Tag Archives: science literacy

Five Documents to Support Learning in Freshman Biology

Posted on July 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

For the 2025-2026 school year, my last, thank goodness, I was assigned to co-teach two sections of Freshman Biology. This was the first, and therefore the last, time I was to teach biology. Would you be surprised, given the contents of this blog, that biology is not exactly a strong subject for me?

Therefore, I needed to work closely with the content area teacher, as well as study up to the greatest extent possible on the subjects under review. I did develop material for both student use as well as my own edification so I might, to the greatest extent possible, be of some utility in this classroom. So here, in no particular order of content or potential usefulness, are a learning support on the concept of independent and dependent variables, a glossary of terms related to genetics, a glossary of terms related to human reproduction, a summary of a text on protein synthesis, and a support the viewing of a video on protein synthesis.

This is not the most, uh, coherent or well-supported stuff I’ve developed in twenty years of teaching. But rather than toss it, I’ll add it to the pile on this blog. I have more storage space on this website than I will ever use, so what the hell?

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Refugee Intellectuals

Posted on July 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Refugee Intellectuals: (1930-1940) During the 1930s, a galaxy of European intellectuals–authors, artists, scholars, scientists–fled European totalitarianism and found refuge, permanent or temporary, in the United States. Their contributions to the nation’s cultural life–and later to its war effort–were incalculable. The hundreds of refugee intellectuals included:

  • George Balanchine, Russian dancer and choreographer, to U.S. 1933
  • Hans Bethe, German physicist, to U.S. 1935.
  • Bertolt Brecht, German playwright and poet, in U.S. 1941-49
  • Marcel Breuer, Hungarian architect, to U.S. 1937
  • Rudolf Carnap, German philosopher, to U.S. 1936
  • Albert Einstein, German physicist, to U.S. 1933
  • Erik Erikson, German psychoanalyst, to U.S. 1933
  • Max Ernst, German painter, in U.S. 1939-49
  • Enrico Fermi, Italian physicist, to U.S. 1938
  • Erich Fromm, German psychoanalyst, to U.S. 1934
  • Walter Gropius, German architect, to U.S. 1937
  • George Grosz, German painter, to U.S. 1933
  • Paul Hindemith, German composer, in U.S. 1940-52
  • Hans Hofmann, German painter, to U.S. 1930
  • Karen Horney, German psychoanalyst, to U.S. 1932
  • Wolfgang Kohler, German psychologist, to U.S. 1934
  • Fritz Lang, German film director, to U.S. 1934
  • Thomas Mann, German author, in U.S. 1938-53
  • Herbert Marcuse, German political philosopher, to U.S. 1934
  • Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German architect, to U.S. 1937
  • Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Hungarian painter, to U.S. 1937
  • Hans Morgenthau, German political scientist, to U.S. 1937
  • Erwin Panovsky, German art historian, to U.S.
  • Erwin Piscator, German theatrical director, in U.S. 1939-1951
  • Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer, to U.S. 1931
  • Joseph Schumpeter, Austrian economist, to U.S. 1932
  • Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-Yiddish novelist, to U.S. 1935
  • Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer, to U.S. 1937
  • George Szell, Hungarian conductor, to U.S. 1937
  • Leo Szilard, Hungarian physicist, to U.S. 1938
  • Edward Teller, Hungarian physicist, to U.S. 1935
  • Paul Tillich, German theologian, to U.S. 1933
  • Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor, to U.S. 1930
  • John Von Neumann, Hungarian mathematician, to U.S. 1930
  • Bruno Walter, German conductor, to U.S. 1938
  • Kurt Weill, German composer, to U.S. 1935
  • Max Wertheimer, German psychologist, to U.S. 1933
  • Eugene Wigner, Hungarian physicist, to U.S. 1930

Excerpted from: Rosenbaum, Robert A. The Penguin Encyclopedia of American History. New York: Penguin, 2003.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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The Doubter’s Companion: Boring

Posted on June 4, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Boring: The scientific community speaks about its work in a cool and disinterested manner. To present an exciting profile would be unprofessional. Any excess of emotion would suggest a lack of neutrality and therefore a tendency to read what they want in the facts rather than reporting what they see. Scientific objectivity must therefore appear to be boring.

