Things I learned at ScienceOnline2010

Might as well jump on the bandwagon...

10.5 Things I learned at ScienceOnline2010:

1. Science bloggers, and people who willingly spend an entire weekend in RTP with them, are pretty amazingly cool people.

2. There's too much attention paid to failing kids, and not enough to the awesome ones.

3. In all the huffle about NCLB and K-12 STEM education, we may have overlooked an important group who are just as excited and interested in science: adults (and here).

4. Food on ocean research vessels is awesome. (Who knew?)

5. Fact-checking isn't just making sure you got the science right. Oh, and it's not always clear what constitutes a "fact."

6. Minorities are edging out whites in the use of handheld devices.

7. Apparently, college students no longer check their email.

8. Google is working on a brain implant, so you can be constantly online.

9. Working online and using social media can allow people to be judged more by their thoughts than their appearance. But that might not necessarily be a good thing.

10. The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is very large. And, it hosts an insect festival every year in which one can consume stir-fried crickets and meal worm pie.

10.5. The Sleep Number Bed is the world's most expensive air mattress...and that's about all it is.

Some more useful science online resources

Scivee--share your science online!

SciNet--a new social network for scientists of all stripes, from AAAS.

Periodic Table--interactive periodic table. h/t Staten Island Academy student in ScienceOnline session. (Play with the temperature slider and see how the states of different elements change!)

Miss Baker's Biology Class--some really amazing student projects, blogs, etc.

Staten Island Academy's blog community--a great role model for student blogging.

Some cool science and education web sites, courtesy of ScienceOnline2010

FieldTripEarth--free data, plus info from real, live research programs going on all over the world.

NESCent--the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. More (lots more) free data, plus educational materials on cutting-edge evolution research. (I think when the speaker demonstrated this, half the room started drooling at the data that are available...)

EduWeb--a source for online/digital, educational games on science, technology, history, and art.

Dryad--another open access data depository.

PRI's The World Science--weekly science podcasts, news stories, etc.

Scitopia--a peer-reviewed-research search engine.

Fold.it--play computer games for SCIENCE!

Spot.us--donate to journalists needing funding to cover their stories.

Science for Citizens--find research projects looking for volunteers.

Pandemic II (game)--play the bad guy. Design germs, infect people, get points!

Science Cheerleaders--learn basic science facts, find citizen science projects, and take a brain makeover quiz!