This past January, I had the humbling privilege of attending the fourth annual Science Online conference. At the conference, I had the opportunity to meet hundreds of scientists from around the world and make a few contacts in the process. This conference allowed me to learn how to truly converse with scientists and broadened... »
Five years ago, during my first year as a biology teacher, I ordered a lab kit for my 9th grade biology students. The lab involved investigating the chromosomes of cancerous cells and identifying how they differ from non-cancerous cells. When the package arrived I read the background information provided with the lab and noticed the... »
Check out Karisa’s poem about predator-prey adaptations: »
I personally thought that the conference was just an incredible experience all around. Even though the entire event was fantastic, what really got to me were the sessions about citizen science. It was cool to see how everyday people can help scientists anywhere by recording information or executing simple experiments. Places where scientists can... »
Go here to work on the problems. When you’re attempting to answer these problems you must first answer the following questions: a) Is this a sex-linked trait or a non-sex linked trait? b) Is this a dominant trait or a recessive trait? »
This post was originally published on December 16, 2007. Not half bad? How can a disease be “not half bad”? Well, in a way, sickle cell anemia isn’t “half bad” at all! Sickle cell anemia is a disorder of the red blood cells that mainly occurs in African countries. It’s a genetic disorder where a... »
On January 15, eight students from Staten Island Academy traveled to Research Triangle Park in North Carolina for the 4th Annual Science Online Conference. Four freshman – Mike S, Jack, Alex, and Carl – joined four juniors – Melina, Salina, Brooke, and Ammar – to spend the weekend with scientists, journalists, educators, and web developers... »
In the field of marine biology, there have been many new discoveries. Some are new species, others are missing links. This post will show you some of the newly discovered species as well as some other fascinating marine species. This is a newspaper article from Hawaii about a Giant Jellyfish also known as, Anomalorhiza... »
This is a repost. The original article was published on March 6, 2008. Take this short quiz*. Answer yes or no to each question. There is no right or wrong answer so don’t think too hard about each question. Just answer it honestly. 1.My intelligence is something very basic about me that I can’t really change. 2.When... »
Why do these scientists love PCR so much? What is it? How does it work? »
by Adam “Do you guys want to play some football?” My heart jumped and I immediately said, “Yeah let’s play!” A group of sixteen of my friends marched onto the field and we selected our teams. My twin brother, Alec, was one of the captains and he picked me first. All of my friends were... »
Soccer practice was brutal. The hot summer heat made every drill twice as hard as usual. Everybody was a little bit off of their game, however I was particularly sluggish. The coaches called for a water break after finally noticing that our dehydration was significantly affecting our performance. I was dragging my feet on... »
Glendon Mellow is an extremely talented artist who uses fossils and microbes for inspiration. His work is genuinely unique and has been acknowledged and presented in several magazines and on a number of book covers. Once planning on being paleontologist, Glendon decided that rather than taking a conventional route, he would take his knowledge and... »
This is a repost. The original article was published on October 30, 2008. by Jeremy If you have heard of dogs doing tricks, now there are fish doing tricks at fish school. At fish school, operant conditioning and shapes are used to teach fish how to do tricks. Some of the tricks (which you can see... »
I was on NPR’s Science Friday this week discussing science education. My segment was aired live between 2:20-3pm. You can listen to a podcast of the segment by going to their website. If you’ve discovered this website because of the radio show, please leave a comment for my students. We’d love to hear from you! »
I’m so proud of my students who fearlessly completed our lab with the Giant Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches! Everyone did a great job. Students, share with everyone what you learned and the specific experiment you designed in the comments section below. Students who were not able to complete the cockroach lab had a great time with... »
