Luray Caverns

---More to come--- Post under development---
Ideas:

Hammers hitting stalactites

Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you?

How the cave formed...

The first air-conditioned house.

Following up on one idea from E O Wilson's talk at the World Science Festival

►Using the internet to do a literature search on ants and oleic acid, some of E O Wilson's earlier research work which was a small part of the great ideas Wilson presented at the World Science Festival, a large number of related references can easily be found. Here are just a few from a Google search:

1. A chemical releaser of alarm and digging behavior in the ant Pogonomyrmex badius (Latreille) EO Wilson - Psyche: A Journal of Entomology, 1958 - psyche.entclub.org ...ants either showed no reaction or (in the case of oleic acid) removed the paper ... ammonium sulfide, phenol, and oleic acid were tested in the same way, the Cited by 22 - Related articles - Cached - Web Search - All 3 versions

2. Dependence of necrophoric response to oleic acid on social context in the ant, Pogonomyrmex badius DM Gordon - Journal of Chemical Ecology, 1983 - Springer ... Thus, if most of the ants on the mound surface ... midden work, an object treated with oleic acid will probably ... used at the suggestion of Dr. EO Wilson, in order ... Cited by 21 - Related articles - Web Search

3. Defensive and other secretions of the Australian cocktail ant, Iridomyrmex nitidiceps GWK Cavill, PL Robertson, JJ Brophy, DV Clark, R … - Tetrahedron, 1982 - Elsevier ...Oleic acid 10 296(3 ... Pavan, Researches on Trail and Alarm Substances in Ants. ...EO Wilson, The Insect Societies, Belknap Press of Harvard ... 87(60),74(100),55(35) d18 Cited by 10 - Related articles - Web Search

4. Congruency of hydrocarbon patterns in heterospecific groups of ants: transfer and/or biosynthesis? C Vienne, V Soroker, A Hefetz - Insectes Sociaux, 1995 - Springer ... chromato- graphed standards purchased from Sigma (n-heptacosane, tricosene, triolein, oleic acid, and palmitoleic ... H611dobler, B. and EO Wilson, 1990. The ants. ...Cited by 47 - Related articles - Web Search - All 2 versions

5. The relation of recruitment rate to activity rhythms in the harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus (F. … DM Gordon - Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 1983 - jstor.org ... The rate of recruitment to bait is positively correlated with the numbers of ants ... not correlated with the number of ants foraging. Thus the stage in the ... Cited by 20 - Related articles - Web Search

6. The evolution of female multiple mating in social Hymenoptera MJF Brown, P Schmid-Hempel, S Pitnick - Evolution, 2003 - BioOne... Dependence of necrophoric response to oleic acid on social context in the ant, Pogonomyrmex badius. J. Chem. ... CrossRef. Hölldobler, B. and EOWilson . ... The ants. ... Cited by 33 - Related articles - Web Search - BL Direct - All 8 versions

7. Food from seed-dispersal mutualism shifts sex ratios in colonies of the ant Aphaenogaster rudis- ►williams.edu [PDF] MA Morales, ER Heithaus - Ecology, 1998 - Eco Soc America... Hölldobler, B., and EO Wilson. ...oleic acid and an... Frequency-dependent seed dispersal by ants of two deciduous ... Aphaenogaster rudis response to evaluation of Cited by 51 - Related articles - Web Search - BL Direct - All 9 versions

8. Direct behavioral evidence for hydrocarbons as nestmate recognition cues in Formica japonica ( …T Akino, K Yamamura, S Wakamura, R Yamaoka - Applied Entomology and Zoology, 2004 - J-STAGE... peak 11), n-tridecane (peak 12), palmitoleic acid (peak 13), palmitic acid (peak 14), oleic acid (peak 15 ... Hölldobler, B. and EO Wilson (1990) The Ants....Cited by 21 - Related articles - Web Search - BL Direct - All 8 versions

