• act as co-editor of the Journal of Undergraduate Research
• provide written & oral analysis fn educational matters for the benefit of my program managers &  director
• work in inter-agency working groups and committees
• act as liaison between my office and other offices in DC
• served  as a representative for my office on a White House sub-committee on Science Education
• attended a large number of fact-finding and information meetings, briefings, and presentations
• attended several professional conferences
• wrote activities and reviewed materials for the National Super Bowl and acted as a room judge for activities during the finals in DC
• helped initiate National Lab Day (which is not all about labs nor is it just a day)
• consulted with a variety of education interest groups (most were seeking funding from my office), and
• acted as a general go-to guy for a wide variety of tasks that needed attention (usually with a rapid turn-around)

Now that I have come back home, I find the IT system at my school has grown and there are some new features. These new capabilities make running my own, private classroom blog more or less unnecessary. Consequently, I am going to route my students and other interested parties to my school blog and discontinue this blog as a school tool.

Student’s of Professor Janowacky (Mr. Janowiak), please find yourself on the eChalk site and I will blog, post, upload, and generally make a pest of myself there.

Once the fellowship ends, I will re-start posting here with lessons, class notes and such so we can all get back into the fun and games.

I will be putting up a blog that will record or journalize my adventure in DC next year. When it is up and running, I will post a note here and to several other places so you can read my rants, taves, reviews, and other works of literary brilliance.

Until then…

Stay cool for the summer!

The assignment requires that you find and read a science article that is related to what we are currently covering in class. I have included a long list of news sites that you can check out in the Science News and the Helpful Links section of this Blog. After reading, you are to write three paragraphs:

1. Summarize the article

2. Explain the importance of the article or the reason why we should care about the tiopic it covers. So what? Who cares? How does this fit into class?

3. Write your reaction or response to the article. What did you learn? Do you agree/disagree? (Explain this, of course!) Did anything surprise, upset, or connect with you in a more personal way? How did you feel after reading the article?

Make sure you site the source (title, author, source and publishing date) of the article and tell me the due date of the assignment as well as ther obvious student name and period.

Check and mark your calendars! These are due on the 1st and 3rd week of each month on the first day we meet for that week’s block.

I’ll post next semester due dates at a later time.

Remember that the assignments are due at the BEGINNING of class. I will no longer tolerate this “working on it during class while we are supposed to be doing something else” behavior, nor will I give the nod to “can I hand it in after study hall next period?” I will NO LONGER Accept LATE submissions.

Electronic submissions are encouraged. Electronic submissions should follow all of the same formatting rules as stated in the original instructions. Electronic submissions may be in .doc, .rtf, .txt,  .odt,  .pdf, or even Apple’s .pages format. If you do not know what the file formats mean, ask! I prefer .doc, so if you are using a Vista-equipped PC with the latest version of Microsoft Office, you should get in the habit of using the <Save As…> command from he Menu options; then save as the file to be compatible with older (faster and less bloated) versions of Word (like Word 2000). People that have older systems will bless you for your consideration!

In addition, name your file so I know to whom it belongs and can refer to a date. use the month, a dash, the due day, and your last name. Here is a sample file name:  01-12janowiak.doc   This is a Microsoft Word document (pre-Vista) that was submitted by “Janowiak” for the assignment due on January 12.

If you hand in a hard copy, you must at least use dark ink. Typed submissions are nice. No pencil will be accepted. I will simply hand it back or not grade it. No fringies or jagged edges! If you submit a hard copy (typed or in ink), also include a hard copy of the article. If you submit electronically, include a PDF of the article or a working URL to the original article.

This Course Wasn't Relevant         

"If something as vast as mathematics or science or history can pass through your brain without even scraping the sides on the way through, that's a pretty big hole. Are you sure it's the course that doesn't relate to anything? Our other customers in the community want people who have a good general stock of knowledge they can call on for unexpected needs. Being able to cope with unexpected needs means learning things that may not be immediately needed. You need to stop worrying about whether you need it now and begin worrying about whether your boss might need it later. A ten year old girl in Thailand saved hundreds of lives on December 26, 2004. She had just learned about tsunamis in school, recognized the warning signs, and convinced her parents to warn the resort management. As a result there were almost no casualties at her resort. In all likelihood none of her classmates will ever have need to know about tsunamis. A number of indigenous groups in the region escaped the tsunami with almost no casualties. They recognized the warning signs, which had been passed along through generations with no tsunamis, until finally that "irrelevant" knowledge became relevant." 

from: http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/nosymp.htm     [_Not an official UW-Green Bay site_]

NO…You’re not going to find anything here about how to blow stuff up! If you hang around here a little while, however, you might accidentally learn something or even learn how to apply something you have learned.

Now, THAT, my friends, is a thoroughly dangerous notion!

Herein you should find aid and assistantance for my Biology classes at Delphi Community High School, plus some other stuff that may educate and entertain. So, take a peek at the links, read my witty words of wacky wisdom, and poke about the place. Feel free to contact me through the blog comments. You can also reach me at my school e-mail address. Let me know if you find something interesting that I should put up here for others to see.