I have two tales of teachers trying to teach, um, science (nuts, ran out of t words).
The first is about Joanne Manaster — you may remember her review of my book. She has set up a contest for kids to read science books and then create a short video based on the book. There are two levels: Kids Read Science aimed at ages 8-12, and Teens Read Science for ages 13-18.
This is a terrific idea! It’s a great way to get kids to read about science (and scientists!). She made a short video describing the project:
The deadline is 11 p.m. central time on September 22, 2010, so if you have a kid that age or know one, encourage them to participate — one of the prizes is a copy of my book!
The second tale is about Alan Leipzig, a middle school teacher in Florida. He contacted me a little while back to let me know he was trying to raise money to buy a class set of my book, Death from the Skies! Before I could even reply, he actually got all the money he needed, which is terrific! So now he’s looking to buy a second set so the students can bring the book home. If you’re interested in donating to him, he’s set up a link on Donor’s Choose, a terrific site that lets educators create donation pages for their individual projects. Remember: this is your chance to help kids read, learn about astronomy, and get the crap scared out of them. So give!
June 25th, 2010 at 10:57 am
What about “Two teachers trying to teach tales of terrestrial terror”?
June 25th, 2010 at 11:01 am
Twin teachers tempting tots to try t(h)inking?
June 25th, 2010 at 11:05 am
You wrote a book?
And very good to hear that teachers are trying to promote excitement about science.
June 25th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Things? Topics? Topical and tangential tasks?
June 25th, 2010 at 11:42 am
I’m a longtime friend of Alan, and to see his efforts get attention like this is awesome. As a side not, Alan inspired me to pick up your book myself. Science is awesome!
June 25th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Amazon.com has the book for a better price… and with their prime program shipping is free.
June 25th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
This is a great idea. I seem to have a copy of a book that I think my daughter should read to review.
Now if I could only remember the title and author.
June 25th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
I read a Brief History of Time when I was in 4th grade, too bad youtube and actually most of the internet didn’t exist back then.
June 25th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
You could have used “tscience”. The “t” is tsilent.
June 25th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Unfortunately David, this is the arrangement DonorsChoose has with Barnes & Nobles. To use the lower price, I’d have to pay myself…on a teacher’s salary. Thanks everyone so far for support!
June 25th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
What a worthwhile project!
June 25th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
I wish shed had been my science teacher!
June 25th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Wow! Joanne’s pretty easy on the eyes too.
(I’m old but not dead.)
June 25th, 2010 at 5:14 pm
It occurs to me watching this that I have found our next presidential candidate…I would like to nominate Joanne Manaster to run in 2012. She can be our anti-Palin.
June 25th, 2010 at 6:22 pm
I would love to send the links about kids and teens read science to my nephews, but I think my sister-in-law would be mad at me. She’s teaching them to be young-earth creationists and my brother is a petroleum geologist!!! I might do it anyway as they are the ones who really need to read some science. Maybe I’ll suggest Phil’s “Death from the Skies” to the 12 year old. The older one likes history. Any good books on history of science or biographies of famous scientists? I’d like to stay away from Darwin.
June 25th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
@14 Cindy,
“Stay away from Darwin”
?!?!?
Why not stay away from books that talk about gravity and population dynamics and photons and relativity and engineering, too?
Darwin, ok you can cut ‘him’ out of your booklist – no need to give out biographies to try to increase love of science. But to shelter the young from reality of nature – natural selection, evolution – would be an absolute shame. Expecially for the reasons you cited.
If your sister-in-law didnt accept the age of the earth (being a YEC, I suppose she doesnt) should her kids not read about dinosaurs?
C’mon! Knowledge belongs to us all….we gotta share, converse and help each other out. Especially the kids….especially the kids. I understand not giving a book titled “Why your mom is stupid because she believes in flim-flammery” but the simple facts of nature should not be held back.
June 25th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Cindy, how about Phil’s ‘ Bad Astronomy’? Maybe my sense of humour is weird, but somehow I see a little irony considering the situation and the title.
June 26th, 2010 at 3:27 am
@ 15. Cindy: If you want an alternative to Darwin’s book might I suggest Richard Dawkin’s books incl. The God Delusion for them?
Or Isaac Asimov’s guide to the Bible?
Or even Ian Plimer’s* anti-Creationist Telling Lies for God book pointing out all the many reasons why Noah’s flood couldn’t have happened as recorded?
@17. Mary: Yes, that’s aptly ironic – and probably a better suggestion in practice than my rather tongue in cheek ones above!
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* Written in his pre-global warming denialist days when Plimer was a real skeptic fighting against Creation “science” and taking them to court.
June 26th, 2010 at 6:04 am
Every time I tried to watch the video, I got distracted by Ken & Barbie in the background.
June 26th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
> [...] um, science (nuts, ran out of t words).
“teadus”? (Estonian for “science”)
And yes, I walking alphabetically through languages in Google translate looking for a “t”.
June 27th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
You should of gone with “teachers teaching the terrestrial tools of totality” or something of the sort.
June 27th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
I just visited the second teacher’s site – and WOW… he got about $450 within something like 35 hours!
I don’t know him and wasn’t involved in his project in any way, but as a public school teacher: you guys are awesome.