9. In the Queendom of the Ants: ABrief AutobiographyEO Wilson - Leaders in the Study of Animal Behavior: Autobiographical …, 1985 - books.google.com...ants identify their own dead. When a corpse hasdecomposed for two or three days, it accumulates enough oleic acid and related ... necrophoric substances" by which Cited by 1 - Related articles - Web Search - All 2 versions
   

Now, say you knew nothing of ants before. These articles would likely contain many words that you don't know, and, many ideas that are new to you. By the time you waded through three or four of them, dictionary in hand (or internet dictionary by your side) you could likely read them
relatively easily. (Check out: "Reach Reading™") You would also likely know more than most people about ants... You can go beyond ants with your reading: You can read and find out many things to give you ideas for more research, ideas for improving the world, ideas for fixing the economy, ideas for curing diseases, ideas for growing more food, ideas for saving lives. Imagine that!

World Science Festival, NYC, 2009

Brian Green and Tracy Day co-founded the World Science Festival, which is full of programs to stimulate deep thinking and awe about the science around us. Using hands-on activities, lectures from famous scientists, film, theater and performance, science was the focus of New Yor City's residents and tourists alike from June 10th through the 14th.

Take a look at worldsciencefestival.com

Ants and oleic acid... Something I learned about at the festival that I didn't know before. I think I'll read more about the relationship between ants and oleic acid.

What did you learn? Share comments.

Autism and Oxygen in the News--Leading to Science Library Research and Citations

Autism and Oxygen in the News--Leading to Science Library Research and Citations

"In a recent study, autistic children who received 40 hours of hyperbaric treatment showed significant improvements in overall functioning, social interaction, eye contact, receptive language, and sensory or cognitive awareness." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7940149.stm

Here's a link to a post from todays' left-hand column's link. After today, those links change, so, I have linked to the source article.

Remember using current events in science classes helps maintain interest. Students can also look for related research articles. for example:

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may improve symptoms in autistic children.

ROSSIGNOL DA, ROSSIGNOL LW.

Med Hypotheses 2006 Mar 20;[epub ahead of print].
Blue Ridge Medical Center, 4038 Thomas Nelson Highway, Arrington, VA 22922, USA; University of Virginia, P.O. Box 800729, Charlottesville, VA, USA (Source: http://www.websciences.org/cftemplate/NAPS/archives/indiv.cfm?ID=20061272).

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may improve symptoms in autistic children
Medical Hypotheses, Volume 67, Issue 2, Pages 216-228
D. Rossignol, L. Rossignol (Source:http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0306987706001198).

And, that type of searching may lead to other interesting articles, such as:

Hyperbaric oxygen in the treatment of patients with cerebral stroke, brain trauma, and neurologic disease

Journal	Advances in Therapy
Publisher	Springer Healthcare Communications
ISSN	0741-238X (Print) 1865-8652 (Online)
Issue	Volume 22, Number 6 / November, 2005
DOI	10.1007/BF02849960
Pages	659-678
Subject Collection	Medicine
SpringerLink Date	Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Noori S. Al-Waili¹ , Glenn J. Butler¹, Jorge Beale¹, Mahdi S. Abdullah¹, R. W. Bill Hamilton¹, Boke Y. Lee¹, Paul Lucus¹, Michael W. Allen¹, Richard L. Petrillo¹, Zev Carrey¹ and Michael Finkelstein¹

(1)	Life Support Technologies, Inc. and New Technologies, Inc. The Mount Vernon Hospital, Westchester Medical Center, New York Medical College, New York, NY ( Source: http://www.springerlink.com/content/7474746430118483/).

I have posted these, "finds," in the way a student might when he or she just locates them, and, "cut -and-pastes," them into a word processor. Try to show the students how to cite information by using style manuals, such as CBE, MLA, or others. I like to suggest to students that they locate the style manual of the field that they hope to go on to study. It is much better for students to have an idea that there are different style manuals than to have them get to college saying that they do it the way their, "high school English teacher told them." I have found that many students frequently say the latter when they arrive at college. Your students will be different. If they use MLA, at least, they should know it is MLA. Scientists usually use others. Do you know which ones? Do you know how to find out? Take a look at the, "Rules for Publication," in journals that publish work that you are interested in...You can find out the styles typically recommended for that science field.

