September 15 is National Online Learning Day. Now that everyone should be well and truly back to school, I thought it would be a good time for a few miscellaneous notes on various resources.
Online Courses
Evolution: A Course for Educators. American Museum of Natural History via Coursera. Learn about evolution from an expert at one of the best places in the world to study it. Taught by Dr. Joel Cracraft, the course will cover everything you need to teach evolution well. The course is free and offers a paid certificate for teacher professional development hours. It is four weeks long and requires 5-8 a week. It begins October 1st, so you will be done by Halloween.
Introduction to Human Evolution. Wellesley College via edX. A subject that is endlessly fascinating, but seldom taught in schools. Learn about the origins of us from an expert. Taught by Dr. Adam Van Arsdale, the course is self paced, meaning you can start when you want. It takes 4-6 hours for four weeks and is free.
Paleontology: Theropod Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds. University of Alberta via Coursera. A five week course headed by the esteemed dinosaur expert Dr. Phillip Currie on the anatomy, diversity, and evolution of theropods leading to birds. They offer a paid certificate for those needing the credit. Expect to spend 4-7 hours a week on the course. The course is free, but it started September 12, so join up now before you get too far behind.
Paleontology: Early Vertebrate Evolution. University of Alberta via Coursera. This course covers the evolution of vertebrates through the Paleozoic Era and is taught by Dr. Alison Murray. This is a four week course with an expected 3-5 hours per week. This course is free, but offers a paid certificate for those who need the credit. This course also started September 12th, so sign up now.
Dinosaur Ecosystems. University of Hong Kong via edX. A six week course on dinosaurs in their habitats. The course is taught by a collaboration of Dr. Michael Pittman and Dr. Xu Xing, along with other guests, all with an abundance of expertise on the topic. As a bonus, the course includes the work of one of my favorite paleoartists, Julius Csotonyi. The course requires 1-2 hours a week, so not a big time commitment. It is free, although it does offer a paid certificate for those who need the credit, and starts October 4th.
Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology. University of Alberta via Coursera. Another course by Phil Currie, along with Dr. Betsy Kruk. This is a great introduction to dinosaurs. It is 12 weeks long and requires an estimated 3-10 hours per week, so expect more out of this course. The course is free and starts September 29th, so get signed up now.
Origins – Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth and Life. University of Copenhagen via Coursera. Learn how it all began by Dr. Henning Haack. This course is 12 weeks long and expects 5-7 hours a week. The course is free and starts September 17th, so don’t waste time signing up.
There are several more available. If you go to any of the course links shown here, they will guide you to other related courses that are available.
Websites
Tetrapod Zoology. Darren Naish has kept his blog, often abbreviated to TetZoo, for over a decade. Through all the years, he has provided multitudinous essays on a variety of animal groups, both extant and extinct. Sprinkled in are also essays on the truth of cryptids (Bigfoot, Nessie, and the like), paleoart, and other topics. Sadly, the blog at Scientific American has closed up shop. But don’t panic, because it has moved to another location. He has set up shop under his own banner at Tetzoo.com. Time to change your bookmarks.
Beautiful Minds. Scott Barry Kaufman has been writing a Scientific American blog about psychology off and on. He recently announced an upgrade to the blog allowing him to have a weekly online column, so expect more articles about human nature from him.
Science Sushi by Christie Wilcox has always been one of my favorite blogs. While I am not a marine biologist by any stretch, she has always been interesting to read. So it is sad to report her Discover blog is closing up shop. She is moving to ScienceSushi.com, but will not be adding regularly to it. She will continuing to write, so keep an eye out for her on the sites she lists in the post linked to here.
Dataset Search. You’ve heard of Google Search, Google Scholar, Google Maps, and a plethora of other ways Google lets people search the web. Now meet Dataset Search, for when you are trying to find data that has been published or stored online. This searches for data files or databases according to how they are identified, not by what is in the file.
Science without publication paywalls: cOAlition S for the realization of full and immediate Open Access, by Marc Shiltz. PLoS Biology. 2018. This article discusses Plan S, a proposal by a coalition of European leaders to make science articles free for everyone. In their words, “no science should be locked behind paywalls!” (emphasis theirs).
Seriously, Science? A great blog on Discovermagazine.com that covered weird and humorous published research has been canceled. No word on why, the authors just said they were informed they would no longer have a slot on the blog roll. So long, Seriously Science, it was good to have known you.
Books
Return to Reason: The Science of Thought, by Scientific American. 2018. This ebook is a collection of essays discussing why facts don’t seem to matter to people or help persuade them and what we can do about it. Well worth a read.
Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World, by Marcia Bjornerud. Princeton University Press. 2018. Most people can barely remember what they had for breakfast yesterday. We really aren’t well equipped to think about time on the scale of millions and billions of years. Dr. Bjornerud has written a great book to help people come to grips with the immensity of time. I highly recommend it.
Underbug: An Obsessive Tale of Termites and Technology, by Lisa Margonelli, Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018. This book is not really about termites. The study of termites is used as an illustration of scientific inquiry and the questions that researchers come across during their studies. There are questions about the termites, but also about how science is done and about humans viewed through a different lens.
Darwin and the Making of Sexual Selection, by Evelleen Richards. University of Chicago Press. 2017. This book tells the story of how Darwin figured out problems with natural selection by coming up with sexual selection. To my mind, sexual selection is a subset of natural selection, but it is generally viewed as separate, with natural selection being success based on fecundity and survival of offspring, whereas sexual selection deals with the choices of mates. However you look at it, sexual selection is an important concept and this book explores the origin of that idea.
The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth’s Ultimate Trophy, by Paige Williams. Hachette, 2018. Williams tells the story about a skeleton of a Tarbosaurus bataar, what could be described as a Mongolian Tyrannosaurus rex, and the long and confusing battle of who owned it and where it would eventually reside. The worldwide fossil trade is a morass of differing opinions, laws, and money. This book attempts to tease apart the strands to answer the question of who owns fossils.
Through a Glass Brightly: Using Science to See Our Species as We Really Are, by David P. Barash. Oxford University Press, 2018. As the great physicist Richard Feynman said, “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself–and you are the easiest person to fool.” Humans are masters of deluding ourselves, but science helps us remove the wool we place over our eyes to see things, and ourselves, as we truly are. Only then can we become the people we see ourselves as. That is the goal of evolutionary biologist Dr. Barash in this book.
The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect, by Judea Pearl and Dana McKenzie. Basic Books, 2018. A big problem that any educator sees is the rather unbelievable lack of understanding many people have about cause and effect. Please get this book and teach people about how cause and effect works. Since this book relates the science of cause and effect to robots and artificial intelligence, it will be the perfect addition to tech classes.
I think that is enough for now. It is certainly enough to keep you busy if you try even a few of the many offerings available for furthering your education or just indulging your curiosity. Enjoy. If you try them, come back and let us know what you thought of them.
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