FWD: Science Lecture and Bacon
April 17, 2009 7:15 PM
Filed Under: Gerry Ward
I’m going to tell you how Genome Alberta helps inspire students to an interest in science. But first, let me tell you about an email message I got yesterday. Rather close to supper I checked my email and saw the subject line FWD: Science Lecture and Bacon. Naturally, this was the first one I opened up. Turns out I was included on a list with 15 others to receive a notice for a free public lecture on Bad Astronomy that was to occur within 3 hours, and a link to a blog of bacon recipes. I immediately planned for the lecture; however, I was somewhat disappointed that there was no apparent connection to either Roger Bacon, the Franciscan monk who in the 13th century helped develop empiricism, or Francis Bacon, the 16th century politician and scientist whose legacy was the “scientific method”.
As we filed into The Discovery Dome at the TELUS World of Science, fine Renaissance music played in the background. A quick calculation tells me that there were approximately 14 rows of 24 people across and still they had to put a few chairs out to accommodate all the people there to hear the guest speaker, Dr. Phil Plait. This outstanding turnout was occurring on the night of the first game between Calgary Flames and Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL playoffs. A few people were sporting Flames jerseys, but all in attendance ranked Dr. Plait above the game.
As the final set-up and mike testing took place, they put on ABBA’s Take a Chance on Me. Amusingly, as the host was requesting cell phones to be turned off, Dr. Plait was asking us to Tweet him. I’ve seen this kind of back channelling at the lecture by Dr. Montagnier when he gave this year’s “RB Church Lecture in Biotechnology”. There is a lot of fascinating technology out there that we are just learning to take advantage of Dr. Plait’s talk had many technology connections. One example was his comparison of astronomers using a kind of radar echo mapping similar to what bats use naturally. However, the main topic of his talk especially concentrated on some of the “bad science” technology that comes out of Hollywood. He had the audience in stitches with many hilarious examples which you can read on his website.
One take-home lesson that Dr. Plait had for the audience was that “you never know what happens when you inspire a kid for science”. His vision is that by exciting students’ interest in science it will lead many towards careers in the sciences. And even if we don’t develop all students to be scientists, it is always necessary to lead students to use critical thinking now and in their adulthood.
As I was taking this all in at Dr. Plait’s lecture, I considered all the ways we at Genome Alberta work to “inspire kids for science”. One thing for sure is that we provide a series of related blogs. Mine is written to provide students, teachers and parents to discuss topics and issues in science especially in relationship to genomics. Mike writes a blog on what he has learned about himself and others from the various personalized gene testing services available. He also keeps us up to date on what he learns from conferences and meetings with the scientists in the field. And talk about scientists in the field, we have the actual scientist who works with the Mountain Pine Beetle blogging his experiences, frustrations and findings as he works through a significant scientific problem.
Over the past 3 years, we have made presenters available at teachers’ conventions and conferences at no cost to their organizations. Presentations have been made on the most current topics in the field of genomics. We have given hands-on material of cutting edge genomic science to teachers so that they can use them directly with their students. We answer questions sent in by email from teachers wishing advice or interpretation of genomic information. We have had younger students looking for advice on science projects and we help point them in the right direction appropriately without doing their homework for them.
Additionally, Genome Alberta has made Mike’s personal gene data available for students and teachers to use for analysis, giving them real world data of actually SNP sequences. We have specifically undertaken a pilot project with the Rocky View school district to implement the Biotechnology CTS Module. Any teachers who are interested in this opportunity for next year should contact me.
Teachers can also get the use of the Gee in Genome travelling kit. We have had some excellent feedback from the teachers who have used the kit. Dates are available for the rest of this school year, and it is entirely open for September 2009. Again, contact me if you wish to book this kit.
Genome Alberta is proud of the role we play in stimulating independent project work through significant science fair award funding at Alberta regional science fairs. Awards of various monetary value are sponsored for elementary and secondary students. Genome Canada has a significant presence at the Canada-Wide Science Fair.
We will continue to look for ways to inspire students’ interest in science. If you have any suggestions or requests feel free to comment directly or send me a private email.
Posted by Gerry Ward at April 17, 2009 7:15 PM