There are few good reasons to learn science, but if you want to know the universe outside the nutty human sphere wrapped around most of us in this part of the world, that should be reason enough. I hear a lot of educated people give inane reasons for learning science. No, you do not need to know science in order to get through life--plenty on ...

Theology alert--feel free to jump in.... This was inspired by Father Sean and Brother John and the Reverend Scott. Balance. We need balance in our lives. Overwhelmed? Seek balance. An innocuous philosophy--who could possibly be against balance? A madman in the back wildy waves hand--and (again) I get sent out of the ...

Is part of a public education reminding a child of her mortality? And if so, would the task fall upon the biology teacher? It's not a trivial matter. For all the posturing by folks at the national level about our record college enrollment rates, almost a third of graduating high school senior do not go. Many of those that do go are going to ...

Caught in the race against time The pit and the pendulum Check the rhythm and rhymes While I'm bendin' 'em Snakes blowin' up the lines of design Tryin' to blind the science I'm sendin' 'em How to fight the power Cannot run and hide But it shouldn't be suicide Public Enemy What do you teach a young adolescent? How much of the truth do you ...

Paddling directly into into a 20 mph breeze for 40 minutes burns a lot of calories--figure about 500, give or take 150.We gathered two dozen clams, from little necks to chowders, and probably burned another couple hundred calories. Our clams provided us with maybe 350 calories. Oh, we got all kinds of goodness from them, fresh clams scream with ...

Plants strip electrons from water, and use them to help store energy in organic compounds. The left-overs are oxygen molecules. Any schoolchild knows we need oxygen, but few educated adults know why. If you hold a flame to cool glass, a small patch of condensation forms, a brief patch of fog. It is unexpected, and often missed, unless you look ...

OK, I'll clam up about the quahogs for now, though I might not resist a report on the Great October Clam Hunt coming up in a few days.*** We are spending time in biology talking about biogeochemical cycles and energy transfer. Carbon is cycled. So is water. Nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium. We use stuff over and over, yet we depend on other ...

The New Jersey state curriculum for science opens with this: The New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Science reflect the belief that all students can and must learn enough science to assume their role as concerned citizens, equipped with necessary information and decision-making skills. Students best learn science by doing science. ...