Allison and Susan here, two graduate students in the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program at New York University. This semester we’ve been expanding our journalism skills in a class that explores election coverage with the hope of getting to the heart of more citizen-oriented issues, rather than abrupt horse-race coverage. We have been lucky to partner with The Guardian US, getting several things published on their site as well.
So here’s where you come in! True to our science roots, we’re working on a new project that focuses on assessing the GOP candidate’s (and Obama’s) science smarts. We’ve compiled a list of each candidate’s stance on four purely scientific issues: climate change, energy, space and the Environmental Protection Agency. We’ve done all the hard work to create a chart that clearly conveys all of this information — now we just need your help in “grading” the candidates knowledge!
For example, a quote from Senator Santorum on climate change:
“The dangers of carbon dioxide? Tell that to a plant, how dangerous carbon dioxide is,”
This wouldn’t be a major time commitment on your part — we’d simply like you to check out our chart, read the brief summaries of the candidates’ positions, and give them a basic “A-F” grade and a few sentences about why, or some brief commentary about how it compares to what your students know.
If any of this doesn’t make sense, we’d be more than happy to explain things further on the phone/email/twitter/skype/facebook/Google+…or even in person! Remember, it doesn’t matter what your politics are, since science has no political affiliation.
Please feel free to contact us at: allisontmccann@gmail.com or susan.e.matthrews@gmail.com
Thank you! We really appreciate your help and look forward to working with you on this awesome project.
Best,
Allison McCann and Susan James
Hi Café Enthusiasts,
We are only about two weeks away from the grand opening of the Museum’s Nature Research Center! We are celebrating this event with a 24 hour opening starting at 5:00pm on April 20th and lasting until 5:00pm on Saturday the 21st. I hope that you all will be able to come get a sneak peek at our new building and to enjoy all of the music, food and exhibits we will have on the streets surrounding the Museum. Because of the opening date, we have moved April’s science café to the fourth Tuesday night in April – 4/24. We will be hosting this science café in the Museum’s new restaurant, The Daily Planet Cafe located at the corner of Jones and McDowell Streets. You will be able to find plenty of parking for the café in the new Museum parking deck located on the corner of Edenton and McDowell Streets, with its entrance off of Edenton Street.
Our speaker for the evening will be Dr. Meg Lowman, Director of the Nature Research Center. We will be discussing the importance of forests, and the efforts that are being made to conserve trees and forest ecosystems as valuable resources world-wide. Forestry will be a theme represented in the NRC this summer. I hope you can come and be part of the first science café held in our Museum’s new restaurant!
I Speak for the Trees
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
6:30-8:30 p.m. with discussion beginning at 7:00 followed by Q&A
Location: The Daily Planet Café, Museum of Natural Sciences - 121 West Jones Street, Raleigh
RSVP: katey.ahmann@ncdenr.gov, 919-733-7450 x 531
Dubbed by National Geographic as the “real-life Lorax,” Nature Research Director Meg Lowman will talk about the state of global forests. How much forest is enough? Why are forests important to keeping us alive? What is the future prognosis for trees now that over 7 billion people inhabit planet Earth? What is the true function of a tree in our landscape? This Science Café launches a new series in our own Daily Planet café on 121 Jones Street in the southwest corner of the NRC building. In addition to talking about trees, Dr. Lowman will lead a short discussion to solicit your ideas for future Science Café topics, as well as other cool science activities in the new NRC.
PS The Lorax will also be in attendance!
About our speaker:
Dr. Meg Lowman (www.canopymeg.com) is Director of the Nature Research Center, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and a research professor at NC State University. Over the past three decades, “Canopy Meg” has earned an international reputation as a pioneer in forest canopy ecology, tropical rain forest conservation, and for designing canopy access tools including ropes, hot-air balloons, walkways and construction cranes. Equipped with degrees in biology, ecology and botany, Lowman developed her childhood interest of building tree forts into mapping canopy biodiversity worldwide and spearheading the construction of canopy walkways in tropical forests for conservation. She uses science education to influence government policy and encourage environmental stewardship. Her book, “Life in the Treetops,” earned a cover review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review.
As always, it helps so much if you can send me an email letting me know if you are coming to the cafe. Having an approximate participant count will help us be prepared for serving the group.
Thank you very much for your support for our events,
We look forward to seeing you at the April 24th cafe!
Katey
Katey Ahmann
Deputy Director of Education & Senior Manager of Programs
NC Museum of Natural Sciences
Several proposals have more “Likes” and reblogs and comments than we do (though most have much fewer - there are almost a 1000 proposals, and most have no activity at all). They are closing on the midnight of March 29th (http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/19681897769/news-challenge-on-networks-wants-your-likes-and-reblogs)so please Like and reblog (and comment on) our proposal:
1. What do you propose to do?
Develop Science Concierge microgrant program within our existing science hub to motivate more and better interaction with science.2. Is anyone else doing something like this now, and how is your project different?
Our interconnected annual conference,…
1. What do you propose to do?
Develop Science Concierge microgrant program within our existing science hub to motivate more and better interaction with science.2. Is anyone else doing something like this now, and how is your project different?
Our interconnected annual conference,…
Hi Café Enthusiasts,
Few things spark the imagination more than learning about prehistoric times and about the animals that roamed the earth long before man. This month, join us for a dinosaur café and an interesting evening discussion about exciting new discoveries in paleontological research. Our March Science Café (description below) will be held on Tuesday 3/20 at Tir Na Nog on South Blount Street. Our speaker for the evening will be Dr. Lindsay Zanno, Director of the Paleontology and Geology Laboratory in the Museum’s new Nature Research Center.
