Chapter 9

Did I miss anything?

This chapter was a wonderful story of perseverance…by Tovani.  As I was reading her problem in the beginning, I thought to myself, how many problems can these kids have, and how is she going to get to all of them.  She surprised me by saying “you don’t have to”.  She had kids who were homeless, sleeping, fighting, and yelling about stupid assignments.  This is a fear I have always had in my classroom and my one thought is “well thank God I’ll be the teacher and I can send them to detention.  Seriously, this has been my one missing piece in practicums and I thought it will all get better once I can threaten them.  This is what I have always seen in classrooms when it gets out of hand.  Threats about what will happen if they don’t stop.  Tovani plays it off very well in this chapter and whether she does anything at the time, I don’t know, but what I do know is eventually one of her kids writes her a personal note in his homework, asking to redo some of his earlier work.   I have always thought to myself “man I got lucky” when I ask a teacher if I can turn in work late or redo it and they let me.  Now I realize that a teacher isn’t just out to get the students grades down or be there to say I told you so, but they are there to encourage and get the students to do the work for themselves.  Yes, in some small part I realized this before but in all of the Evangel teachers I have seen a different style than my public schools.  Public schools are driven for making the grade because you have to or you will fail.  I want to find a different way to motivate, a better way, and a healthy way.  I want to find a way that helps kids learn from their own writing and ponder questions themselves.  Not everyone likes answering questions created by a teacher, but everyone likes finding out answers to their own questions. 

Tovani Chapter 8

What do I do with all these sticky notes?

This chapter, Tovani focuses on how to grade student work, and how to get them to want to do the work for you.  In the beginning of the chapter, she talks with a group of seniors that think this class is much like the rest, big test they study for the night before.  She informs them that it is more participation based but it is basically tests every day.  She also goes into different forms of assessment, like the reading log I am doing right now.  She talks about getting kids to be interested in what they are doing instead of just doing it for teachers or parents.  All this is again a great strategy to make students feel valued.  However, I reflected on this chapter and how it applies to me and it seems to hit home for my assumptions for my classroom.  I will be a Biology teacher in about a year.  Will I do notes for 3 weeks and then hit the kids with a test?  Will I be the teacher that doesn’t think outside the box and stresses kids out? Maybe, but at least now with this chapter in mind I can help create some “padding” as she calls it for the students grades.  One of my greatest weaknesses in school is skipping assignments.  If I know that I only lose 25 points for an assignment, and I don’t want to do it, it won’t get done.  However, if I know that an assignment is work 100 points, that sounds much bigger and worth my time doing well.  If I can harness this thinking and mentality of my own, then maybe I can help students not to have that internal battle of “can my grade survive this”.  If all my assignments seem too heavy to skip then they may just surprise me and do them well.  I will also have to have serious craft with creating my assignments.  The more mundane and normal they are, the more students will debate doing them because they get bored doing the same thing over and over. 

Tovani Chapter 7

Group Work that grows understanding

In this chapter, Tovani focuses on Small group learning.  She is very good at analyzing her own successes and failures in all areas because she reviews it openly in this book.  She talks about organizing small groups in class and how it used to be harder.  She talks about the ease of small group setup now that the rules have been established and all the students have come to a consensus.  Overall this chapter was a very enlightening small group organizer that I can refer to when I try to set them up.  I especially liked the areas on student input, when she describes how she asks the students what they want to see in the small groups.  Input like this is a good motivator to show the students that they have power and can contribute their ideas and wants.  When a student feels valued, they will do a lot for you, including not goofing off in a small group.  A scary thought for me has always been highschool classroom grouping, and trying to keep kids on task.  I know it was a problem for me; I reflect to a time when we used to go into the hall and read a chapter a day in a book.  After 13 chapters, or rather after 13 days, the teacher caught my friends and I trading pokemon cards in the hall as we had been doing the past 13 days during reading time.  This was a gross waste of time and could have been handled if we were monitored, or had been told what questions we should ask ourselves when reading.  I used reflection, relativity, and decided how I was going to utilize this information while I read this chapter and feel like I can retain it better now.

choice reading 15

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/xmrv-lawsuit-arrest/#more-88021

