JSTOR’s Post

📚 Preserving the past, shaping the future. Skidmore College is leveraging JSTOR’s #digital infrastructure to ensure its unique #collections are accessible worldwide. Through this partnership, collections like the Elizabeth Fisher Adams #archive are now part of the global scholarly conversation. By integrating #PrimarySources with modern #research tools, JSTOR supports deeper exploration across fields such as 20th-century #history and #WomensStudies. This collaboration not only enhances access but also preserves these valuable archives for future generations through the Portico service. Discover how Skidmore’s digital initiatives enrich teaching, research, and the #humanities at large: https://bit.ly/3Nw3zfs Image: A Boy Sits on the Library Floor with a Book on His Knees and a Cat Scrambles over the Books on the Shelf. Wellcome Trust.

A Martian Simulation Experiment: Life on Mars? Students from St Bernard High School along with Fellow Connor Ballard from the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL, have taken a significant step towards understanding the potential to identify life on Mars by conducting a unique experiment using microbialites from Lake Salda, Turkey! These microbialites, which are ancient structures formed by microorganisms, form similar carbonate deposits to those identified on Mars, but the origin of the Martian carbonates is still unknown!   The students exposed these microbialites to Martian-like conditions in a stratospheric balloon experiment, simulating the low pressure, temperature, and radiation found on the Red Planet. By analysing the microbialites' response to these harsh conditions, they aimed to gain insights into the survival limits of terrestrial life and the possibility of extraterrestrial microbial communities.   The experiment yielded promising results! They detected organic molecules, including those associated with DNA in the microbialites, which deteriorated after exposure to Martian conditions, suggesting that detecting signs of life in Martian carbonate deposits may be difficult at the surface and we may need to focus on deposits shielded from the harsh Martian radiation environment. This study supports the need to return deposits from below the surface to understand if microbial activity could have played a significant role in shaping the Martian landscape.    These findings provide insights into the effect of Martian conditions on the preservation of biosignatures, and have implications for the upcoming Rosalind Franklin rover, which hopes to search for signs of life in the Martian subsurface using a 2m drill! Do check out their conference video presentation on our Youtube here!: https://lnkd.in/eePxKUbG #OrbytsConference2024

Celebrating Rockville Science Day: Inspiring Future Generations in Science This weekend, Rockville Science Day once again opens its doors to families, providing an exciting glimpse into the world of science. Events like these are not just about fun and education; they're crucial in inspiring the next generation of scientists, especially those from underrepresented groups, including girls, neurodiverse individuals, and LGBTQ+ youth. Science, at its core, is about curiosity, exploration, and challenging the known boundaries of knowledge. However, not every child feels that the world of science is welcoming or accessible to them. Rockville Science Day offers a unique opportunity to change these perceptions by actively involving and encouraging participation from all backgrounds. Why is this important? Because we all benefit when diverse perspectives are brought to the table. Research shows that diverse groups are more innovative and can solve complex problems more effectively than non-diverse groups. Encouraging underrepresented youth to embrace science can lead to breakthroughs that benefit society as a whole. For girls, who are historically underrepresented in fields like physics and engineering, seeing female scientists and engineers in action can light a spark of possibility. For neurodiverse children, the hands-on nature of many science activities provides a different avenue through which they can learn and excel, often more aligned with their strengths. LGBTQ+ youth, seeking spaces where they can be accepted and valued, can find in the sciences a community that judges on the basis of evidence and merit, rather than on biases or stereotypes. Rockville Science Day is more than just a local event; it's a gateway to a lifelong journey in science. By fostering an environment where all kids can see themselves as scientists, we are not just opening doors for individual careers but are also paving the way for a more inclusive and innovative future. Let's support and promote these opportunities, ensuring that every child can access their full potential and possibly one day, become the great scientists who will shape our future. The Equity Office is so proud to co-sponsor our Affinity Group in participating in this event to inspire future scientists. Thank you Kaitlyn Lucey for your leadership. US Pharmacopeia is so luck to have you and other USP staff represent us. Join us, share your experiences, and let's work together to make science truly for everyone! #RockvilleScienceDay #DiversityInSTEM #FutureScientists

