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In the spring
of 2003, we received a special communication from an Eminent
Scholar, Dr. Steven C. Harvey from Georgia Institute of
Technology, telling us that he was using our drawings for a
presentation in Paris. Following is a copy of our dialogue by
email, beginning with the first email from Dr. Harvey.
I'm preparing a
lecture that I'll be giving later this week to a group
of mathematicians and physicists, introducing them to biological
macromolecules. The focus of the lectures will be on
structure/function relationships in macromolecular systems. As
part of
my introduction, I wanted to talk about the relationship between
structure and biological function at the level of organs, then at
cells, then at the molecular level.
In giving this lecture to nonspecialists in the past, I've
traditionally just talked about structure/function relationships
in
organs, using obvious examples (the hand, the heart, the eye...)
but
I've never used pictures before. I thought I should dress it up a
little this time, since some of my audience members are quite
distinguished senior scientists and mathematicians. (They just
don't
know much biology.) I went onto the web, expecting to find the
usually
dry images of these organs, but I stumbled on the website
www.thehumanbody.ecsd.net designed by you. The kids' pictures are
delightful! And perfect for my lecture! So I downloaded half a
dozen
jpg's and stuck them in. THANKS.
Thought you might be interested in the unexpected impact of your
website...
- Steve Harvey.
Stephen C. Harvey
Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
School of Biology
310 Ferst Drive
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0230
steve.harvey@biology.gatech.edu
404-385-4498
www.biology.gatech.edu/professors/harvey.html |
Photo used with permission.
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Dear
Steve,
Thank you for taking the time to share your story with me! You're
right, this
is a
totally unexpected, but delightful, use of the web site material.
I know
how
hard the kids worked to create those drawings, so that they would
be
"authentic" scientific sketches, and they would be very impressed
that
"grown-ups" were delighting in them too. Nothing like the
creativity of
the
little ones, right?
I'm
wondering if you would mind if I posted your comments in a
"feedback"
section of that web site? The kids often go back to this site
because they are
so
proud of their learning.
Again, thank you for emailing me. You have helped reinspire me to
work on the
next
set of telecollaborative projects due for the end of May.
Carol Vaage
Carol: Of course you can post my remarks. And the kids should
know
they've hit the scientific big time, since my talk is one of a
long
list that form a three month course in "Genomics, Mathematics and
Informatics" in Paris. The website listing the full schedule is
http://www.cmi.univ-mrs.fr/~torresan/IHP/program.html.
My talk using
their pictures is tomorrow, May 14.
Where are the kids located? I could drop them a note if you like.
- Steve.
Dear Steve,
Sorry for the delay
in getting back to you. I had a presentation of my own to do this
week, and I ended up using a quote from your comments below to
explain the power of using the Internet for sharing student work.
We were talking about authentic learning assessment, higher level
thinking skills, and global impact.
You have
unknowingly inspired many more teachers than I ever could have on
my own. I have done several presentations about web pages and
sharing student work, to add to the global knowledge base of
student learning. But many teachers were thinking that it was an
"add-on," something more that they had to do in an already
demanding schedule. The teachers, when they heard your comments,
just went "wow!" They've been inspired! Because they realize the
validation my students received from your acknowledgement. How
much more authentic could learning be? I remember when we were
planning out that web site, that Sarah said, "Do you think people
will use this site for their research on the human body?" This is
from a 7 year old girl. Can you imagine in 10 years from now what
her capacity as a contributor to world knowledge will be? or 20?
She knows she has a place in the world and gifts to offer.
It would be
wonderful if you would want to send a message to those students,
but because they have dispersed into four different classrooms, it
would probably work better if you sent the message to me, and I
could print it out, and distribute it in hard copy for a keepsake
for them. I could also upload it to the web, because that is their
creation, and they feel ownership for it. What do you think would
be best?
Carol
Dear former students of Ms. Carol Vaage:
I am writing you to thank you and Ms. Vaage for sharing some of
your pictures with me through the web. This is a somewhat long
letter, but it will explain exactly why I needed your pictures,
and why I am indebted to you.
I am a professor of biology at the Georgia Institute of
Technology, a major American university in Atlanta, Georgia. Like
most professors, I am both a teacher and a scientist. I teach
college students about biology, and I also do scientific research.
My research is aimed at understanding how biological molecules
work.
Perhaps Ms. Vaage and your other teachers have explained to you
what a molecule is. If you take a glass of water and pour out
half of it, you still have water in the glass. If you pour out
half of that, you still have water. If you keep doing this,
pretty soon you will only have a drop of water in the glass, but
it will still be water. You can split the drop in half, and you
still have water. You can do this over and over, making smaller
and smaller droplets. Each time you cut it in half, you still
have water. But you can't do this forever. After a while, you
will have such a small piece of water (one molecule) that if you
break it into pieces, you will no longer have water. You will
have atoms - two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen. The
water molecule is properly described as H2O. A molecule is thus
the tiniest particle that has all the atoms that are required to
make up the substance you are studying, water in this case.
In my research, I study biological molecules. DNA is such a
molecule. It is huge! A typical DNA molecule in your body
weighs as much as 100,000,000 water molecules!
Every cell in your body has exactly 46 DNA molecules, called
chromosomes. They are arranged in 23 pairs. The chromosomes
contain genes. Genes are sort of like blueprints, because they
contain the information that enables each cell to make all the
other molecules it needs. Genes determine whether you are a boy
or a girl, whether you have blue eyes or brown, and every other
characteristic of your body. Your genes are different from those
of every other person in the world, unless you have an identical
twin. Differences in genes can have important consequences for
health. For example, some people inherit genes that give them a
higher risk of diseases like diabetes and cancer.
