Thanks to Stephen Curry (@Stephen_Curry), students at Imperial College are being trained not only in how to conduct research, but also in how to communicate research to those outside their own areas of specialization.
That, my friends, is education.
Students’ Blogs | Science Communication.
During his visit to UNT last week, Luciano Floridi mentioned that we generally train students, especially undergraduates, to write papers on a relatively prescribed topic or take exams, where all of the questions are given. This means we fail to train students to perform many of the tasks we academics perform every day — such as blogging. That’s a mistake Stephen Curry, who runs his own blog, is avoiding.
I won’t offer a review of all the blogs here (I’ve only clicked on the first four, which is actually pretty good, since I just heard about it 15 minutes ago). However, I will say that there is some real promise there. Some highlights from the first four blogs:
Pay attention to the names students have given to their blogs. I like ‘Newroscience’ by Shreena Chotai, though some may be drawn to the mysteries of the deep on Victoria Brzezinski’s ‘Oceansanonymous’.
We should all read stories about how our cuddly little kitty cats are really a killing machines. It’s actually a great introduction to some of what’s counter-intuitive about ecology (such as the focus on higher levels of granularity than most people generally see — ecosystems rather than individual kritters, Aldo Leopold, and thinking like a mountain). Well done, Coral Bischoff.
Last (of the four I visited), but certainly not least, is ‘theartofsciencedotcom’ by Rebecca Gray. Perhaps it’s because I’m a philosopher who conducts research on science — that is to say, not a scientist — but I’m a sucker for any science blog that discusses molecular gastronomy, growing buildings, and fashion in the first few posts.
Keep up the good work!