#FasterReading - I'm all for it, but it brings back memories of 1982 (ish), in the year or so before my O levels - that ages me! I don't know if it was a fad at the time, but I remember being put through a course on how to read faster, without compromising on comprehension. The intent was to make it easier for us to access the knowledge we needed from books for O and A levels. Anyway, fixed texts, a mechanical device that was fixed over the book, moving down the page to force us to read quicker. Then tested on comprehension. Techniques were trained, such as focusing on the centre of the page, and scanning around that central point, and we used both normal page layouts and magazine newspaper columns (the latter are far easier to scan quickly and something I was trained to use by ROGENSI LIMITED when doing presentations, and I still use today in lesson PowerPoints; 2 or 3 columns per slide instead of long lines of text. Great scaffolding for weak readers, students with eye/text tracking issues, and more). I seem to recall base-line had me reading about 300 words per minute, and over 600 by the end of the course. We were re-tested later (a month or so) and I still clocked over 500 words per minute. This was related to a certain level of comprehension - I forget the details of that. Hey, I was 14 or 15 😆 When I consider all the #Oracy and #Literacy posts in my 5 years of teaching, and another today from GL Education about their 'Turning the Page' survey in international schools, I have to believe, unfortunately, that in certain areas education has regressed, and we've missed the point at time. Let's not forget InnerDrive's free oracy webinar coming soon. My thoughts on this are that education is too focused on "content", and grades, as it makes it easier to in terms of accountability. Too much focus on data; don't get me wrong, big data is key for governments and making decisions and very useful it is (I love a good bit of data). BUT, teachers deal with children, as individuals, in the classroom, not big data, not resources. It's like a company thinking their core product is making money, and giving accountants too much weight in decisions (they are one part of it); the core product is whatever their good or service is, making money is the consequence of getting most elements of the core product correct. So, yes, let's increase the amount of time in Primary for teachers to read the students (see Mary Myatt's post earlier this week), and let's start encouraging parents to do the same too! Or some other family member. For children who already read, let's get them reading faster with #FasterReading courses. How about Amazon offering Kindle Unlimited discounts or some kind of package to #education? #EncourageReading Highly recommend reading this in conjunction from an earlier post of Mary's https://lnkd.in/d6dmGAJN

One more photo from MassURC Conference at University of Massachusetts Amherst (You can read the full poster in the PDF file in one of my previous posts)

    I am posting a new article, #126, that has the title of:  “God does not lie – versus – Science does not lie.” It is written in the hope that it will help people to decide to be a Christian and who think that they cannot be a Christian because they believe in what science tells them about the way in which the Bible indicates that Noah’s flood is worldwide, which is not true. The article is short and only 11 pages long with two figures.  You can access my article at the following link: Nr126Lies2.pdf (csun.edu) Lorence (Larry) Collins (professor of geology emeritus, CSUN)

Not a lot of people know this about the Corpus Clock. The Clock was also made in → Cambridge. Dr John C. Taylor's vision was a timepiece that combined intricate mechanics with artistic beauty. Huxley Bertram Engineering, led by our co-founder and director Stewart Huxley (also a University of Cambridge Alumnus), was entrusted with bringing this vision to life. 3 unique features: 1. Visible Grasshopper Escapement - Traditionally hidden, this clock showcases it prominently 2. Dynamic Lighting System - Lights shine through slits around the face of the clock to indicate seconds, minutes, and hours 3. Explosion-Formed Stainless Steel Face - highly polished and gold-plated finish 3 engineering challenges: 1. The visible escapement not only had to be functional but also visually appealing and durable 2. The dynamic lighting system needed to be accurate and consistent in displaying the time 3. The explosion-forming process itself was a significant engineering challenge A remarkable fusion of art and engineering. Hope this was a good read (🔁Repost if yes!) P.S. Would people be interested in behind-the-scenes photos of the clock being built/maintained?

Come reimagine with us! “Rural Reimagined: A Grand Challenge for Appalachia” 2025 Appalachian Studies Association Conference Tennessee Tech University, Cookeville, Tennessee March 20-22, 2025 Photographs by Sabrina Greene-Rusk. One-fourth of the counties that comprise Appalachia are classified as rural—neither part of nor adjacent to a metropolitan area. The 48th annual Appalachian Studies Association Conference will explore the theme “Rural Reimagined” by celebrating the creative uses of technology, science, and the arts with the greatest potential to transform life in and proximate to the region’s rural communities. #appstudies2025 #Ruralreimagined #appalachianstudies #appalachia #appalachian #appstudies #asa #Asainaction 

"The center’s main purpose is to explore the ways that education policy and school management are both shaped by and shape geography." Please welcome our newest center Center for Geography of Education Policy. Led by Bryan Mann, associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, the center was born from Mann's own research exploring school district enrollment patterns, the relationship between space and educational inequality, and segregation in schools. https://lnkd.in/gBx2XNx6

💥 New Ep of #TheBoundingBox 🎙️ Talking to Joseph Kerski Phd GISP, educator extraordinaire! We talk #geospatial in education, challenges, integration in other fields, and so much more! GIS and Geography are integral to so many facets of education and industries, it's an exciting time to be a student... I hope! I'm excited for them! #gis #geography #geodev https://lnkd.in/g-j7hJux