Blogging for Science?

Upon suggestion of my committe members (Jane Veeder and Josh Singer), I'm considering making the web portal look more like a blog. It makes sense since it's time sensitive lesson. I'm wondering about just using blog software and making templates. I need to read about the power of the blog.

Don't Drink the BTB

Diagram provided by Benjah-bmm27

Today the 5th grade class I'm observing as research for my masters degree was AWESOME!!! Thank you Ms. McHale's students!

We did a hands-on experiment where they used Bromothymol Blue (BTB) to observe the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in water and how that level changed over time - a nice elodea plant was good enough to take in the CO2 and return O2 to the water.

Bromothymol Blue pH indicator dye in an acidic, neutral, and alkaline solution (left to right) provided by bfesser.

The kids are amazing. Super excited. All of them (with the exception of a few) stayed on target with the steps of the lab. It's awesome to be able to volunteer and help them out with the steps of the lab and offer advice and answer questions.


I can definitely see how and why science education gets the short end of the time stick. It takes dedication to want to set-up, execute and take down experiments. BUT, the enthusiasm and engagement of students demonstrates to me that science can succeed in the classroom. The right resources need to be provided to elementary teachers.

Thank you Wikipedia for the photos. Wikimedia Commons RULES!

Science is Cool!

I've been sitting in on a 5th grade class at Allen Elementary to observe how science it currently taught. It's been very educational and will greatly help in crafting my master's degree final project.

I'm excited at working to solve a problem in California schools; the lack of science education they get per week. According to a report earlier in the year, students are lucky to get 1 hour of science education a week. 1 hour!?!


The United States of America needs more engineers, chemists, biologists, mathematicians and many many other types of science/math people. It keeps us economically competative. It also benefits society by increasing the number of individuals who can successfully listen to, analyze and draw conclusions from the enormous amount of media we're bombarded with daily.

I believe that most Americans need these skills in order to:

• protect themselves from being taken advantage of (i.e. consumer debt)
• challenge their governing bodies/institutions (i.e. civil rights infringment sanctioned by legislation such as the Patriot Act) and


• help advance humanity in a positive direction through better decision making (i.e. choosing to use mass transit instead of driving, paying more for "green" products instead of products that use destructive chemicals and manufacturing processes).

While my project focuses on a specific aspect of science education, increasing it, I hope that it has far reaching effects upon society and people.

iDo: Bench Round 2

Well, now with the wedding crazies gone, I'm able to focus on iDo: Industrial Design Outreach.

Last year we rolled out a Community Bench Curriculum. It was so successful that the principal and teacher asked us back to offer the project to the next class of Thurgood Marshall students.

So far, so good. As compared to last year, the students are having a hard time grasping the concept of "community". Many of them think of sports, video games, family, marriage and pets. It's interesting to think about what community really is. How is it defined? What makes up a community...

For myself, I can say my family, my friends (which are like a family - we do Sunday dinners together), the crew of folks that I go to Burningman with, the crew of folks that I go snow skiing with, and my outdoor camping crew are all the communities that I strongly identify with. But, how would I represent that in the medium of a bench? Each community is unified by a similar point of view towards life, how we interact with others, and a belief in what our purpose is on earth. How in the world would I visually represent that??!!

It's no wonder kids have a hard time putting visuals to such a personal and sometimes shifting concept that is shaped by so many variables...


One student proposed a bench on the bench... interesting, but why a bench on a bench. She said it was because benches help to create community by providing a place for people to gather at, talk at and meet other people. Seems like a pretty good idea!

ITEC830 - San Francisco State University

Tonight was the first meeting of ITEC830 with Dr. Kim Foreman. It sounds like this will be a great class that will better inform my creative work project for the Design and Industry Department.

• ITEC830

I'm also currently enrolled in DAI805 - Graduate Seminar in New Media with Assistant Professor Paul Catanese and even in this first week of classes I can see how it will better inform my learning in the ITEC class.

Curiously, one of the first readings, As We May Think by Vannevar Bush (1945) discusses the creation and indexing of personal data and the need for combining of that data to make a larger accessible knowledge base. This idea is apparently being discussed as a possible theory of learning - connectivism. I will have to go learn more about this proposed theory.

The Pursuit of Higher Education

I'm working on my masters degree in graphic design/visual communication at San Francisco State University.