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Sneak a little science in: blogs in teaching

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American



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I have been traveling and speaking a lot this semester, perhaps too much. Because we've both had so many traveling commitments this year, for the last month I've hardly seen my husband, because he's away one week and I'm away the next. But a few of my speaking engagements have been on campus, which certainly makes things easier.

The talk I'm about to share is is on blogging and teaching, for a campus brown bag series on technology in teaching here at the University of Illinois. This is the first time I've ever given a talk on pedagogy instead of research, and it was quite fun. I got to talk about blogging, about the many things I've tried that totally failed in the beginning, and what seems to have gone well to help me "sneak a little science in" for the non-science majors that I mostly teach. The attendees had great questions at the end and it was a good conversation.

And of course, in the spirit of appreciating technology in teaching, the folks who convened the brown bag recorded the talk. Enjoy!

I am Dr. Kate Clancy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. On top of being an academic, I am a mother, a wife, an athlete, a labor activist, a sister, and a daughter. My beautiful blog banner was made by Jacqueline Dillard. Context and variation together help us understand humans (and any other species) as complicated. But they also help to show us that biology is not immutable, that it does not define us from the moment of our birth. Rather, our environment pushes and pulls our genes into different reaction norms that help us predict behavior and physiology. But, as humans make our environments, we have the ability to change the very things that change us. We often have more control over our biology than we may think.

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