Note: I wrote this review quite awhile ago and posted it on the web site of the Society for Amateur Scientists. Both the organization and the web site no longer exist. I then reposted it on the site for the … Continue reading
Category Archives: Amateur Science
By Sheldon Greaves Note: this post originally appeared on the Citizen Scientists’ League website. With few other possible exceptions, the digital camera is probably the single most useful tool available to the citizen scientist. Both in the workshop and out … Continue reading
By Sheldon Greaves In addition to my posts on Cogito!, I have also posted to other blogs. One of these, Unexpected Leisure, grew out of my effort to make sense of losing my job as a result of the worst … Continue reading
By Sheldon Greaves Frequent readers of this blog will know that I can get rather passionate about science and science education. I suppose it has much to do with being raised in the halcyon days of the Space Race, when … Continue reading
Before we get started, a huge “Thank You” to Johnna Cornett who reworked Cogito! into this nifty new look. Also a big thanks to my wife, Denise, who took the photo in the masthead during a trip to Acadia National … Continue reading
I’ve recently begun taking a class at nearby Foothill Community College in an effort to gain some mastery over mathematics. It’s an old, old project of mine. Ostensibly I’m at school for the same reason most of the other students … Continue reading
A typical binocular spotting scope, soon to become a nifty telephoto lens. If you are visiting some open space district or county or state park where public telescopes like the one shown in the photo on the left. You might … Continue reading
Note: I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the role of mentors in one’s educational development and remembered the following essay I wrote for the Virtual Conference in Informal Science Education, sponsored by the Society for Amateur Scientists in … Continue reading
A view from the balcony of the Exploratorium on Pi Day. Photo by the author. Last Saturday we accompanied some friends of ours on a trip to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Many, many years ago the science show Nova … Continue reading
Elsewhere I have written about the power of projects. There is no educational experience that quite matches making an example of what you are studying, or even a model of it. But the experience of building or making something goes … Continue reading