Recently I began a blog entitled “Fred’s Ecology and Environmental
Tales”.(fredsingerecology.com). I am writing this blog for people who
want to learn about how ecologists and environmental scientists do their
work. Thus one group of readers (in my idealized world) is high school
teachers who will assign it to their students, and college instructors
who will do likewise.
In the current political climate, many of us are challenged to do
something that we believe may somehow benefit our country. As a
scientist, and someone who enjoys a good rant now and then, it seems
natural for me to write about science.As an ecologist, I recognize that
our very challenged ecosystems are about to get even more challenged
very soon, so it makes sense for me to write about ecology and the
environment.As an educator, I want to provide opportunities for people
to learn where knowledge comes from.And as a human being, I like to chat
and listen, with hopes that both activities may help, if only a tiny bit.
Those are my motives.
Every week or so, I will post a true and riveting tale about ecology and
the environment.Each tale will have a humanistic component that
underlies a very science-y story.I will talk about where scientists come
up with their ideas, how they investigate them, and what types of
conclusions they come to. There will be data. Recent articles from the
journals Ecology and Conservation Biology are the basis of these
tales.Thus far, all of my posts have at least one graph taken directly
from the original article (with the permission of the journals and the
authors). Conversations with people also come into play, as I always ask
authors how they got interested in their projects, and whether they were
surprised by their findings.
My posts are relatively short, so they only contain some of the material
in the original article.An easy assignment is to ask students to
identify the next logical step in a research program, or to identify
researcher assumptions.Students can also compare the post with the
original article, or go back to the original article and do some more
thorough research on the topic.
So please check it out at fredsingerecology.com.I should point out that
I am a very different person from the notorious climate change denier
who shares my name.
If you like what you see please share with your colleagues.
Fred Singer
[email protected]
