I guess there’s something in the water, or perhaps it’s the end of the term, but at least two people independently wrote excellent pieces on how teaching sciences isn’t doing all it should…and how we can do better. (My own piece is here.)

• Biologist Rosie Redfield changed her genetics curriculum, but realized as she taught that she hadn’t gone far enough. Here’s her call for change.
• Brian Romans taught geology and sedimentology for the first time this fall, and wrote about his experience: what went right, and what he would like to improve. Make sure you read the comments, too: some really great stuff there.
• If you can find other posts or essays along these lines, please send them my way. I think educators are thinking hard about this stuff, and maybe we’re reaching a critical mass to accomplish real change.

Now for other fun links:

• Maria Popova of the great site Brainpickings listed her favorite 11 science books published in 2011. I think I need a few of these!
• Edmond Halley is best known for the comet he studied, but he was one of those Renaissance men. Greg Gbur describes his adventures…under the sea!
• How big is Saturn? Sooooooo big! Phil Plait shows us why the Jovian planets are known as giants. (The moon featured is Enceladus, which is a nice connection to my earlier post.)
• One more great picture: a bizarre and wonderful pattern of clouds, due to an unusual atmospheric condition known as a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.