You got a degree in STEM and now what? - An overview of STEM career pathways

A degree in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) can offer a gateway to many great careers.

The poster below outlines possible career pathways for STEM graduates:

Download the poster as a high-resolution PDF here. 

 Source: http://findingada.com/resources/resources-for-schools/posters/

An updated view of the theory of evolution

http://www.sciencealert.com/the-world-s-top-biologists-have-met-to-discuss-whether-we-should-update-evolution

Examples of recent evolutionary changes in humans

http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/7-strange-and-surprising-ways-that-humans-have-recently-evolved/all/

Advances in genetics class since your high school biology class

Over the past decades, the field of genetics rapidly developed, for example in the areas of inherited diseases, cancer, personalized medicine, genetic counseling, the microbiome, diagnosis and discovery of viruses, taxonomy of species, genealogy, forensic science, epigenetics, junk DNA, gene therapy and gene editing.

Joel Eissenberg, Ph.D., associate dean for research and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine summarizes major advances in genetics since the 1960s:

When Did You Go to High School?

If you took high school biology in the …

1960s, you learned about the structure of the double helix and how sequences of DNA encode amino acids.

1970s, you may also have learned about cloning and the potential for recombinant DNA.

1980s, your class may have covered the clinical use of recombinant human insulin for diabetes treatment and the advent of GMO foods.

1990s, your class may have studied the molecular basis for human genetic disorders, like cystic fibrosis.

2000s, your teachers likely described how the human genome was being sequenced.

You can find further information: http://www.slu.edu/news/2016/august/Eissenberg-genetics-essay.php

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What’s changed in genetics since your high school biology class?: The field of genetics has seen astonishing breakthroughs and the development of world-changing technologies in the past half century.

Google releases digital notebook app for STEM education called 'Science Journal'

Google 'Science Journal' app

In collaboration with the Exploratorium, Google produced a free Android app, called Science Journal, aimed at helping young students record and analyze scientific experiment results. With this app, students can record data from sensors on their Android phones (or connected via an Arduino), take notes, observe, interpret and predict.

Do-It-Yourself Gene-Editing Kit for biology education

CRISPR Kit

Biophysicist and entrepreneur Josiah Zayner offers a do-it-yourself kit that allows you to cut, past, and string genes from one organism to another - on your kitchen table.

Moving genes from one organism to another used to be done only by big-budget labs. Three years ago, UC Berkeley developed the CRISPR gene-editing tool. CRISPR stands for 'Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats', which refers to a protein(Cas9) that can use an RNA guide to make highly specific cuts in DNA. This allows unprecedented abilities to edit DNA. Zayer is the first to make the CRISPR tool kit available to the masses.

The DIY gene-editing kit allows altering bacteria and yeast (which can change color, fragnance, or living requirements). The DIY CRISPR kit is available for 120$: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/diy-crispr-kits-learn-modern-science-by-doing#/



Read more here: Do-It-Yourself Gene-Editing Kit Transforming Biology | Sci-Tech Today

MEL science kit: Combining real and virtual science experiments

This chemistry kit combines hands on experiments with virtual ones (through Google cardboard). See more about the MEL science kit here.

On the scientific accuracy of 'The Martian'

Scientifically inaccurate movies

Moviefone discusses some scientifically inaccurate movies.

Why does a bicycle stay upright?

This informative video by MinutePhysics explains the physics behind a bicycle rolling down a hill.

Multi-level analysis strategy to make sense of concept maps

I presented my paper 'Multi-level analysis strategy to make sense of concept maps' at the sixth international conference on concept mapping in Santos (Brazil).



You find find more resources about concept maps here.

The difference between fruits and vegetables

This video explains why bananas are berries but strawberries are not.

Major misconceptions about evolution

Source: http://molecularlifesciences.tumblr.com/

What was missing from your science education?

Science Laboratory
[Image source: http://www.chrisvandyke.com.au/data/photos/948_1science_lab1.jpg]

My short essay for the NextGen contest got published in 'Science'. The question was: What was missing from your science education? See the article here.

STEM Education Apps You Need in 2015

This blog post lists 25 STEM Education Apps You Need in 2015.  Some of them are free while others need to be bought.

I found the DAQRI anatomy 4D app particularly interesting: One can print out the markers and can then see an augmented human body. You can highlight different organs. See more here:

How humans, birds, and insects breathe differently [animated gif]

Different ways of breathing
[Source: http://tabletopwhale.com/img/posts/10-24-14.gif]

Comparing two forms of concept map critique activities

Knowledge Integration Map (KIM)
Source: Wikipedia

Concept maps can be versatile tools for learning and assessment. However, evaluating concept maps can be challenging. What are effective ways to analyze concept maps?

I presented a paper at the 6th international conference on concept mapping in Santos, Brazil in October 2014 (See conference program with links to papers here). The paper introduces a new form of concept map, called Knowledge Integration Map (KIM). Different from Novakian concept maps, KIMs divide the drawing area into discipline-specific sections (see example above). Placing concept in these designated areas elicits how learners categorize these concepts and it highlights cross-links between sections. Cross-links can be seen as particularly interesting as they link concepts in different categories. 

The empirical study presented in the paper compares two forms of KIM activities implemented in biology classrooms. Concept  map  activities  often  lack  a  subsequent  revision  step  that  facilitates  knowledge  integration.  This  study compares two kinds of concept map critique activities embedded in an evolution unit: Student dyads in one group compared their concept maps against an expert map while dyads in the other group conducted a peer-review. Analysis of the concept maps suggests that both treatment groups significantly improved their understanding of evolution. However, the two groups developed different criteria: The expert-map group focused mostly on concept-focused criteria like concept classification while the peer-review group used more link-focused criteria like link labels and missing connections. This paper suggests that both critique activities can be beneficial to making more coherent connections across different topics in biology. 

The paper is available here (as PDF). The title of the paper is 'Comparing two forms of concept map critique activities to support knowledge integration in biology education'.

Identifying fake physics in videos to teach physics

Popular videos often seemingly impossible jumps, throws, or dunks. Many of these videos have been manipulated.

Physics professor Rhett Allain wrote an interesting post about how you can spot if a video has been manipulated by analysing the physics. Allain's post could by used by physics teachers to teach about physics as well as a resource in a course about video editing. See Allain's post here.

Epistemological difference between science and mathematics

Difference between science and mathematics
[Source: http://www.sciencedump.com/]

Great movies for science geeks and science teachers

Mad Scientist
(Source: http://content.science20.com/)

Many movies portrait scientists (see a list here), but only few try to give realistic depiction of science and scientists (sometimes in a historical context). Scientists are often either portrayed as mad loners (see image above) or a wizard-technicians (e.g. forensic scientists or computer hackers in almost every crime TV show).

Here is a short list of movies that do a better job at representing science (and show the scientist as a positive hero):

Name of the movie	Focus
Longitude (2000)	Technology: A clockmaker needs to collect convincing evidence to support the reliability of his method to measure the position of ships out in the ocean.
Tenchi: The Samurai astronomer (2012)	Astronomy. An astronomer strives to collect convincing evidence that the royal calendar is inaccurate.
The Andromeda strain (2008)	Scientists run experiments to explore an alien virus.
Katen no Shiro (Castle under fiery sky) (2009)	Architecture. The challenges of building a Japanese castle.
Agora (2009)	Astronomy. Conflict between religion and science.