Getting kids interested and engaged in science can be a difficult task. Getting them interested for the duration of a full school year is near impossible. This task is potentially more difficult for middle school teachers than any other educator I have had the pleasure to work with. Here is a tale of how the …
Class: Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies: The First Step in Entrepreneurship Platform: Coursera Length: 7 hours a week for 6 weeks. Subject: Business. Certificate: No. My rating: 4/5 When I signed up for Developing Innovative Ideas for New Companies, it wasn’t because I was struggling running Insanitek. It was because there are many Insanitekians …
Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I have long been a fan of the Dyson vacuums because they worked better than anything I have ever heard of (though I’ve yet to get one). Thus, when I saw this book sitting calmly on the library shelf, I reached …
Class: Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade Platform: Coursera Length: 4 – 5 hours a week for 6 weeks. Subject: English language. Certificate: Yes, free upon successful completion of the course. My rating: 4/5
Many times when working across fields, there is a lot of miscommunication, misapprehension, and misunderstandings. Sure, there may be an overlap in ideas, but it’s the nitty-gritty details that trip people up. This poor fellow had a classic case of what a lot of interdisciplinary people feel when they are just starting out: lost for …
All too often I hear people say, âWhy should I care what goes on in science. It doesn’t affect me.â Flabbergasted, I point out to them that lots of environmental research was going on in their own neighborhood on water pollution or air pollution. I’ll show them an EPA site or two where they can …
Transport yourself back to ancient times, and place yourself into the Celtic culture. It’s the end of autumn, and you’re around a bonfire dressed up to ward off the dead. This is the holiday known to the ancient Celts as Samhain (pronounced sow-in).
So, you’ve had an idea in your head for a while, and you want to turn it out into a product. Do you know how to go about it? There is a certain process cleverly called “the R&D cycle” that walks you through the steps to get your idea from your brain and ready for …
Often times effective presentation skills seem like a forgotten art. They’re treated as an afterthought, as can be seen in lecture hall after lecture hall on any university campus. Presentations are marginally better during academic conferences where the speaker is talking to an audience that presumably cares about the topic at hand. However, even these can seem rushed and cobbled together. …
The hot topic of diversity is not exclusive to schools and the workforce; it also exists in museums. At a Board of Directors meeting at Imagination Station, they discussed not only how to generate diversity in patronage, but how to generate more interest in the museum. When I was asked for my opinion, I was …