How a Collapsing Scientific Hypothesis Ended in an Arrest

A recent discovery, or at least a thought of discovery, was made with the retro virus called XMRV. This retrovirus was implicated as the cause of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome(CFS) and a cause of prostate cancer. Both were discoveries made in labs while testing mice with this retrovirus. A scientist was put on the task force to find out if CFS is caused by this retro virus. This is a huge concern because CFS was thought to be psychosomatic or self caused. After investigation, the scientist was arrested, and the hypothesis was disproved by 9 labs all testing both infected and blind trials. This is an interesting article and classroom application would be useful to say that not all results are concrete. Even in the professional world, scientific labs can get it wrong, and further trials must be done to ensure our results as well as we can. This is a good example for students to use repeated trials to gain their results, double check their work, and take their time. Discoveries like this can change the way the world looks at treatment, but for the classroom it can mean disproving daily procedures that are in a lab manual and should be right*.

Choice reading 14

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/yeti-crab-arms-food/#more-88392

Deep-Sea Yeti Crab Farms Food on Its Arms

A new crab was discovered in 2006 that farms food on its arms. It grows bacteria, or rather helps them grow by waving its arms over methane vents on the seafloor. This action provides bacteria with the nutrients to grow, and after they grow the crabs eat them. This is a new discovery where an animal provides bacteria growth tools and literally farms its own food. This would be an interesting animal to present to a class to provide the students with new discoveries. This is important for a classroom because students, or at least I, thought that all the discoveries were basically made in the animal world. Technology changes have improved a lot for discovering every corner of the planet, but discoveries like this may not introduce new animals, but they show different behaviors. Differing behaviors are just as exciting to me, they show a change in animal behavior or an improvement and this shows evolution. Micro evolution is greatly exciting to me and I love hearing about articles like this.

Choice reading 13

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/kepler-22b/#more-88418

Potentially Earth-Like Planet Has Right Temperature for Life

The planet Kepler-22b is a possible inhabitable planet. Scientists have discovered that this planet orbits a star that is much like our sun and keeps this planet at about 70 degrees Celsius. It is still unknown whether this planet has a global ocean on it due to its distance of 270 lightyears away. What scientists are trying to figure out is if it already has life. They figure, if another planet has life, then life is common, and we may find more planets with life on them. I found this a curious discovery. This discovery could show life on other planets and would make it very interesting for a science class to discuss. I believe in a young earth, around 7 thousand years of age. This discovery would probably disprove my belief and make me consider that there are other planets out there with life and God could have spread us out so much more during the Tower of Babel incident. This would be a great discussion in Church as well.

Choice reading 12

Www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/bird-counting-flying-robot/

Huge potential breakthrough appeared in ecological studies with a remote controlled airplane. Ecologists were having trouble analyzing numbers of birds on a particular island as they would fly away when they got anywhere near the shore. They simply wanted to count them and analyze the biodiversity but if the animals get scared it's game over. With a new spin on already created technology, they used remote controlled airplanes with gps trackers and cameras attached to the bottom of the planes. With the cameras they took pictures of the island below and they were able to count up the birds and wildlife without disturbing anything below. This type of research has enormous possibilities for ecologists everywhere to be less interfering in nature. For the classroom, this encourages further examination of already used or unused technology in the ecological field. Students need to think outside the box or even inside the box in the coming years to be able to stay a step ahead of competition. Competition is their peers and any other students that will want jobs in the future. I will make a note to encourage thought of technology like this because it is a good example to rethink old tech.

Choice reading 11

Www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/spider-mite-fossil-amber/ A prehistoric mite has been found attached to an ancient spider fossil. This fossil has been dated back 30 million years and a mite has been found attached to it encased perfectly in yellow amber. Finds like this are very much like the jurassic park movie; they claim to find specimens that are preserved so well that their bodies can survive for generations undecomposed. This type of fossil can be studied by scientists and much can be learned from the ancient bodies. The stages of evolution of that organism to now, the discovery of new species, and even rediscoveries of organisms. All these are extremely important to both paleontologists and zoologists. For a teacher, this type of find is very important to future paleontologists and students interested in these types of research. It is important to foster students growth with articles like these to let them know that not all has been discovered yet. With the world being mapped out, such advanced technology, and so many scientists out there in the field, it is easy to think that there's nothing left to do. This is what I once thought and this is what I need to communicate with my students. There is still so much to do out there, so much you can do if you want to.

