– – – Presented on March 10th, 2009 at the Second Annual Most Exceptional Escapades in Science (This Time Also Darwinian) High School Student Conference, Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia.
The Science Creative Quarterly
From classroom
TERRY TALKS VIDEO: TIFFANY TONG – REDEFINING BOUNDARIES, URBAN AGRICULTURE
(From Terry talks, November 22, 2008) How often do we connect the words “urban” and “agriculture” in our brains? The word “urban” conjures up a concrete jungle where skyscrapers dominate the grey sky. The word “agriculture” makes me see rows after rows and fields after fields of green crops and livestock dotting the landscape. These words seem to be an unlikely duo to be integrated and be able to produce surprising benefits. But they do. According to the International Development Research Centre, 15% of all food eaten in cities world-wide is grown by city dwellers. Urban agriculture actually provides many…
BAKE FOR A CHANGE 2008: GAME ON!
Or as Dave S. (creator of this great idea) might say, can we call it BFAC2008? Anyway, for those of you who have an annual tradition of putting together a gingerbread house, why not do it this year with a sustainability twist? That’s right! our sister site’s own “Bake for a Change” is a contest where you, as the submission details say, apply sustainable building design practices to a gingerbread house. Anyway, those details in full are presented here, and you can see last year’s entries by checking through this Flickr group. If you do check the flickr page out…
TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY: DOES SCIENCE MATTER?
— Watch/Download the movie (~168Mb mpeg file) | image from here — – – – Dr. William Rees. Professor, School of Community and Regional Planning. October 24th, 2008 “It’s Your Experiment!” Science Teacher Conference. Michael Smith Laboratories, UBC – – – Description: A 30 minute lecture looking at whether science is enough. And if not, what elements of human behaviour are dictating or thwarting our efforts towards a sustainable future. Prof Rees’ teaching and research focus on the public policy and planning implications of global environmental trends and the necessary ecological conditions for sustainable socioeconomic development. Much of this work…
A WRITING ACTIVITY: ARE YOU THERE HUMANS? IT’S ME, PLASTIC.
(pdf of this activity is available for download by clicking here) – – – This workshop aims to teach environmental and social responsibility while exercising student empathy by having students write letters from the point of view of inanimate objects or animals. Coincidentally, good writing habits and understanding of narrative techniques are developed in the process (but don’t tell them.) Who cares about the ecosystem? It’s boring. And it just sits there. It’s quite undeniable at this point: we’ve messed up the Earth pretty good in our time here so far. There’s carbon in the air and chemicals in the…
BIOSPHERE REPORT CENTRE
This page is the report centre for three biopsheres set up with a class from Vancouver’s Admiral Seymour Elementary School. This is part of the pilot run for the Science Creative Literacy Symposia. Full details for setting up the biosphere can be found at Martin John Brown’s website (direct link pdf of article published in MAKE magazine found here). – – – DAY 01 NOTES:(From left to right), [1] “Shrimpy’s New Home”; (shrimp names) Flipsy, Zippy; (smail names) Floaty, Gary, Boulder. [2] “Biosphere EJKKPPLF”; (shrimp names) Thumper, Jumper; (snail names) n/a; [3] “Schnomadome”; (shrimp names) John Doe, Boe Doe; (snail…
ANNOUNCING OUR PROFESSIONAL MOLECULAR BIOLOGY WORKSHOP
JULY 21 – JULY 25, 2008
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY TECHNIQUES WORKSHOPS (SUMMER 2008 PROGRAM): Now accepting registration To register, please contact Dr. David Ng at db@interchange.ubc.ca (1) ONE WEEK VERSION Dates: July 21st – 25th, 2008 Price: CAN$1250 (does not include room or board) Reviews and Testimonies Can be found here. INSTRUCTOR: Dr. David Ng DESCRIPTION: This intense one week workshop will focus on a myriad of different techniques used in the molecular manipulation of DNA, RNA and protein. Primarily aimed at researchers who are new to the area, or familiar but require a quick updating. Procedures that will be covered both practically and theorectically can be…
IT’S OFFICIAL – INTRODUCING THE “SCIENCE CREATIVE LITERACY SYMPOSIA”
Presumably, art and sciences interact a little like this? The Science Creative Literacy Symposia is a new fieldtrip program offered at the University of British Columbia, and is designed to provide an engaging outreach experience for students at the Grade 6/7 level. Here, the intent is to combine elements of science exploration with expository creative writing with the aim of fostering skills in written literacy, scientific literacy, as well as develop appreciation in interdisciplinary connections. – – – Hosted by the Advanced Molecular Biology Lab at the Michael Smith Laboratories, and by the fine folks at the UBC Creative Writing…
BC YOUTHS RECEIVE RICH SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING TALKS ON EARTH DAY WEEKEND (PLUS A GLIMPSE INTO TRIUMF’S SATURDAY MORNING LECTURE SERIES).
(This piece is about Earth Day last year – and to also note that this year’s Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd) – – – It promised to be a great weekend. Earth Day was just around the corner. And ready for that occasion, the TRIUMF research facility on south campus was set to deliver a special version of its monthly Saturday Morning Talks, an outreach initiative spearheaded by the UBC Graduate Student Society and aimed at high school and layman audiences. The topic was to be hydrogen fuel cells. Although the occasional mention of fuel cells might…