{"id":595,"date":"2008-05-27T19:55:11","date_gmt":"2008-05-27T23:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=595"},"modified":"2008-08-06T21:54:44","modified_gmt":"2008-08-07T01:54:44","slug":"clogged-itchy-cold-slugs-and-lab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=595","title":{"rendered":"Clogged, itchy, cold, slugs, and lab"},"content":{"rendered":"

==> Someone must have left the seat up. The International Space Station occupants are in trouble now. Their toilet isn’t working!<\/a> Feel free to leave the obligatory potty jokes in the comments … you know you want to.<\/p>\n

==> It started near the science lab. Students at East Lee County High School were feeling itchy and red eyed<\/a>, but the cause is unknown. Even though the kids in the science lab and nearby classroom were the first to feel weird, searches for the source turned up empty. There is speculation that a prankster squirted pepper spray in the ventilation. If so, there are plenty of students who weren’t laughing.<\/p>\n

As a precautionary measure both days, the students were taken to private areas of the schools and stripped and washed down to decontaminate any type of substance on their bodies. Then they were given Hazmat suits to wear on buses that took them to Cape Coral where doctors checked them over and released them to their parents. Their clothes were put in sealed plastic bags.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

==> Here do you buy a parka in Florida? It must be hard preparing for a trip to the Arctic when you’re a science teacher in the Sunshine State. Elizabeth Eubanks will be working with research scientists<\/a> studying climate change for a month starting in June. Look for regular updates from Eubanks here next month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

==> Pssssst … hey, buddy: You in the market for sea slugs? I know where I can get you all you need<\/a>.<\/p>\n

==> Budget slicing and dicing seems to be hurting everyone. But it’s stories like this<\/a> that can really bring the issue home in a way that detailing various dollar figures and stats can’t.<\/p>\n

The university [USF] is short on lab space, and the labs it has are aging.<\/p>\n

Biology and chemistry labs, which enroll smaller classes, have long run at capacity from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. five days a week. That often delays students from getting all the courses they need for graduation, and many say they need to be flexible with their scheduling — or creative.<\/p>\n

Every semester, geology major Boris Radosavljevic tries talking his way into at least one science class or lab that is full on the first day of school. Entry is possible only by monitoring who stays or who drops out.<\/p>\n

“It’s really not up to us,” he said.<\/p>\n

To graduate this summer, Radosavljevic, 26, had to enroll in a biology lab last spring at Hillsborough Community College. His only option at USF was full.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t think I’d have to do that,” he said. “But there’s so many students going into life sciences.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

==> Now, take all the words in my post heading and create a sensationalized headline out of them. Such as: “Cold slugs itchy for lab work clogged sinks.” I’m sure you can do better, though. Leave your submissions in the comments.<\/p>\n

==> MaryB left a great comment in the Paging Rep. Hays<\/a> thread:<\/p>\n

I think this Fall we should plan to email Rep Hays (and his staff who actually might read the stuff) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Transitional Fossil a Day\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. That could go on for quite a while!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Anyone want to start doing the homework on this? We can make it an official Florida Citizens for Science letter\/e-mail\/ phone call campaign at the appropriate time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

==> Someone must have left the seat up. The International Space Station occupants are in trouble now. Their toilet isn’t working! Feel free to leave the obligatory potty jokes in the comments … you know you want to. ==> It … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-9B","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1173,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1173","url_meta":{"origin":595,"position":0},"title":"This and that","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Florida elementary school's new science lab allows students to put away textbooks and learn hands-on. [Seven Oaks Elementary] Principal B.J. Smith said the raucous activity in the lab - noisy but focused on the experiment - sends the message that the school is on the right track. \"Do you think\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1173#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1421,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1421","url_meta":{"origin":595,"position":1},"title":"Give an inch, take a mile","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Class size limitations were relaxed by the Florida legislature and it's taken a while to see what the real-world results would be. As many predicted, it's not good. Not good at all. In Broward, some class sizes overflowing despite state caps. In Anne Skurnick's earth science class, sixth-graders conduct laboratory\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1421#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":898,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=898","url_meta":{"origin":595,"position":2},"title":"News roundup","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"-- Palm Harbor teacher keeps students on the move. 6th grader Kurt Shuster says he thinks Mr. Mackenzie is pretty cool. \"He makes me feel like I am special because he comes up with these names for me, like the Shuster-nator or something really funny that I would like to\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":74,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=74","url_meta":{"origin":595,"position":3},"title":"The look, and the feel and the smell","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"October 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a good article weighing the merits of virtual learning labs on the Internet. Should a student earn credit for mixing chemicals online rather than in a real lab? This article shows that there are no simple answers. It might be better to be in the lab, but what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":209,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=209","url_meta":{"origin":595,"position":4},"title":"Another science lab story","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"May 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's yet another story about science labs and a new focus on science education overall. (Following up on yesterday's post.) Because of the intense focus on math and reading, the two main subjects on the FCAT, some elementary-age children received no science instruction at all, something no longer possible as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the Classroom"","block_context":{"text":"In the Classroom","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":704,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=704","url_meta":{"origin":595,"position":5},"title":"Learning science hands-on in Duval","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"September 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A new way to teach science in public schools is being tested out in Duval County. The programs is called Investigating and Questioning our World through Science and Technology (IQWST) and was developed by the University of Michigan. This story tells how the program is working in Duval. The curriculum\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=704#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}