Draper chp 11

What is literacy Draper Chp 11. pg. 159-161 In these few pages they said exactly what I was planning on saying. Chapter 11 focuses on bringing all the chapters together and saying why we need to (re)imagine content area literacies. We must do this, according to Draper, because "working together, literacy specials and content area teachers place themselves in the best possible position to attain what they care about most, the wellbeing of their communities". I consider communities to mean content area specialties. I was going to say that we must (re)imagine content area literacies because teachers need to work together with literacy specialists as well as outside content areas to form a community. If we don't form it now, we won't have it. If we form this foundation and keep a mentality that we will cooperate with other teachers in other fields as well as constantly challenge ourselves to teach better then we will not get stuck in the same rut that thousands of teachers are in. Burn-out occurs because teachers get bored, and those without the heart of a teacher also get burn-out very quickly in a community lacking school. Teachers challenge each other, inspire each other, and teach each other. If we can (re)imagine content area literacy now before we even know what our content literacy is, then we might have a shot at correcting future mistakes.

Technology in the classroom

Blake and Harry- Technology in the classroom Technology in the classroom is both vital and changing. We need to stay current on the technology in our areas or we will quickly lose our students to dull, mind numbing routines. For instance the black board, how long has the black board been around? We need to get rid of them wherever possible, students don't like them, I don't like them. I feel like a PTA member but whenever I was in a classroom with outdated technology I felt much more bored with the class no matter what it was. When we watched dvds on reptiles or got to get the laptop lab out it was a good day. One piece of technology that I think will be up and coming in the science field will be the Ipad 2. I am typing on one at the moment actually, it will almost certainly replace laptops in the classroom. The apps available on the Ipad 2 help with any class including sciences. There are maps of the solar system, diagrams for anatomy, and even videos showing how bacteria infect host cells. The only reason I survived microbiology was my Ipad 2 and the helpful videos it provided me on bacterial transformation. In the near future I will expect to see more Ipads in the classroom as well as future technology to slowly creep in, and this would be a good thing.

School trip

Andy, Chad, and Stephan- School Trip One school trip I can't wait to take with my future students will be to a science museum. Things I will need to remember to do will be permission slips for every student. Students in highschool like to use field trips to ditch school. I need to have every student accounted for. Another area will be funds. Will I be getting reimbursed by the school or will I be having the students parents pay for their own students? Can the students parents all pay for a trip to the museum? I will need to consider the area I am in, how close the museum is to our school and whether or not it will detract from their other classes. I would probably take one class at a time so that I only have approximately 20 students per trip. More than 20 students will require additional teachers that I don't know if I can recruit. If I do take 20 students at a time I will have to make repeat trips to the museum. I will probably make them fill out a worksheet while there to make sure they take the trip seriously. If the students have questions I will be near the entire time. I would be the main chaperone for the trip since I would not want to disturb other teachers. Overall it would be a very educational trip and I look forward to taking it.

Brain based research

Emily and Natalie- Brain based research The article reviewed brain based research and its' effect on education. Brain based research is the study of the brain and through it we expect to find out about study approaches and students thoughts. Brain based research is a very clashing issue topic in the education field. Some believe that it should be applied in the education field and utilized for its findings. Others believe that it has no place in the classroom and it is all just guesswork. There is research on both sides to support using or not using brain based research but I will go at the issue from another way. I like brain based research that studies how to best approach individual students, however, I feel that more research on mass student groups, and the approach we take as a whole is not improved enough yet. The mind of students is individual and different for every child. Attention is what drives many students and if we give them that then we can be assured of higher achievement. More time spent studying their brains so that we can bang out a fool proof curriculum is a waste of time I feel.

