First Robotics Competition 2017

The Spartans had a great time this weekend in Huntsville, Al at the First Robotics Competition! The event was awesome and the accomplishments of these students is awe-inspiring. What these groups were able to design, build, and operate is nothing less than spectacular and I'm very happy to have been a part of it. Team Sparta Bots put everything that they had into this and I'm extremely proud of what they were able to do. They learned many lessons, overcame obstacles, and are hungry for more next year!

Huntsville here we come!

    I'm super excited to be heading to Huntsville, AL today for the First Robotics Competition with SpartaBots, Stratford STEM's robotics team. You can check out the competition here. It's been great helping these amazing students design and build their robot for this year's competition. I will have pictures of the even available soon! Wish us luck!

So much for sleeping in!

This is the first weekend that I've had off from work in several years where I didn't have to request it. The plan: treasure each moment of sleep and take full advantage. The reality: I was up at 7 am. I wanted to sleep in and have a nice chill morning, but I couldn't. I woke up this morning with a zeal, an anticipation of getting back to my class and getting the job done. So, what lit the fire?

Last night, Kat and I decided to go and see this movie. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest that you do! A story of applied science and struggle for equanimity? I'm in. The movie was very inspirational and definitely worth the ridiculous price of admission to theaters these days. Forgive me, I still remember paying less than $4 to see movies. In fact, there was a $1 theater in my town as a child!

So, back to tending that fire. Week one has wrapped up and rather abruptly due to snow!

It was great to meet all of the kids and start building the curriculum. I'm not going to lie and say it was perfect, that the kids were very well behaved and eager to learn. Don't get me wrong, I could see that hunger in a few faces, the hope that I was one that was going to help them learn and really improve their lives. It was great to see that look, that hope. It was also a little disheartening to see the ones eaten up by total apathy and belligerence. This presents me with my goal for next week, the one that doesn't seem to want me to sleep in on a snow covered and chilly Saturday morning: break the belligerence, inspire, and improve.

I think I spent a 3rd of this very inspirational movie thinking of ways that I can use it to motivate students, to help them see the struggles faced by people just to get accepted, educated, and given the opportunity to contribute. The three women in this film were most certainly educated and definitely contributed to what I consider a monumental feet, a very important one. They are an inspiration, one that I hope will help me cut through a jaded haze pervasive in so many high school classrooms, specifically mine. So, here's to progress, to fixing problems and moving forward, to giving these kids the tools they need to meet the challenge head on and overcome any obstacle.

Here's to week 2.

Student Teaching at Sharon School, TN

Going away card from the students

     You know, I have to say that I had a wonderful student teaching experience. I learned a lot about what teaching is like outside of a theory environment and I was lucky enough to work with wonderful teachers and amazing students. I'm really going to miss working with Missy Estes and the awesome kids at Sharon School in Sharon, TN.

     Mrs. Estes was super supportive and helpful, giving me tonnes of advice and plenty of room to practice my craft. I couldn't have asked for a better cooperating teacher. She's an amazing educator and helped me feel welcome and that I've made the right decision in my choice of careers. While working with her, I was lucky enough to attend 2 field trips with the students, one to a play in Huntingdon and the Beta convention in Nashville. Here is a picture of Mrs. Estes and me having a blast during the Beta convention:

    The Beta convention was amazing! There were around 7 thousand students at the Opryland Convention Center and the atmosphere was electric. The students were all extremely well behaved and seemed to really enjoy the trip. I mean, who wouldn't enjoy a weekend at the Opryland Convention Center!? I will post an album with pictures of the trip soon.

    Now that my student teaching experience is over, I look back and realize how much I'm going to miss these kids. They were great to work with, attentive, and eager to learn. Everyone has told me about how difficult junior high students are but I couldn't disagree more. I'm truly going to miss these kids and it's shocking how quickly and easily you become attached to them. I decided to crash the schools Christmas party a couple of weeks ago and you'd think they hadn't seen me in years! I was swarmed by a crowd of jubilant students the second I peeked my head in the door and promptly group-hugged with a vengeance! Those kids are awesome and I can only hope that I get another group like them this year.

   On my last day there, the students got together and made me a going away card...a HUGE going away card lol. It was very sweet and I can't remember ever feeling so blessed and appreciated. On top of that, Mrs. Estes made me a loaf of zucchini bread and a basket of goodies (all the great teacher swag: post-its, pens and pencils, stapler, paperclips, and other assorted supplies). I will forever look back fondly on my days at Sharon School and hope the best for Mrs. Estes, the faculty, and the amazing students!

So let's get this straight... In less than 1 month I have prepared for and graduated school with my bachelor's, found employment, found a residence, and will have moved twice. There's also beginning a curriculum from scratch for a course I've never taught before. WHEW, what a month! All in all, I couldn't be happier. It's been a whirlwind but a successful one and I can't believe that classes start in 10 days!

As soon as I'm comfortable with my place in the never-ending battle of planning, I will post pictures and reflections of some of my times during student teaching. It was a great experience and I learned a lot and made several good friends!