Scientists are well aware that their work is neither boring nor objective. If it were, very few discoveries would be made.

Social science, being falsely empirical, is triply obsessed by the obligation to present itself as the objective interpretation of observed reality. Since the more or less hard edges of scientific inquiry are not involved, social scientists are free to be more categorical about truth, reality and what they call facts. They therefore seek to be more boring than scientists.”

Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.

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Cultural Literacy: Gulf Stream

Posted on April 24, 2026 | Leave a comment

As it is, as I understand it, the Gulf Stream influences the climate along the East Coast of the United States, and is particularly important to Northwest Europe. Here, then, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Gulf Stream. This is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading and two comprehension questions. A spare, but effective, introduction to this climatological phenomenon.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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The Weekly Text, 31 October 2025: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Nuclear Bomb

Posted on October 31, 2025 | Leave a comment

Happy Halloween! For this week’s Text, about the scariest thing I could find is this reading on the nuclear bomb along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. And if you really want to scare kids who are old enough to understand, you can enumerate the number of unstable and belligerent countries that possess this fearsome weapon.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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The Weekly Text, 25 April 2025: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Root -Cide

Posted on April 25, 2025 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Latin word root -cide. It means, to kill, which is why you’ll find it in such relatively high-frequency English words as germicide, insecticide, and genocide–all present on this scaffolded worksheet. This lesson opens with this context clues worksheet on the noun mortality  which, I hope, points the way toward the meaning of the word root that is under analysis in this lesson.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Cultural Literacy: Entropy

Posted on December 13, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on entropy. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of six sentences (of which, more below) and six comprehension questions.

Entropy  is a complex concept, and in six sentences, as usual, the editors of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy acquit themselves competently and even elegantly with their explanation. However, should you use this material, it might be worth looking at a couple of the longer compound sentences in the reading. It won’t take much work to shorten them, and therefore simplify them without simplifying the ideas they convey.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Cultural Literacy: Noble Savage

Posted on November 21, 2024 | Leave a comment

OK, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on noble savage archetype. This is a half-page worksheet with a three sentence reading and three comprehension questions.

This was a concept, I can say with some pleasure, that my high school teachers disabused me of quickly. It’s a good thing, too, because (“Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!” as I delighted in hearing Gomer Pyle USMC say when I watched that show as a child), despite what this worksheet avers in placing the origin of this concept with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, it turns out not to be the case.

In fact, in addition to the many problems implicit in the term itself, it happens that Rousseau never uttered the term, and that the concept and the linguistic clothes it wears are the product of poet and playwright John Dryden, who invoked the stereotype in his play The Conquest of Granada by the Spaniards. When the term is next heard, it is from the mouths of physician James Crawfurd and anthropologist James Hunt, who erected the term as a signpost en route to scientific racism. Apparently, in the process of their “work,” Crawfurd deliberately misattributed noble savage to Rousseau.

So, with this short document, there is a lesson on debunking that I will write sometime in the future. I can tell you that only the most cursory research yielded the results in the foregoing paragraph. So, there is quite a bit of juicy stuff here–especially for inquisitive high school students.

Finally, if you want to see the decisive send-up of the noble savage stereotype (or, alternatively, if you’re interested in trying some excellent series television), check out Dallas Goldtooth’s hilarious performance as William “Spirit” Knifeman in Reservation Dogs–one of the best things ever to appear on television in my opinion.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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The Weekly Text, 9 August 2024: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Atom

Posted on August 9, 2024 | Leave a comment

The Weekly Text from Mark’s Text Terminal for Friday, 9 August 2024 is this reading on the atom along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This reading is from the Intellectual Devotional series; it serves as a good general introduction to the basic concept and configuration of the atom, but not a great deal more. As I am not a science teacher, I really cannot speak to the effectiveness or utility of these documents.

If you can, please speak up in the comments forum.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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The Weekly Text, 21 June 2024: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Chemical Elements

Posted on June 21, 2024 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is this reading on chemical elements along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. The reading derives from the Intellectual Devotional series of books, whose readings I have found quite useful in classroom practice. Both documents are formatted in Microsoft Word so that you can easily convert them to a format of your choice as well as edit them for specific students or classroom use.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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