Rose Farm, Bolton

Rose Farm, Bolton, CT

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are fantastic opportunities to take college courses at no cost.  It's wonderful that complex subjects such as climate change are available to all.  Although scientists concur, the general public still considers climate change to be a controversial issue.

I help out as one of the many teacher's assistants in a Climate Literacy class at the University of British Columbia.  The voluntary job entails monitoring the discussion board, answering student questions, providing links for further reading and reporting problems that need the instructor's attention.

Walt and Lola

Alternate viewpoints and healthy debate are encouraged on the discussion forum.  Disrupting the forum, derailing discussion, demeaning other students and discrediting teacher's assistants are not tolerated and are dealt with on a case by case basis.  In only two runs of this class, all of these problems have occurred.  This has brought about a flurry of discussion and suggestions on how to prevent future problems.  It has been an eye-opening experience realizing the lengths that some people will go to to disrupt a learning environment.  Unreal.

At this point, I've had enough of picture time

I am really looking forward to the American Association of School Libraries Conference in mid-November in Hartford.   

These photos were taken at Rose Farm in Bolton, at the height of fall foliage.  I'm really not big on appearing in my own blog/website, but the leaves were spectacular that day, so I thought I'd share.

The Birds and The Bees

Bee with its proboscis sticking out

After debating whether I wanted to commit to a summer course, then debating how much effort I wanted to put in, I'm mighty pleased with the grade I received today.

Some people wrote on the discussion forum that they thought the quiz questions were tricky and meant to deliberately trip up a student.  I disagreed because I thought they went beyond the material, challenging the student to think deeper about the subject matter.

Other problems on the discussion forum with some students (climate skeptics) showing general disrespect to all of those who disagree with one's position were corrected.  "A small number of students have resorted to outright abuse, rather than simply expressing alternative or unpopular views. This has now been remedied: students who are regularly abusive will be banned from the forum."

Male cardinals are striking.

Class Statistics:
24,303 registered to take the course
2,600 were active in the last few weeks of the course
750 earned certificates (a mere 3% of those who registered)

Alumni have since started groups on LinkedIn, Facebook and on Google.  I joined all three. 

Male cardinal

I've decided that my mid-range camera takes great macro shots, but the photographs aren't so crisp from far away despite resting the camera on the deck railing.        

Enders State Forest, Granby

For a sense of scale, take a look at the umbrella on top of the falls.  Someone was under it.

I try to take advantage of conferences when they're in my area.  So, when I found out the AASL (American Association for School Librarians) was planning a November conference in Hartford, a mere twenty minutes away, I was delighted and so were my writing friends.  I think I can get by with a one-day, exhibits-only pass.  Excited!!!

The first view of the water.

The Northeast region of the American Chemical Society is also having a conference in New Haven at the end of October.  I will be checking back on that one to see if there is anything of interest.

Walt and Lola look dwarfed by the water.  Here you get a sense for how slippery it was.

One of the most interesting aspects of the Climate Literacy class that I just finished was the world map.  It had numbered pointers that corresponded to other students' written classwork.  The impacts of climate change could be seen from Kiribati to Crete to Croatia, from Bangladesh to Belgium to Bulgaria, from the Southwest to South Carolina to South Africa.  It was an eye-opening global view of how climate change is affecting the planet.  Many students wrote of drought, rising sea level and fires.

It is shameful that while we haggle here in the United States over whether climate change is manmade (it is) or natural (don't be a moron), there are other people on the planet that are suffering the very real consequences of inaction.

Another waterfall

These photographs were taken at Enders State Forest, a place where roaring waterfalls cascaded from the rocks.  The hike was short and more like a walk with an incline.  On a hot humid day, the only rain shower in the state dumped a bucket of precipitation on Enders while we were there.  We were soaked, which made the trek along the edge all that more treacherous.  Since someone had recently slipped at the park, a couple of news teams were in the parking lot.  I practiced my speaking skills by agreeing to be interviewed, dripping as I was.  They aired footage of kids doing flips in the water instead of one soggy hiker pretending she was at Toastmasters.  What a shame!

      

Tassy Walden Contest

Tassy Walden Contest winners

Last Wednesday, my writing friends and I trucked down to the Connecticut shore to attend a reception for the Tassy Walden Contest winners.   I was thrilled that my friend, Natasha Garnett, was honored.  Also on the list for the NINTH time was a friend I met at Chautauqua, Betsy Devany.   It was great to see her again.  I enjoyed listening to the distinct voices of the winners and also meeting veteran writers like Leslie Bulion and Doe Boyle.

