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7 April 2018
School Hours – Beyond Daylight Savings Time
Note: I recently wrote about the controversies that arise every time we change the clocks to and from summer time, and how setting a fixed year-round time always involves school start times. The very early school start times across the U.S. are a growing issue, and I heard from Lisa VanBuskirk right away about it. I invited her to write a guest post, and while it’s outside of my usual fare, …
4 October 2017
Teaching Kids Science Is Getting Easier
In the past, many people worries that many home-school parents did so because of religious objections to evolution, climate change science and geology. This is still a concern in the science community, but there are nearly 2 million kids being homeschooled now, and I suspect that most just want their kids to be well prepared for college, with high critical thinking skills. I think that’s great. Indeed, the most important aspect …
7 November 2016
Some Important Advice for Students in Grades 7-12
I started at the University of Oklahoma in August of 1977, and I’ve been thinking about those years a lot recently. College students then, as now, are poor and stressed, but there’s something more important that I remember. Jealousy. I was jealous of my high school friends who decided to skip college and go to work. Some were married to high school sweethearts, and while they had spending money and …
13 February 2013
Five Things We Must Teach American Students About Science
This is the last of a three-part series of posts on the fundamental concepts of science we need to teach American students. Here is Part One and Part Two. People wrap themselves in their beliefs, and they do it so tightly that you can’t set them free. Not even the truth will set them free. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, they are even entitled to their opinion about progress, …
12 February 2013
The Fundamentals of Science We Need to Teach Our Students (Part Two)
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” ― Christopher Hitchens This part two of a two-part post. Please read PART ONE first. (I’ll warn you it is my longest post ever, but hopefully it will be worth your time.) I want to share a couple of more snippets from the essays responding to the question “What scientific concept would improve everybody’s cognitive tool kit?” The responses …
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.