What makes a good teacher

Joe and Autumn AOW What makes a good teacher? The article discussed whether or not future schools should hire teachers that do not have teaching degrees. Several states are starting to accept teachers with professional experience in their field of study. This I feel takes away from the quality of the teacher. There is no arguing that a teacher with real life experience is a good thing, however, a professional without teaching experience is a bad thing. We are teachers in our hearts and our education helps bring it out. Professionals for the most part, do not have the heart of a teacher and they just want the extra cash. The teaching profession requires a lot of things that professionals may not have, patience, love, and a heart for teaching. I keep saying heart for teaching but the point is clear in my mind. Teachers want to teach, those with the 2 year degrees did not want to teach. Now if they truly do change their mind and want to get into teaching, then more power to them. For the most part, the friends that I have seen get into teaching after they were professionals have trouble adjusting and do not like their students.

choice reading 10

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/solar-system-may-have-lost-fifth-giant-planet/#more-86117

Astronomer David Nesvorney in a Texas Research Institute believes that the solar system may have lost a giant planet. This would be called the 5^th giant planet because we already have 4, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Earth. David believes that this planet was “kicked” out of the solar system and that this is a common occurrence among solar systems across the neighboring galaxies. After running simulations, some failed, and one worked. The problem resided with the icy belt around Neptune and an apparent anomaly 600 million years ago. With a planet ejected, the current planets lineup worked and the icy belt around Neptune was explained. I don't know if I completely agree with the 600 million years ago hypothesis, however, it is interesting that there could have been an additional planet. This would be good extra reading material for a class, especially those interested in space. It would also be interesting if in the future I had to teach lessons based on this new knowledge, or had to teach based on theories of planets here 600 million years ago.

choice reading 9

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/x-ray-laser-earth-core/#more-86347

ID24 is a new powerful laser capable of imitating the earths core. It creates insane pressure and temperature to mimic the earths core. It is capable of acting on very small particles of matter to study what will happen to elements like copper when put to the test. By May 2012, the beamline will be sold around the world for approximately 150 million. This is a huge breakthrough for science as a cheaper solution to beam technology as well as possibilities for testing elements. For students, this is an excellent article to show them the new technologies emerging. This could be job stimulation as well as an interesting read. As for me, I remember my driving force throughout highschool was the dream of someday working for Nvidia making graphics cards. I have since changed that dream but it was still fun to research and I got much better grades then I would have if I hadn't intended on being a computer scientist. Dreams drive students and we should look for articles like this to give them direction, career aspirations, or even just a critical thinking read.

choice reading 8

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/branching-tree-physics/#more-86478

A rediscovered formula for tree growth explains why trees don't splinter when they grow. The immense weight created by a trees branches would make a person wonder why they don't splinter. There is a formula created by Leonardo Di Vinci explains how a tree grows so that its branches do not splinter the tree. The author claims it may have something to do with the way the water and nutrients are transported up the trunk. The mathematics involved are quite complex but the point is that students might be interested in topics like this. When the curriculum isn't enough, teachers can go beyond the general education information and challenge their students. With articles like this and information like this out on the internet, it gives me a go to for critical thinking. I may not be interested in how trees grow but students are. My subject area in biology is huge, I can't cover all the topics, and I cannot interest every individual student through lectures.

choice reading 7

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/artificial-meat-economics/#more-86507

The article centers around the debate for growing or not growing artificial meat. Beef is a stable resource that we depend on in this country as well as other developed countries. One pound of beef, however, takes about 7 pounds of plant material to make. There simply isn't enough room, according to the author, to be able to feed 7 billion people a healthy diet of meat. Artificial meat is on the rise in debate and in practice. The growing of this meat takes much work with stem cells, brilliant scientists, and a truckload of money. Therefore the question is “should we continue to search for an alternative to home grown livestock, and is it even necessary?” I would agree with the author that it is necessary but is it likely to be completed in the near future, no. I can use articles like this in my classroom to encourage critical thinking. If we can debate over the necessity of artificial meat culturing labs, then we can certainly get some critical thinking done about my standard curriculum.

