Florida Citizens for Science

A post here back in May “Gospel fossil park vs. Cheryll” recently got some thoughtful comments from the folks who work at the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History.

I find it quite distressing that non-scientific and pseudo-scientific organizations receive donations, whilst our organization has to make do with little funding. I do wonder where this is all heading?

And this one:

I also work for the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History. “Expedition Dinosaur” is so much more than just an exhibit. The woman who Cheryll is named after wanted one thing to come out of the excavation of Cheryl, and that was that she be used to teach the public about dinosaurs. She spent all of her life as a teacher, a life that ended much to soon. She died one year after Cheryll was discovered. The exhibit is our way of fulling her wish. Peter said it better than I could. We make do with Very little funding.
But the staff of the museum are the hardest working group of young people I have ever worked with. They will keep on till we one day have the funding we need. Why? It is the look in a young child’s eyes when they see Cheryll. When that light comes on in one child’s eye and you know that someday they will stand were you are and teach the next generation of Archaeologist or Paleontologist. That makes it all worthwhile. If we lose our History we lose ourselves.

Congratulations to science-lab teacher Richard Ellenberg from Camelot Elementary School in Orlando for becoming Florida’s Teacher of the Year.

Ellenburg, 54, was selected for “making science fun.” He has been known to sing and play guitar to students to get them interested in science. He has asked them to lift him off the floor using a balance and launched rockets to teach them about physics.

…

After the ceremony, he said he hoped the award would bring science education to the forefront.

Update: The Orlando Sentinel has a nice editorial about Ellenburg and the importance of science education.