Desert Ideas from Australia

Alice Springs Desert Park

We recently talked about dreaming big. An example was given of a high school student who went to Australia. Maybe that whet your appetite for an excursion to Australia. Here is some information about one of Australia's many parks and research centers. Take a virtual tour, or, plan a real one to Alice Springs Desert Park. Here are some pictures, quotes and links to the park's website.

• Home Page for Alice Springs Desert Park
  
  • Information for teachers planning field trips
    
  • Ideas for student planning to visit
    
  • Research and Conservation at Alice Springs Desert Park
    
• There are employment, work experience and volunteering opportunities at the park.
• Contact Alice Springs Desert Park

Some quotes from the Alice Springs Desert Park Website:

"Hundreds of species of plants and animals found across Central Australian deserts can be seen, smelt and heard.

"You will even have the opportunity to experience desert habitats as they are at night, seeing some of the animals near impossible to see in the wild.

"...When you leave the Desert Park you will go away with new stories, skills and some of the secrets of the desert."

[Under development]


Source: http://www.alicespringsdesertpark.com.au/ Accessed Mar. 4, 2009.

Another website shows these pictures from the desert region: http://asdpeducation.wikispaces.com/Desert+Rivers+Habitat

New Desert Rivers shelter available for School Groups

"Desert Rivers is a great place to study the diversity of life, as many animals and plants can be found due to the availability of water."


Desert Rivers Habitat

Source: http://asdpeducation.wikispaces.com/Desert+Rivers+Habitat Accessed: Mar. 4, '09

Dream Big...

When teaching students, I believe one has to expect great things. Students usually go beyond what their teachers teach, when they have great teachers. The last post on an exciting high school, led me to post this one on dreaming big.

At one point, I volunteered or was employed at helping various elementary, middle, and high schools apply for grants to build their science programs. One thing I noticed in talking to teachers and students is that their vision was often limited when it came to designing a laboratory. For example, if I asked them to list or brainstorm or shout out anything that they would like to have in a new science lab at the school, I got answers like more pencils, paper. Even when I provided a list of equipment that I knew companies would be willing to donate, it was difficult to find schools interested. That amazed me. Initially, this response was typical at most schools I visited. I believe that perhaps it is because many of the students and teachers haven't visited well-equipped research laboratories, but, I am not sure if that is the reason. I can only say how very wonderful it is to have a school that has dreamed big and as a result provides a top quality science education.

If you haven't been exposed to a modern research laboratory for young scientists before now, consider that now you have. That vision is the first step toward having young people in your community having the science skills they need to create and keep jobs in your community.

Even when a grant isn't found, it is possible to gain access to needed laboratory equipment. While a particular school in Boston didn't have an electron microscope, students were able to gain access to one at the museum of science and could use it for research.

Another example of successfully dreaming big: Onehigh school student got a grant to go to Australia to study marsupials. Her research there enabled her to get a selection of scholarships to top universities to pursue her passion for zoology research.

Congratulations to Bergen County Academies for setting the pace. Congratulations to the rest of you who will make this race a competition where all of us will win.

Parent-Teacher groups, Science Mentors, Students, Administrators and Faculties, "On your mark, get set, go!" The race for top high school is on.

Great American High Schools are Big on Science Research: Congratulations Bergen County Academies!

Does your high school let you do real research?
Here is an example of a school that fosters quality science education:




More information can be found here:

http://bcts.bergen.org/

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/01/0115_best_schools/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergen_County_Academies

If you don't have the equipment they do, you can still do great research. Be innovative (and patent your ideas). Think deeply. Apply for grants. Use University labs. Use this schools lab? (Write and ask... You never know.) Publish your results.