Choice Reading # 6

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/living-fossil-eel/

Living fossil eel

A rare eel has been rediscovered, and is now being studied to find a genetic link. Studies have found that this eel has features such as its jaw structure and relatively small number of vertebrae. Which these have been found only in fossils of the earliest eels. This is a breakthrough for evolutionary biologists, because they thought the eels had broken off at 100million years and had lost these features. Even current hagfish had confused biologists for a while with their jawless mouth, but biologists concluded that it broke off from modern fish and lost the jaw apparatus. Studies like this interest me because they provide common links between animals and their features. Not only do they help us relate animals to one another but they help me piece together our world and where animals come from. It also helps me form a better understanding of God's world. While I don't agree with the timeline of most evolutionary biologists, I can agree that animals share many characteristics in growth with one another. This should help me in the classroom to make connections with students, and relate information to them through comparison.

Choice Reading # 5

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/vertebrate-lineage/

Vertebrate lineage

Evolutionary biologists from Cornell University have apparently discovered that almost all vertabrates descended from a fish. In this article there are a lot of probably's and suppositions made by the evolutionary biologists at Cornell. The author, Mark Brown, is careful to write this article from a stand off point. The biologists also claim that electroreception abilities are found in some land vertabrates, but not reptiles, birds, and mammals. These electroreception abilities are apparently found in ancient sensory systems and have a common evolutionary heritage. This supposedly gives more evidence to an evolutionary link between all mammals and fishes. I think articles like these give little evidence to support either side of the creationism vs evolution debate, but it is good to find articles like this to cast out of consideration. I have read many articles like this that provide information that may link us to some different animal that “proves” we evolved through macro evolution. All of these articles fall short and have not earned my stamp of legitimacy. I would like to see what Christian researchers have to say about this data however.

Choice Reading # 4

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/clothed-chimpanzees-protection/

Clothed chimpanzees protection

This was an interesting article created by Virginia Morell, a bio nerd much like me I'm sure. This article addressees the misuses of using chimpanzees and other primates in commercials for human sales. The problem with using animals to sell products is that the public begin to see the animals in this light and it is harder for them to view these animals in any other way. With chimps habitats being destroyed, or rescue efforts on areas being attempted, the groups attempting these endeavors need funding. When they go to look for this funding they get confused looks because chimps are the tv clowns. At first reading this article I laughed too, but it affects my future classroom as well. The animals and things I teach on might already have a presupposed picture about them before I teach it. Students nowadays know about sex before the end of elementary school, they learn what cancer is and how it works, and they learn things like evolution vs creationism. They learn all these things, or at least they learn what impression it makes on those around them. Humans learn by experiences and those closest to us growing up have a profound impression on our learning. I hope I can be a positive impression and be a teacher that helps kids grow in knowledge instead of kicked to the curb, because they already have their presuppositions.

Choice reading # 3

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-10/500000-usda-grant-could-help-genetically-modified-salmon-company-stay-afloat

USDA grant could help genetically modified salmon company stay afloat

 

Humans have been eating genetically modified crops for a while now, but we have not been eating genetically modfied animals. If the USDA approves the grant for this company, Aqua Bounty, then we will soon have a new type of food. Genetically modified salmon that grow twice the rate of normal salmon, and are mainly bottom feeders. The problem is that other companies have lost grant money from the FDA after it has been promised, and this shut their research down almost instantly. The company has already invested 67 million dollars into this project and they are trying to get the fish approved for public sale. It would be interesting to start eating genetically modified food. I imagine star trek like food someday, where we can click a button and make food appear. It's a stretch, but if we can genetically modify things how far can we go?

Readacide Gallagher Chp 1 Excerpt

         The excerpt had a huge list of “hard talk” questions. These questions are all focused on classrooms and how reading is taught. These questions also suggest that if we don't do something about reading and how it is taught, we will leave our childrens' learning behind. One included feature in this excerpt is a chart of the benefits of “beating the odds” schools. This chart is a list of the mundane performance of “typical schools” and “beating the odds schools”. One study by Langer found that schools that rely solely on one dominant approach only are unlikely to rise to the level of an effective school.

