BioBlog

Wordle & Schol Bio

Alison Campbell • Sep 16, 2018

• scholarship biology,
• teaching,
• wordle

One of the things I do at Schol Bio workshops is work with students to identify the key themes that run through the exam questions from year to year. On the macro scale, there are three: human evolution, genetics, and animal & plant behaviour/responses to the environment (with an occasional admixture of biotechnology). At yesterday’s workshop in Tauranga, my friend … Read More

An open letter to Rethink Fluoride

Alison Campbell • Sep 12, 2018

• debate,
• fluoridation,
• fluoride,
• Social media

Dear Rethink Fluoride, Since you’ve blocked me from commenting on your page (and on this post, in particular), this seems the best way to respond to you. After all, at least some of you do follow Sciblogs. I have to say that preventing someone from commenting is particularly rich coming from a group who claim that they want to have … Read More

32

Cave bears and brown bears and admixture, oh my!

Alison Campbell • Aug 28, 2018

• admixture,
• ancient dna,
• brown bear,
• cave bear,
• ice age

Last week the story of a hybrid hominin was in the news: the discovery that remains found in Denisova Cave were those of a 13-year-old girl whose parents were a female Neandertal and a Denisovan male. This was exciting stuff: we already know, from genomic analysis, that interspecies matings involving Neanderthals, Denisovans, and H.sapiens happened – but to actually find the remains of someone … Read More

Slick propaganda has no place in science classroom

Alison Campbell • Aug 01, 2018

• creationism,
• science education

Except, perhaps, if it’s used to develop critical thinking skills. But I don’t think that’s what happened on the occasion reported under the headline Creationism taught in science class at Villa Education Trust school: [A student who’d studied at] Mt Hobson Middle School said Darwinism was taught as an unproven theory and students were shown a video purporting to … Read More

Ducks, domestication, and selection’s signature

Alison Campbell • Jul 18, 2018

• Artificial selection,
• domestication,
• genomes,
• Pekin duck

I’ve always rather liked ducks, ever since we hand-reared some ducklings back when I was still a school-kid. Mind you, the innocent me of those days didn’t know what I know now about the effects of sperm competition and sexual selection on their reproductive organs. (Those of an enquiring mind will learn more – much more! – in this … Read More

2

Science education in the 21st century – what might it look like?

Alison Campbell • Jul 03, 2018

• academic careers,
• science education,
• scientific method,
• university students

There’s a lot of rhetoric these days around educating students ‘for the 21st century’, and the need for ’21st century skills’, while (not always but often) disparaging what is currently taught & how it’s delivered. Catherine Kelsey has a good op.ed. on this on the Education Central site, in which she comments on two other opinion pieces that … Read More

11

Preparing for scholarship: critical thinking

Alison Campbell • Jun 27, 2018

• critical thinking,
• education,
• NCEA,
• New Zealand,
• scholarship biology,
• secondary education,
• teaching

I met with a local biology teacher today to talk about setting up a Schol Bio preparation day in the Waikato, and we also discussed things like the need for critical thinking skills (in addition to a solid base of knowledge from students’ year 12 & year 13 studies and time spent in reading more widely around the subject). So … Read More

1080 – ill-informed claims deserve a debunking

Alison Campbell • Jun 21, 2018

• 1080,
• conservation,
• debunking,
• Drinking water

Today a science-minded friend posted a screenshot of a post by another individual to the FB group 1080 eyewitness. Because it is a) heavy on the innuendo, b) inaccurate, and c) decidedly unpleasant, I thought it worthy of a bit of additional attention. Let’s look at c) first. The original poster claimed to have written this on the Prime Minister’s … Read More

46

Appeal to antiquity? Appeal to nature? Bingo!

Alison Campbell • Jun 13, 2018

• advertorial,
• Alternative Medicine,
• critical thinking,
• Evidence,
• evolution,
• healthcare,
• pseudoscience,
• Science

I was idly skimming the Herald’s website when I came across an article with the headline “Is plant medicine really that effective?” Since the article appears to be in the nature of an advertorial, the answer is, it depends on who you ask. Unlike man-made chemical drugs that have been developed as novel medicines from the 19th century onwards, plant medicines … Read More

3

Is there science in reflexology?

Alison Campbell • Jun 06, 2018

• critical thinking,
• education,
• Health,
• nature of science,
• NZQA,
• pseudoscience,
• reflexology

I subscribe to the Tertiary Insight newsletter (a great way to keep up with news of what’s happening in the tertiary sector). Yesterday’s edition included a statement (& a link) about the NZQA’s decision to cancel the registration of the Aromaflex Academy. It seems that this Private Training Establishment (PTE) was placed under strict conditions in January 2018, & … Read More