That was "sodium" funny

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Engaging the Public with science

For the first hour of my service learning I helped blow up balloons and organize tickets for the Archie Carnival. From that I could definitely tell a lot goes into these events. However, for the last part of my service learning requirements I went to a panel discussion. It was titled “Keeping Climate Justice in the Center of Climate Policy.” There were two main speakers, the first Elizabeth Marino and the second was Anthony Oliver-Smith. Dr. Elizabeth Marino https://osucascades.edu/people/elizabeth-marino Both speakers centered their discussion on climate displacement and the implications this can hold on poorer countries. Disasters are not shared equally by communities, most often un-industrialized countries can not bounce back as fast and experience a higher death toll. These ingenuous communities are even more vulnerable to weather disasters. Scientist also worry demographics will be reshaped due to the growing populations in low elevation places and the sea levels risi

Helping People Understand Science

Figure 1, PEW Research Center Science can be a very broad topic under a huge umbrella but, is very important to understand when applying it to today’s society. Often the significance of science is underrated and overlooked. We should ask ourselves why this is a popular phenomenon, is there a lack of education? Is science too difficult to understand? Does society not care enough? Or is it a combination of all these things. When we look at the data from the Pew Research Center in Figure 1, specifically on climate change, there is a huge gap in the U.S. adults and AAAS scientists who think climate change is mostly due to human activity. This data is alarming considering there is so much accessible evidence on this topic. Scientist are considered more knowledgeable on the subject, however, their views seem to hold no important significance. Why is this when there are resources out there that reach to the public and explain our global issues efficiently. Figure 2,

Engaging Scientist in the Public Discourse

Source: picture was taken after the interview with my phone William Armstrong is an Earth Scientist who studies glaciology and is a new member to the App State team when he joined back in the fall of 2017. He received his PhD in Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder and BS of environmental Geoscience at the Boston College. So before going into this interview we first read one of Dr. Armstrong’s publications, “Spatial Patterns of Summer Speedup on South Central Alaska Glaciers,” and we went in with general questions on the article and on himself. We first asked how he would describe his own article to someone without a science background. His answer was very interesting, instead of spitting out more confusion, he really reached to explain it to us as a true educator. He began by explaining that glaciers move in two different ways, the first is by flowing with a thick fluid and the second is by sliding and or slipping on top of th

Climate change

Climate change is a pretty popular topic and is often misrepresented or construed to fit the biased of the author. To the untrained eye this graph can look accurate, however, once you dive deeper into it a lot of problems arise. This ad supposedly came from the National Climatic Data center and is claiming 2012 has been the hottest year on record. First of all lets talk about the x-axis, that is not even labeled and the years have no order to them. The y-axis is not labeled as well and offers no units of measurements. Is it Fahrenheit? Celsius? Kelvin? No one knows and we can only assume it might be Fahrenheit because the graph insinuates this data is from the U.S. Also why does this only include U.S. data? Now are we the only ones experiencing climate change? In this graph it is also clear to see the authors viewpoint by skewing data in that direction and making the data for the year of 2012 red and appear significantly larger than the rest.With climate change being a pretty majo

Science and I

Science and I did not start off so great. I went to an elementary school that decided putting social studies and language arts in one group and science and math into another group was a good idea. So when third grade came around and it was time to learn those infamous multiplication tables. My teacher told me I would have to memorize them or I would never excel in science. I am sure most people participated in the "get all these right within a certain time limit and win your next sundae topping." I was that kid with just a bowl and a scoop of ice cream, thank God they gave you the spoon. It wasn't until fifth grade that I realized how much of an idiot my third grade teacher was. (she was also very mean) Fifth grade was a year filled with learning about cloud formation, weather, plants. the water cycle, the effects the BP oil spill had on the environment, and so much more. My point is I did not need to spit out what seven times six was to my teacher. As time progressed and