Here's to hitting the ground running!

Boy it's been a while!

 
     Whoa it's been a while since I was able to work on this blog! Turns out that graduation, student teaching, job search, and the search for a new home can keep one very busy lol. Needless to say, I'm back and newly employed at Stratford STEM Academy in Nashville, TN and boy do we have a lot to catch up on! I'll do my best to keep this post brief lol. I plan on posting some pictures and other items from my student teaching experience as well as some of the things I've done in my personal life in the past few months. I'm super excited to begin teaching Physical World Concepts to the Spartans of Stratford and begin my career in Nashville, TN!

Development of Possible Vaccine for the Zika Virus

     An Indian biotech firm has developed 2 vaccines to help combat the Zika virus which has been causing quite a panic throughout the Americas this year. Bharat Biotech International filed for a patent for the vaccine 9 months ago and hope to have a tested and ready vaccine in as little as 4 months. Check out the article from Russia Today here.

Francis Crick Institute Gets Go Ahead for CRISPR-Cas9 Embryological Gene Editing

     For the first time, a national regulatory authority has approved the use of gene editing research in human embryos. The Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HFEA) approved the research at the Francis Crick Institute in London and it will be headed by Dr. Kathy Niakan. The research could provide ground breaking insight into human development and help create a better understanding of the genes responsible, enabling scientist to combat developmental disorders and increase viability for those struggling with fertility. To learn more about this interesting development, check out this article in Nature.

Hack the Planet: Eco-Makers offer open source solutions to save the world

    

     Makers went wild at an innovation camp held in France last October. There's a growing online presence of makers, or resourceful and ingenious people who just love to tinker and come up with interesting solutions and improvements to everyday experiences. What happens when you put 100 capable makers in a 16th century French chateau and tell them to save the world? You get POC21. 

     This article by Michael Floyd is going to be a great asset for inspiring kids to get interested in science. Many of the projects posted on POC21's website can be done in a classroom or lab setting and will give students the opportunity to work with science, creating solutions for problems they see around them. These online maker communities, magazines, and websites can be very valuable tools for science educators and I highly recommend following several if you're not already doing so!

Quantum Dots: New Tool in Fighting Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

     Antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been in the news a lot lately. You may have heard that scientists have discovered a new strain of E. coli dubbed "pan-resistant E. coli" which is resistant to some of our strongest antibiotics. The resent emergence of these highly resistant bacteria coincides with a decline in novel antibiotic production, exacerbating the issue further. The CDC tells us that "Each year in the United States, at least 2 million people become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 people die each year as a result of these infections."

    Well, lucky for us, there may be relief in sight as scientists in Colorado have created what may turn out to be a great tool in fighting these infections: quantum dots. These nanoparticles (really tiny things, like 20,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair!) are light activated and have been shown to destroy 92% of the resistant bacterial cells while leaving other cells unscathed. This is great news because many antibiotic treatments can harm the normal microbiota (symbiotic bacteria) in the body.

   You can read more about quantum dots in the articles provided by The Huffington Post and Science Alert.

Discovery of a 9th planet in our solar system?

A recent article posted on Sciencemag.org tells us that two astronomers may have proven that a 9th planet exists past Neptune! Watch the video or read the article here.

Supreme court to hear collective bargaining rights for educators case tomorrow

Reuters tells us that the supreme court will weigh in on collective bargaining rights for educators tomorrow. Read the article here.

President Obama Signs New ESEA - Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) 2015

Check out the article by EdWeek!

"Human gene-editing research, even on embryos, is needed and should go ahead"

Scientists from around the world convened a global summit earlier this week about the ethics and use of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system. What is CRISPR you say? Well, check out this Youtube video if you'd like to learn more about the method.

At the summit, scientists essentially gave the "green light" to the use of the CRISPR-Cas9 system, but said that "moral, ethical and safety concerns would make it 'irresponsible' to proceed with clinical studies in germline cells — eggs, sperm, embryos and other cells that transmit DNA to future generations..." The summit also decided that "researchers who edit embryos or other germ cells in labs would not be doing germline editing if the resulting embryos are not implanted in the uterus for reproductive purposes...". This means that a new and effecient technique for gene editing is on the way to help scientists understand and fight genetic disease. I can't wait to see what new doors this opens for science! Read the article from ScienceNews to get the full story.

33% of Quality Arable Land Lost in the Last 40 Years

In an article by Oliver Milman, The Guardian tells us that scientists have estimated that 33% of quality arable land has been degraded and that steps need to be taken amid a global growing need for food production. This is only exacerbated by ecological struggles that continue to hit our radar. Humanity hasn't been the best steward of this planet for some time now and we're beginning to see how vast this field is that we're preparing to reap. It may be cliché, but this is the only planet we currently have. It's time to get to work!








Graphic:
http://archive.larouchepac.com/node/17776

Saving lives or euginics?

          "Alternating the promise of cures for intractable diseases with anxiety about designer babies and eugenics, hundreds of scientists and ethicists from around the world began debating the boundaries of a revolutionary technology to edit the human genetic code." Read the rest of the article here.