Dinosaurs!
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
6:30-8:30 p.m. with discussion beginning at 7:00 followed by Q&A
Location: Tir Na Nog, 218 South Blount Street, Raleigh, 833-7795
RSVP: Katey.ahmann@ncdenr.gov, 919-733-7450 x 531
Clash of the Titans: Asian immigrants and the dinosaurs of the American West.
The Early Cretaceous was a time of turmoil across the American West. Titan-lizards (sauropods) and gargantuan predators (allosaurs) thundered across the landscape, dominating terrestrial ecosystems as they had for millions of years. Little did they know that their reign in North America was drawing to a close. A wave of new “super-charged” dinosaurs emigrating from Asia was about to hit west coast and change the landscape forever. Join Nature Research Center Paleontologist Dr. Lindsay Zanno for a chat about her team’s latest dinosaur expeditions in the American West and learn how the dinosaurs from these two great continents clashed here in North America and who survived the epic confrontation.
About our speaker:
Lindsay E. Zanno, Ph. D. is serving as Director of the Nature Research Center’s new Paleontology and Geology Laboratory. Dr. Zanno comes to the NRC from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, where she was an Assistant Professor of Anatomy, and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois, where she remains a Research Associate in the Department of Geology. Her primary interest centers on the morphology, evolutionary relationships, and paleoecology of theropod dinosaurs—a group that includes the iconic megapredator T. rex as well as living birds. Dr. Zanno’s vibrant, field-based research program will greatly enlarge the paleontology volunteer core at the NCMNS. Citizen scientists will participate in the collection and preparation of dinosaur and other vertebrate fossils and help tackle patterns of faunal turnover, extinction, and replacement in ancient terrestrial ecosystems of the southwestern U.S.A
As always, it helps so much if you can send me an email letting me know if you are coming to the cafe. Having an approximate participant count helps communication with the restaurant so that they can be prepared for serving our group.
Thanks very much for your support for our events,
We look forward to seeing you at the March 20th cafe!
Katey
PS! We will be celebrating the Museum’s new Nature Research Center opening with a 24 hour Grand Opening Event beginning on April 20th at 5pm and lasting until 5pm on Saturday April 21st. Whether you’re a night owl, an early bird, or perhaps neither, don’t worry, make plans to come downtown for all of the on-going music, activities and fun. We will be having a grand celebration!
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Karl Wegmann is a geologist, not an archaeologist. But his and his colleagues’ analysis of the age of stone tools found on the island of Crete have challenged some very old ideas about when early humans first started using boats to get from one place to the next. Come here the NC State University professor discuss “Earthquake Hazards, Paleolithic Hominins and Stone Age Seafaring” at noon Tuesday, Feb. 21 at Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society and publisher of American Scientist magazine.
Thanks to a grant from the N.C. Biotechnology Center, the American Scientist noontime Pizza Lunch speaker series is free and open to science journalists and science communicators of all stripes. Feel free to forward this message to anyone who might want to attend. RSVPs are required (for the slice count) to cclabby@amsci.org
Directions to Sigma Xi (located in RTP) are here: http://www.sigmaxi.org/about/center/directions.shtml
Hi Bora:
I just had to write and say hi….I handle PR for Tahiti Tourisme and your articles always come up in my Google alerts for Bora Bora. :)
I feel like I know you!
Cheers,
Kristen
February:
February 23-24 - A public lecture and a social media workshop for faculty at UNC-Charlotte, NC: https://www.facebook.com/events/240435212709377/
March:
March 3-10 - a series of talks in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, some at the University, some in the city. Organized by Marko Zivkovic (my brother, professor of anthropology), Marie-Claire Shanahan (professor of science education, also a NASW member) and Desiree Schell (host of Skeptically Speaking podcast, and also a NASW member). They got two grants funded to bring me there.
March 25-31 or so - NYC visit, also on the 27th a half-day trip to Baltimore (with Robin Lloyd and Steve Mirsky) to Johns Hopkins, talking to Mary Knudson’s class etc.
April is still not clear - San Diego is all set, but the rest I still have to figure out…
April 21 - American Physiological Society, San Diego CA (panel: “Using Social Media to Communicate About Physiology and You”, with @PHLane and @DrIsis).
April 10-14th - TED-MED in Washington DC
April 13th -29th - North Carolina Science Festival http://www.ncsciencefestival.org/
April 20-21 - opening of the NRC wing of the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh NC http://naturesearch.org/
April 20-29 - Philadelphia Science Festival http://www.philasciencefestival.org/
May - nothing confirmed yet.
April 30th-May4th - NYU regular trip (including a special SHERP class/event on May 2nd)
May 11-12th - The History and Philosophy of Biological Rhythms Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN - http://www.hssonline.org/profession/news/detail.lasso?-Search=Action&-Table=Events%20web&-Database=hssguides&-KeyValue=6397
May 19-23 - Meeting of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, Destin, Florida http://www.srbr.org/Pages/SRBR_Meeting.aspx
May 30th-June 3rd - 2012 World Science Festival, NYC http://worldsciencefestival.com/
June - potentially an epidemiology meeting in Belgrade (40-year anniversary of the last smallpox epidemic)
July-August - nothing planned yet, perhaps ScienceOnlineSanFran
September - potentially Science Online London
October:
October 15-20 - Society for Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting, Raleigh NC http://www.vertpaleo.org/meetings/future.cfm
October 26-30 - Science Writers (NASW/CASW) meeting, Raleigh NC http://www.sciencewriters2012.org/
