Vote: is it ok to post student essays?

OMG. I just found a folder with a whole bunch of things I saved from the early 90s, when I was a new Assistant Professor teaching Evolution.

I had forgotten I was a “CHILD OF SATIN!”

This, I’m sure, explains a great deal for some of you.

I am trying to remember how I got this–I think it was under my windshield when my car was vandalized (silly me–I had a Darwin Fish on it.)

Anyway, I have all these amazing bluebook essays and comments from my teaching evaluations where students discuss creationism and evolution. I would love to share them, to give people a flavor of the sorts of things I run into when teaching evolution.  These are old enough that they probably can’t be identified to any individual (and the evaluations are anonymous anyway.)

Should I scan and post them?

Evolution: Education is FREE again!

Good news! The journal Evolution: Education and Outreach is open access again.

There is, regrettably, a one year embargo before the contents are available, but at least it will eventually be available to everyone.  You can read more details here.  And, new issue out!

…We have made arrangements with the National Institutes of Health online library PubMed Central (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/) to provide our journal once again completely free online.

As we write, the backlog at PubMed Central will require another month or so for E:E&O to appear. Our arrangement with PubMed Central requires a one-year embargo—meaning that as soon as the backlog clears, our entire Volumes 1 and 2 will appear on their website. In March of 2011, all four issues of Volume 3 (2010) will be added, and so forth.

Covered in bees!

Amazingly, I had not posted this Eddie Izzard clip yet.  I give you: COVERED IN BEES.

National Pollinator Week: TGIF

And, for a little Friday amusement, a poem that was recently posted on the Entomo-L listserver:

The bee is such a busy soul,
She has no time for birth control.
So that is why at times like these,
There are so many sons of Bs.

Doug Yanega pointed out that a bee that doesn’t mate will, in fact, produce only sons of Bs, since that is how the apian haplodiploidy system works.

LOL!

Natl. Pollinator Week: a perplexing question

So, this week is National Pollinator Week, and there are lots of neato resources available for free online via the Pollinator Partnership.

That’s great.
But here is something that I have a great deal of cognitive dissonance about:

When you look at the partner page for corporate sponsors of this week and the partnership itself, you find some names you’d expect: Burt’s Bees, Häagen-Dazs, Whole Foods, etc.  There are also some surprising sponsors.

Specifically: Orkin is a sponsor.

Orkin has been “keeping pests in their place for over 100 years.”

Now, here is the dilemma I see facing the Pollinator Partnership.  They have a great message…but no money.  They have a potential sponsor…but it’s an extermination company that benefits from people’s fears of insects.  Orkin commercials, while often quite funny, definitely rely on very creepy images of roaches being in your face.  They are entomophobia peddlers, if you will.

Orkin also sponsors an insect zoo at the Smithsonian.
They have a Junior Pest Investigator curriculum that is free (after you give them a lot of personal information.)

So, while Orkin’s primary business is killing insects, they do give a lot of money away.  Non-profits need money.
And so Orkin sponsors Pollinator Week and the Pollinator Partnership.

One of the biggest issues I have with Orkin is the phrase “The Orkin Man™”.
Yes. It is a trademarked phrase.
And it’s a MAN.  Because manly men are the only ones who can take care of your infestations.  *sigh*

What do you think? Does having Orkin as a sponsor harm the message of the Pollinator Partnership?

Natl. Pollinator Week: People’s Gardens

For National Pollinator Week the USDA is promoting People’s Gardens.  USDA facilities are invited to begin a garden, or support a community garden. This year bees took up residence on the DC Mall!

‘The People’s Garden’ initiative is an effort by USDA which challenges its employees to establish gardens at USDA facilities worldwide or help communities create gardens. A ‘People’s Garden’ can vary in size and type, but all have a common purpose – to help the community they are within and the environment.  A ‘People’s Garden’ must include the following three components:

1. Benefit your community: Gardens benefit communities in many different ways. They can create spaces for leisure or recreation that the public can use, provide a harvest to a local food bank or shelter, be a wildlife friendly landscape or be a rain garden to absorb storm water run-off and protect the soil from erosion.

2. Be collaborative: The garden must be a collaborative effort between other volunteers, neighbors or organizations within your community. Local partnerships could carry out the mission of a People’s Garden.

3. Incorporate sustainable practices: the garden should include gardening practices that nurture, maintain and protect the environment such as:
· Capturing rainwater in rain barrels
· Composting and mulching
· Planting native species
· Encouraging beneficial insects that feed on destructive pests

Yay Gardens!

National Pollinator Week 2010

Yep, it’s that time of year again! “A World of Pollinators” is the theme for 2010 National Pollinator Week. Here’s a tip:

“Island Press Pollinator Special – To celebrate Pollinator Week, Island Press will offer a special discount on three seminal books — Forgotten Pollinators, Where Our Food Comes From and Public Produce. A $1.00 donation will also be made to the Pollinator Partnership for each book sold by them to support their work.”

I’m not entirely sure how to get that discount, but it seems like you get it via the Pollinator Partnership bookstore.  Can anyone clarify?

Oh, and THANK YOU everyone who left such lovely comments on my last post.