danaleeling

The opening this term was altered to focus on laboratories rather than the math stack.  This allowed me to better juxtapose the uselessness of quadratic equations for my non-science major students with the usefulness in describing acceleration. Mathematics has a use but much of what we teach students has no use in their lives. Not until their own children come home from high school and say, "Mom, I know you went to college. Can you help me with my algebra homework?" If useless mathematics is what is being taught - never mind the contrived "real world" and "application" problems in textbooks - what does it matter which form of useless mathematics is taught? Might as well teach the students site swap notation. Will they ever need to use site swap notation? No. But the same can be said of the quadratic formula, especially for students who are business, elementary education, and social science majors.  Then I introduced site swap in the

I wandered in near the end of a panel presentation at the national health summit. I was only there to pick up a participant in the summit. As I waited  I heard the challenges of deciding where to focus health sector funding and efforts - whether to focus limited funding on primary care, tertiary care. or nutrition to tackle the rising Non-Communicable Disease crisis.  Since attending health meetings over two decades ago I never hear the need to promote and fund aerobic exercise, the single most effective long term NCD prevention strategy. Twenty years of speakers calling for nutrition education and training more nutritionists has not stemmed the rising tide of NCDs. Nutrition is obviously important but has not been a solution.  The complication is that exercising in public is culturally problematic for many here. Including my culturally traditional wife. After twenty years of encouraging her to workout, ten years ago she began working out: at an indoor fitness center. She was never com

This laboratory was based on a Carolina kit with future plans to substitute local solvents based on what the kit provides. The lab launched on two videos and a presentation. In retrospect the presentation was confusing and not helpful. From all appearances, the xanthophyll travelled further than the carotene, as least by color. Even if that were not true - suppose that lighter yellow was carotene and the orange was xanthophyll, that would be confusing as the students were taught xanthophylls are yellow and cartonoids tend to be more orange-yellow.  Lacking pencils, I opted for crayons. These worked far better than expected. Crayons are softer than pencils and do not damage the gel layer. The crayons did not appear to affect the chromatography and their dyes did not appear to bleed into the gel layer. Added to the leaves prior to grinding was a dash of calcium carbonate and acetone. Calcium carbonate is widely available on island. Bags of lime are sold to accom

The one week crash and dash through chemistry began with the periodic table. I have learned to move slowly into this material, lingering up front with the basic concepts: the students either never encountered or have mostly forgotten everything about atoms. This term one student came up with proton and neutron, no one remembered the electron. But then electrons are inconsequentially small. Plus I cover the reason the atomic mass is not a whole number, isotopes, there only being two spin directions.  Wrapped up Monday with the geometry of the second period orbitals in three dimensions. Still not accurate, but conceptually easier to wrap ones mind around. Wednesday I launched into bonding. At the end of class I added the floral notes at the bottom explaining to students as to what to bring. This actually helps: many brought red hibiscus and some brought red coleus, both of which perform well. Spathoglottis plicata still performs superbly.  This