Scientists like me are trying to understand the causes of disease
at the molecular level, so we can find new ways of treating
disease. We study the structures of biological molecules, and how
they interact with one another. One important aspect of molecular
structure is molecular shape. Molecules often fit together very
nicely. Sometimes a small molecule fits into a large molecule
sort of like a key in a lock. Other times, two bigger molecules
adjust their shapes to fit together, sort of like your hand does
when you shake hands with someone else.
Why do we want to know how molecules fit together? Sometimes we'd
like to block such interactions. For instance, when you get an
infection, bacteria get into your body and grow. To kill them,
we'd like to block the interactions between some of their critical
molecules. This is exactly what antibiotics do. An antibiotic is
just a small molecule that binds to some molecule that is
essential for bacterial growth. It stops the bacteria from
growing, and your infection goes away. I'm studying the structure
of viruses. Someday, if my research is successful, I hope that
someone will use the information from my research to design new
drugs that kill viruses.
That tells you a little bit about my research. Now let me tell
you a little bit about the teaching I do, and why I needed your
pictures.
As part of my teaching efforts, I am spending six weeks in France,
where I am giving a series of lectures in a biology course. The
"students" in the course are all adults, mostly professors at
French universities. They are not biologists. They are experts
in mathematics and physics, and they are taking this course to
learn about research in biology. I want them to understand how
and why we study biological molecules.
In the introduction to my talk, I discuss the importance of
"structure-function relationships". I want the students in my
class to understand that biological processes depend on the
precise interaction of molecules, and that these interactions
depend on molecular structure. To introduce them to this somewhat
difficult idea, I remind them of the structure of the eye, and how
its structure relates to its function. As you know, the eye is
sort of like a camera, with a lens that focuses light on the
retina, which is sort of like the film. I know all the students
in my class studied the eye when they were your age. Like you,
they studied structure-function relationships in the eye!
I decided to go out onto the web and see if I could find a nice
picture that showed the structure of the eye, so I could put that
picture into my talk. To my delight, I discovered your website,
and the wonderful pictures you drew of all the different organs.
I pasted several of those pictures into my presentation, and I
spent about ten minutes talking about how the structures of
different organs relate to their functions. The students loved
your pictures! Scientific talks can sometimes get boring, and my
students were delighted by the pictures, which are different from
the others in my talk. Many of my students have children (or
grandchildren!) about your age.
Well, this letter has gotten way too long. But it's a rainy day
here in Paris, and I wanted to thank you and Ms. Vaage for your
wonderful efforts. I hope all of you have a wonderful summer.
Thank you again for your help with my talk!
– Steve Harvey.
Stephen C. Harvey
Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
School of Biology
310 Ferst Drive
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0230
steve.harvey@biology.gatech.edu
404-385-4498
www.biology.gatech.edu/professors/harvey.html
We have since
had other people talk about this web site and the impact on the
world. Here are some of the other emails we have received.
Dear Carol,
This IS a truly wonderful story! The kids must be SOOO excited,
(not to
mention their teachers and parents)!!!
PLEASE post a note about this to our NIS list A.S.A.P.
I will suggest to my colleagues in Ottawa that they STRONGLY
consider noting
this in a future NIS Ezine and perhaps some other SchoolNet-related
promotions!
Thank you for sharing this great news!!!
Yours in the NIS,
Bill
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 12:17:39 -0600
From: Janet Bell <Janet.Bell@TELUS.COM>
Reply-To: Janet Bell <Janet.Bell@TELUS.COM>
Subject: The Human Body web site and Steve Harvey's
lecture
To: cvaage@telus.net, steve.harvey@biology.gatech.edu,
harvey@ihes.fr
Dear Carol and Steve,
We will be sharing The Human Body website at ED-MEDIA, an
international
technology conference next week, commenting on it from two
perspectives -- to
showcase the kind of rich site that can be created by
students through
collaboration, and also to illustrate through your
particular interactions
(Carol's students' work affecting Steve's lecture
presentation and the
subsequent impact of that back on Carol and her students)
how the sharing of
resources on the web really does provide new and powerful
ways for us to
connect and move forward on our various paths, together.
Thanks to you both and to Carol's students for this
fascinating story,
Catherine Kullman, Brian Cleary, and Janet Bell
TELUS Learning Connection
http://www.2Learn.ca
hello,
My name is Jessica Lebbos and i am in grade 5.
i go to ST BERNADETTE'S DUNDUS SYDNEY AUSTRALIA
This term we are studing the human body.
And thanks to the grade 2
i have learnt ALOT of good and usefull infomation on the human
body.
once again: THANK YOU FOR THE INFO
On October 19,
2003, at the Network of Innovative Schools Conference in Calgary,
keynote speaker, Alan November, used this web site to acknowledge
the changing paradigm of building knowledge through the use of
technology and globalization. He celebrated our children's
contributions to the world's knowledge at such a young age and
optimistically illustrated the potential for their future
having had this successful experience and validation as
contributors to building knowledge.
Alan November presenting at the NIS Conference;
getting the Human Body web address from teacher, Carol Vaage
*Thanks to Richard Messina from OISE, U of T, Canada for the
photos.
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