Month: June 2009
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Virginia Living Museum: Chesapeake Bay Discovery Center and Virginia’s Coastal Plain
Striped Burrfish The Virginia Living Museum reminds me very much of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, where the focus is on the natural world specific to the state. Like NCMNS, the VLM divides its exhibits into ecosystems found in Virginia, from the coast all the way up into the Appalachian Mountains, and the…
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From Learners to Researchers
The scandal of education is that every time you teach something, you deprive a child of the pleasure and benefit of discovery. – Seymour Papert I graduated from Virginia Tech with a BA in English in 1996. With that degree, I was able to qualify for a car loan, but that’s all the use I’ve…
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Luminaries for Scientists at the Relay for Life
Vicky introduced me to the Relay for Life this year, an all-night fundraising event where teams raise money for the American Cancer Society. We brought some of the neighborhood kids to the event, and much fun was had by one and all. The most impactful moment of the night for me was the Luminaria Ceremony,…
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The Great Dismal Swamp
Devil’s Walkingstick The Great Dismal swamp sits on the Virginia-North Carolina border, surrounded by miles and miles of farmland on all sides. There is some sense of wonder as to how this 111,000 acres of swampland didn’t suffer the same fate as its surroundings. It wasn’t for lack of trying, as developers, like George Washington,…
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20th Anniversary of Tank Man
Twenty years ago, a crowd gathered in Tiananmen Square to mourn the death of pro-market, pro-democracy and anti-corruption official, Hu Yaobang. Students had been gathering in the square off and on since April 14th. Soon one million people had gathered, but without a common cause, rather they were an emergent phenomenon. Some were free-market reformers,…
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Putting Away Magical Thinking
The movement of troops through the islands of the South Pacific in World War II had a profound, unintended consequence for the native cultures living in them. These isolated aboriginal peoples were suddenly exposed to soldiers in the Japanese and Allied Forces, who brought incredible amounts of manufactured clothing, medicine, canned foods, tents, weapons, and…