         This excerpt was meant to inspire thought provoking thinking in the way we teach reading. I found it to be dull besides the questions on the sheet. The chart of the benefits of “beating the odds” schools was a classic approach to inspire their motives. I understand that hard hitting questions and change help, however, charts like this prove nothing for me. The connection I made was with questions like “Why is it that the higher the grade level, the higher the chances that students are turned off to reading?”. This question made a personal connection with me, as I am going into highschool biology teaching. I need to know what the correlations are between age and reading so that I can combat it. I also liked the question “are our students doing enough academic reading?” This is true especially with Facebook and many other social media networking sites. Most of the reading kids do is selecting their next songs, searching the internet, and talking to friends on Facebook. I believe one way to combat this is by introducing students to short news stories that interest them. Kids already love updates on their friends, and all kids have favorite subjects and hobbies. If they can get access to quick news updates on their favorite things it will open them up to reading more news and stories about subjects that are not so pertinent to them. Therefore, my job will be to not only find these news articles for them, but also to find out what areas they find interesting.

Finding the sweet spot, chapter 4

         This chapter was all about finding the sweet spot, obviously. The author had several examples from baseball to romeo and juliet, but all illustrated the need for a sweet spot of reading instruction. Over teaching a subject results in chopped up reading. When a teacher has the student read a chapter, goes over it for that class period and continues this for weeks on end. This chops up the book and disrupts reading flow. Just as detrimental, under teaching involves throwing the book at kids and expecting them to understand it. There is a sweet spot for reading that keeps kids intrigued but also helps them read it themselves. Only then do they achieve reading flow and learn something from what they are reading.

         This chapter made a lot more sense than many things I have read for this class. I understand the extremes on both sides. I remember classes where the teacher had us read one chapter and then went over it in class and repeated this process for almost a month. I of course read about a page of each chapter, just enough to summarize and make it look like I read the chapter. This wasn't due to the lack of intrest in the book, it was due to the butchering of my reading flow. When I get into a book, like Harry Potter, I will read for up to 4 hours. This is a good thing, and I retain much of the knowledge that I am reading about. I can also play a video game for up to 6 hours without eating or moving much. This is because I have achieved a sweet spot of interest and challenge for my mind. My parents told me so many times, if I could just achieve this with my education, I could have a 4.0 and be in ivy league schools. Now I apply this to my future students, if I can just achieve this with my classroom, I will tap into flow that has limitless potential. Not just because they pay attention to academic material for a couple hours, but because they get interested in the academic material.

Jo Draper Chapter 1

Aims and Criteria for Collaboration in Content-Area Classrooms

The beginning of Jo Drapers book focuses on the need for collaboration in all classrooms. This collaboration is necessary due to the lack of knowledge and resources necessary in most content areas to sustain student learning. Due to the range of texts and classroom types, a (re)imagining of content literacy is necessary. Draper argues that all educators can be, should be, and probably are literacy educators. Through collaboration with different content area teachers, we will gain a greater perspective on how literacy should be taught and strategies used.

This chapter was very wordy and focused much on convincing me that (re)imagining content area literacy is necessary. Re-imaging content area literacy from drapers perspective seems to be collaborating with other teachers of different content areas and gaining their perspective on literacy. To me, re-imagining content area literacy is trying to rethink how you teach. As soon as I read the words it made me think of teachers who have taught me to rethink my strategies for studying. Upon further thought, I remember my parents telling me to rethink my actions when I do something wrong. Therefore my connection with Re-imagining is a connection that is personal and private reflection. It makes sense to add collaboration into the mix though, with collaboration increases external knowledge. It will be tougher though to get some teachers to collaborate. Some teachers will be set in their ways and not want to incorporate others input, especially mine being a new teacher.

A Game plan for Mom and Dad

In Biology, one of the greatest parent needs is for the parent to have security that their child is being attentive.  One situation I will have often with my students is their lack of attentiveness to the subject.  If a student doesn’t want to pay attention in elementary school, we challenge the parents to get more involved. If a student doesn’t want to pay attention in college, they skip class, and who cares they are the ones paying.  Highschool is a whole different area of attentiveness, it is part the teachers responsibility and part the student.  If a parent came to me and said “you aren’t teaching Johnny well enough because his grade is poor”.  I would have to reflect on his performance, show his parent the grades Johnny is receiving and communicate how he is in class.  If he is constantly sleeping or inattentive then I can explain this might not be a problem on my end, not completely.  I would also research with other teachers to find out if this is a pattern Johnny has or if it is just Biology class that he is disinterested in.  Often the student has trouble in several subjects, and if it isn’t the teacher, or the subject, then it may be a deeper problem.    

