get out of the house and away from the computer. We will be kayaking for a change which will keep us from rummaging through poison ivey and dodging cottenmouths. Hurra! I feel pretty guilty through. I should be writing my proposal. I have invested nearly every free hour into this but still feel like i have not accomplished much. I learned how bad my writing is and how shallow my scientific understanding is. It seems like no matter how much i read i can never bring myself to the cutting edge. It funny how hard i have worked to get to where i am, and yet I am so far from where i want to be. It feel like im on a never ending journey without a railing to lead me to where i need to go.