I just finished up module 7 of my online course and I will breathe a sigh of relief when I'm done in a few weeks.  I have learned so much, but I hesitate to tell anyone all that I know because I'm going to sound like Chicken Little.  I am enjoying the banter on the discussion board and I've noticed those that STILL believe the climate is changing due to natural causes have regressed from stating things without supplying supporting facts to name calling.  I've been called delusional and stubborn and I've been told my voice is meaningless.  One person wrote, "What has to happen to you to return to reality, have a piano fall on your head?"  Thankfully, there are hordes of sharp participants that squash all the untruths such as one thread titled, "Global Warming Debunked: NASA Report verifies Carbon Dioxide actually cools Atmosphere."  WRONG!  Use reliable sources, NOT blogs! 

Hubbard Park, Meriden

View from the castle at East Peak - Mirror Lake in Hubbard Park

Sometimes I get so immersed in writing that everything else fades into the background.  I snap at writing when my efforts aren't rewarded.

How could you do this to me?
Writing answers (see "asylum" under labels).  "It's not me, it's YOU."

What striking shelf fungus!

The sting fades when a new story comes prancing along.  It sweeps me away with fascination or it cries to get on paper.

Last night I read that a lot of people sign up for MOOCs, but only a small percentage finish them.  Stopping is easy because when you invest nothing, you have nothing to lose.  Despite the odds, I'm still plugging away at the Climate Literacy MOOC.  I'm almost halfway through it.  What I'm learning is that we the people of this planet ALL need to do our part to cut emissions of carbon and it is imperative that we move on this now.

The discussion forums are wonderful resources.  There are some on the boards that think that climate change is from natural causes.  After conversing with them and posting a bucket load of facts on that board, I've come to the conclusion that some people like to argue for argument's sake, not because they have a valid point that can be backed up with fact.

Standing on East Peak, wishing we were on West Peak 

Sunday we had every intention of hiking up to less crowded West Peak in Hubbard Park.  Surprise, surprise.  At the end of the steep trail we found ourselves at the Castle Craig Tower on East Peak (976').  I climbed the tower and took the vista shots.  We were looking for the blue trail off the white, but we didn't realize that we needed to hike a small piece of the red trail to get there.  

This is a GREAT map that I wish I had taken with us.  Next time.  

MOOC and Enchanted Rock

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I'm taking my first MOOC, or massive open online course.  The free 10-week course, Climate Literacy: Navigating Climate Change Conversations, is excellent.  Recently, I received an email with these words, "Based on the community survey results, there are participants from 139 different countries, ranging in age from 16 to 60, with all levels of experience with climate science and policy issues."  Unfortunately, reading and taking notes on video lectures is taking more time than I anticipated, but I'm learning so much about a topic that I considered myself quite knowledgeable about.  The discussion forums are loaded with information, links, and banter about all aspects of climate change science from all parts of the world.  The class makes me more determined than ever to get the facts out about this critical issue.

If you click on the photo, you can see two tiny people at the top.

I've updated the "climate change" portion of this website to include information about the scientific consensus of climate scientists (97.1% of ALL climate research papers that take a position on the cause of climate change point to anthropogenic causes).  I've also added links that connect the tobacco movement to the counter climate change movement (i.e the smoking is NOT bad for your health movement).

On a lark, while we were in Texas, we decided to hike at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.  The park ranger said it takes most people 40 minutes to get to the top of the pink granite dome.  We took that as a challenge.  Walt thought we hiked up in 20 minutes, but without a watch, we don't know for certain.  We baked in the hot Texas sun, so it was a welcome relief to find a cave up there.


     

Bat in Austin Texas

I found this great guest post for editors about getting organized.  The guest poster was Sue Burznyski Bullards, associate professor in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Granted, I'm nowhere near qualified to be an editor, but I could stand to improve my organization (have you seen the piles on my dining room table?).  Google Calendar is mentioned in the post.  I can't just take it for granted that it will work, I've got to test it first.  I set up a test event, creatively named "test" with a reminder scheduled to detonate in 14 minutes.  Tick.  Tick.  Tick.


I also received information about a FREE online class called Climate Literacy: Navigating Climate Change Conversations which I signed up for.  It's a $935 class.  (Can she pass anything up, ever?)    The first quiz is May 27th and I signed up two minutes ago, so I guess I'd better get my buns moving on this stuff!!!

In Austin, we hung out beneath the Congress Avenue Bridge waiting for 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats to make their nightly appearance.  They were well hidden until dusk arrived.  As they poured out of their hiding places, the glint of light from a streetlamp made it look like a night of heavy snow.  Wow! 

Btw, my "test" worked!