Think Like A Scientist

Paul Watts and Victoria Ramon have paired up to create “Life in Code”, a web video series telling the stories of women and minorities becoming computer geeks. The video series will consist of 12 five minute episodes in its first season with interviews from six different women. I watched the embedded in video, in the following article, and it was inspiring. Timely and worthy effort, thank you Paul Watts and Victoria Ramon. Read the article by Taylor Soper in Geek Wire here.

The Google Doodle today honors Maria Sibylla Merian, one of the world’s first scientific illustrators. Maria’s passion for insects and flowers would change science forever. Maria lived at a time when few women ventured into the sciences, and yet she became one of the world’s most talented scientific illustrators. During my science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) workshops I introduce teachers to reflective journaling in the STEM and science classroom. Reflective journaling is quite different than the traditional science notebook which tends to be teacher-driven as opposed to student-driven. Teachers maintain reflective journals during the training, and return to their classrooms to introduce their students to reflective journaling as well. I imagine Maria did quite a bit of reflective journaling during her days. To delve deeper into Maria Sibylla Merian’s impact on science, and to view her illustrations and a video of her nature illustrations check out the following article by Grrl Scientist in Guardian UK here.