Traveling Show

I was only home for 13 days in the month of March. I left for Oklahoma on March 1 and returned on March 11 – our “winter” break (there really is no spring here). I went to visit my Mom, three sons, two daughters-in-law, and, most of all, my two grandkids, one of whom was just born in January. But enough of the personal stuff. For more of that you can go to my family blog http://hownowlowe.blogspot.com/.

While in Oklahoma I visited the egret rookery (shared with a few herons) that I visited last summer. The birds were not yet back from their winter vacation down south but I noticed that the land was for sale. I was concerned so I contacted the Nature Conservancy, my favorite conservation organization. They told me that they do not work with urban land but to contact the Audubon society. I did and they said they would monitor it but likely couldn’t do anything to prevent the sale. However, they said that the birds would likely find the nearest available appropriate area and move there. If I can’s find them next summer when I return, I will contact the Audubon Society to see if they know where they have moved.

I was back in the UP for three days then left for the Michigan Science Teachers Association Convention in Grand Rapids. While there I stayed at the very plush Amway Grand Hotel. I made four presentations, one on Project Globe with my NMU colleagues Mitch Klett and Greg Coverdale, and one on ways to incorporate active participation in lecture settings. The other presentation I made was about teaching vocabulary in science (“What Does ‘Vocabulary’ Mean; Better Ways to Teach Terminology”). This session was scheduled twice and, amazing to me, was completely full both times. In fact, the first time I presented the room was full with standing-room only and some had to leave. I guess a lot of people need this help. If you are interested in the presentation, it is available on my NMU Instruct Server account: http://www-instruct.nmu.edu/education/clowe.

Back home for 10 days and then off again to the National Science Teachers Association Convention in St. Louis, MO. I was part of the NASA team presenting a full-day seminar for NSTA on “Living and Working in Space: Habitat”. The current NSTA website (how long it will remain I don’t know) is http://institute.nsta.org/stlouis/habitat/symposium.asp and there are upcoming webinars (web seminars) scheduled. Participants built habitats to take home including seeds, plants, and (unexpectedly) “bugs” which were found in the plants.

I also had the opportunity to hear Susan Solomon of NOAA – one of the world’s specialists in climate change. She originally focused on Ozone and was instrumental in working toward the elimination of CFC production globally. Her research now is in the area of global warming and atmospheric changes leading to it. She was pretty convincing that CO2 is, in fact, the primary anthropogenic contributor to global warming, something I have had issues with. However, she seemed very much entrenched in her own views and, as Kuhn said in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, that could prevent her from seeing or acknowledging truths. Something to be studied and seen in the future. Regardless, we need to find alternatives to fossil fuels for a variety of reasons.

I asked the question about wavelength absorption. She indicated that it is true that many of the infrared wavelengths that carbon dioxide could absorb are already absorbed and that other molecules such as methane, and particularly SF6 (a byproduct of catalytic converters) had more “bang for the buck”, that is that they absorbed more infrared radiation than carbon dioxide per atom. However there are much fewer of these molecules in the atmosphere. Her comment was that there is still a big enough wavelength window that carbon dioxide is, in fact, the forcing mechanism. However, she became somewhat irate at my question and commented that this was an argument nay-sayers use which makes me wonder. Hmmmm.

While in St. Louis, I was able to go about in short sleeves, eat outside, hold some seriously big insects (walking sticks) and visit with a couple of penguins. I am exhausted from all the travel – I’m not twenty something any more – but it was a lot of fun.