Views on Evolution

Now that you have been exposed to some more evolution in class, how do you feel about it? What problems do you still have with evolution? Does any of this make sense to you?

No Tests?

An interesting comment was made on the perfect classroom, and I thought it deserved its own post. If we devalue grades and do not want to subject students to the stress of tests, whether it is throughout the year, or only at the end, how will teachers be able to measure student's success and understanding of material?

Perfect classroom

We discussed in class on Wednesday about the factory model of teaching and learning. What would the perfect classroom look like in order for the best learning to take place? Be specific: desk arrangement, start time of class, how long would class be, what would be taught or discussed.

Where have all the ideas gone?

As we finish the book for our AP summer reading, I cannot help but wonder, is there anything else to wonder about? I would have liked for people to ask questions, to dig deeper in their understanding, but nobody has posted. Does this mean that we did not read, do not care, or have no questions about science? I hope it is the first, and not the latter. In order to learn we need to ask questions, to validate facts, to question statements. Science should not be history. It seems that all we aver do in public education is to study what someone else has done, not actually think about what we could do. In order for our AP class to be a success this year, we need you to bring ideas and questions to class. If you are looking for the teacher to guide you along and ask all the questions, you are going to have to keep looking.

Just a Theory?

From reading a couple different posts, it seems like we may not have a good working definition of what a theory is. What is a theory and is it different in science from a theory on TV? IS Einstein's Theory of Relativity not as important or reliable because it is only a theory? What about the Theory of Evolution, do the same rules apply?

A short History of Nearly Everything

Welcome to AP Biology's summer reading forum. In this post, please feel free to ask any questions and make comments that you have for me or other students.
Questions that I have:
1) on page ten it states that in less than a minute that the universe is over million billion miles across. How can this be expanding faster than the speed of light? Do we just ignore Einstein's Theory of Relativity that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light?
2)On page 17 it states that we cannot find the center of the universe. If the universe is expanding at a set rate, don't you think that we would be able to trace it back to a center point, or at least close to it?
3)On page 25 it talks about the Oort cloud being the edge of our solar system. Does the Oort cloud orbit the sun, thus making it the edge of the solar system?
Please feel free to comment, keep it professional and let me know what questions you have as we progress through summer.