Choice Reading #2

Captive Breeding Could Transform the Saltwater Aquarium Trade and Save Coral Reefs http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110920121612.htm Science Daily Marine biologists at The University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute are creating new methods to more efficiently breed saltwater aquarium fish. These fish include raising seahorses, plankton and invertebrates in captivity in order to preserve the biologically rich ecosystems of the world's coral reefs. The author sides with the researchers of The University of Texas in saying that capturing and selling has got to go. The author explains that 80% of traded animal deaths are due to cyanide solution capturing, the traditional method. This method involves divers pumping cyanide solution into coral and putting the animals to sleep. This method causes many deaths from travel and the animals that cannot get away from the poison. This is unacceptable to the scientists at UT, they are creating breeding tanks and utilizing tanks already created by Seaworld and others. Through these methods they have successfully breaded over 9 species, some of which were giving researchers trouble. This new method will hopefully releive the stress on the saltwater environment, and create happier, healthier animals for shops to sell. The research that is being done is a great asset to the saltwater environment. Many could read this article and leave it to the biologists to care or to get involved. I feel that this would be a mistake, and one of the best things we can do is understand the impact that saltwater species have on our place in the ecosystem. One aspect I considered while reading the article was a question, "what would happen if all the seahorses or plankton died out?". The food chain would be abruptly changed. The plankton provide a huge amount of foot in the ecosystem and without them the whales would die out and the filter feeders and so on. We must do whatever we can to stop the death of food chain members which includes the saltwater fish. The market will never die out, we need the fish to eat, and if we must commercially sell them then we should at least do what we can to capture and raise the fish safely.

Choice Reading #1

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-09/laser-mere-strength-laser-pointer-can-detect-ieds-distance Title: laser mere strength laser pointer can detect ieds distance In this article, the author, Clay Dillow, describes the ongoing work of an MSU professor named Marcos Dantus. The work being done by Marcos is described as the building of a "laser pointer" that can detect IEDs. This would be extremely useful in the military branches to save our soilders some 60% of deaths according to the Mr. Dillow. Unseen IEDs are bombs that can be mines or any explosives that lay in the field for defense. Though the author doesn't specifically say, one problem with IEDs is that after wars, IEDs are usually not retrieved by the defending forces, and therefore they lay and wait until someone runs over it and dies unnecessarily. It is highly possible that the researchers who are doing this work are trying to reduce these deaths by trying to find undetonated IEDs. The research being done pertains to a laser that can detect up to one billionth of a molecule released into the air from explosives. Marcos seems very sure according to Mr. Dillow, and thinks that his laser is unlike the many they have seen. Marcos claims that this will save lives, and detect explosives from a safe distance even if they are buried underground. Mr. Dillow is quite capable in grabing the readers attention and getting straight to the point. I'd assume he has much more information on this subject and from the interviews with Marcos he has gotten quite up to date on IEDs. The reader doesn't need all this information and this is a great example of a well written short article.

mr hollands opus

Reading review- Mr Hollands opus In this article the author appears to be a music teacher somewhere in the elementary level. They also appear to have experience in ranged fields of education due to the description of standardized testing from other areas of education. The author focuses on music education and the standard assumptions we make about music teachers. The assumptions include either inspirational music teachers who start a lifelong journey of music or teachers who seem distant and leave as soon as the bell rings. This article is meant to continue a team bound theme in education. Teachers often want to go their own way or think that they can do it better or different than classic methods have been performed. Doing things differently however can lead to different conclusions, not always favorable and doing things the same way gives teachers back-up. The author is clearly portraying there are some areas of the school system that are not appealing to music teachers such as the classic handwritten bubble tests for music class, but she continues to use them because it's all part of a bigger plan past her one music class.

Facebook public health danger

Dr. Keith Ablow writes in this article mainly of the dangers of Facebook and its' effect on the general population. The author speaks offensively against Facebook specifically instead of generalizing with social networking sites. Ablow suggests that Facebook has the same effects as drugs but provides no research to support this conclusion. Overall the article seems to be written from a critiquing perspective and encourages readers to limit their time on Facebook.