Thursday, June 05, 2008

Huddlemind.net

In my spare time (ha ha!) I try to keep abreast of happenings and dealings in my field. It's part of my contractual obligation as a teacher, but mostly I do it because I'm really interested in finding out what's new in the world of Biology, teaching and leadership. As a result, I subscribe to quite a few RSS feeds.

I'd like to share two recent 'finds' with you. The first is from a social network site called Huddlemind.net, organised by the folk from Huddlemind Labs. This is an education site for South Africans (and others across the world) by South Africans - Capetonians, actually! It deals with all forms of education, not just school-based (although that is the dominant market).

ANYWAY, I read a brilliant post today about the difficulty of teaching in any school in the modern age, where pupil:teacher ratios are increasing, money for resources is decreasing and kids are feeling there is less light at the end of the tunnel. It's well worth reading, because it's just SO inspiring. I think Igno has captured what is, for me, the reason I love my job.

The second thing I'd like to share with you is the AMAZING news that a Canadian teenager has discovered a strain of bacteria that not only have the ability to digest plastic, but quite like it too! Even better, he's discovered that if you put this strain of bacteria with another particular strain, the first strain digests even MORE plastic. What does this mean for ordinary people? Well, just that we now have a solution to all our non-biodegradable plastic waste!! How amazing is that!? You can read the article about it here.

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