Category: Education

Preparing to fly



Preparing to fly, originally uploaded by Unhindered by Talent.

I’m off to Owatanna today with a couple of students to attend a college fair hosted by Federated Insurance. We’ve never been to their event before, but it looks like it should be fun. I probably won’t be posting for a few days as a result, though. Have fun without me!

Oh, and tomorrow (Friday, 13 April) is the annual Pride Week Drag Show. This is a total hoot if you’ve never been, and this year there’s the added bonus that Sub-Evil and I have been asked to do a command performance of his excellent “Taco man”! I had seriously hoped to do my part in a dress (WeatherGirl’s wedding dress in fact), but sadly none of them zip up on me, and with this Federated thing there’s really not time to explore lots of options. Sigh. So I think we’re just going to glam up some and go with that. The whole beard thing makes the androgynous Ziggy Stardust deal a bit tough, though.

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I’ll be over here getting my sandwich board ready

Science buzz!!!
PeeZed has an excellent rant about how shallow the bulk of our traditional news sources our, and how blaming scientists for being “bad communicators” is really the wrong end of the stick. Huge numbers of scientists are professional communicators, and convey complex ideas to groups with varying backgrounds and interests several times a week. Sure, there are examples of all the sad stereotypes just as there are in any large, complex group, but I’m surrounded by people who are excellent communicators, and there are many thousands more like them waiting to help people understand important, complex issues.

But we get micro-second sound bites on FOX “news”.

And “American Idol”.

Because someone, somewhere, thinks that’s what we want (or has a vested interest in helping us believe that’s what we want).

The comment section has lots of discussion about how to make progress on this deeply thorny issue. One of the best ideas is from Olive:

I think there’s should be a holiday where everyone walks around wearing a sign that says something like:

“Hi! I am A BIOLOGY PHD.
Ask me about EVOLUTION.”

Everyone could participate.

“Hi! I am A FIVE-YEAR-OLD.
Ask me about DINOSAURS.”

“Hi! I am A CHEF.
Ask me about NON-STICK PANS.”

“Hi! I am CARTOONIST.
Ask me about INTELLIGENT DESIGN.”

And everyone would have to have conversations with anyone who asked them about their topic. I think it would be good for community, too. The nation could spend the day in coffee shops and bars.

I may have to make a few different signs, and change as the day goes on. What to wear, what to wear…

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