I never thought I could be so busy. Thou
shalt not move while in student practicum, while taking 16 credits,
while trying to make it through an honor society's New Member period
(seriously, three mandatory meetings to fit in my already busy schedule?
I'm a leader, not a miracle worker...), and definitely not while not
sleeping. Counter-intuitive, that one should steal time to sleep to
ensure that one has productive time. I had another migraine yesterday.
Second one in a month, but the first two in almost 4 years. Just, sigh.
I do actually have something neat to talk about. I subscribe to National Science Teacher Association magazine and they had a piece on Seed Banks! It was back in the March issue, but I stack them up and go through them a page at a time, when I can steal that sort of time, so I only just found it. This interests me, dear reader, because I had chosen a TED talk on Norway's seed bank for an Anthropology assignment. Keen!
Banking on the Future: Seed bank investigations teach biodiversity and biocomplexity by Renee Clary and James Wandersee, published in the 2013 March issue of NSTA's The Science Teacher (the secondary science publication) talks about the need for seed banks, the existing seed banks already operating, and dispels some of the media myths about seed banks.
The five most common misconceptions about seed banks mentioned are:
Seeds kept in a so-called “doomsday vault” can “source” the replanting of a devastated and barren Earth.
Personally, I think this comes from people not being exposed to, or falling asleep during, the primary and secondary succession lectures of high school biology. Since I don't recall having that lecture in my high school, I'm not terribly surprised that more people my age and older (without higher education) wouldn't have heard about it.
All plant seeds can be “banked.”
This is false, because not all seeds can be banked. They specifically mention banana seeds!
Only in a global catastrophe will the banked seeds be used.
I think I believed this one. It turns out that the seeds will likely be dispersed once a year, as global catatrophes (like typhoons) destroy local seed crops and stashes.
Seed banks mainly store important plant seeds—those most valuable to the greatest number of people.
I think I addressed this one in my writing about seed banks. Though some banks only store agricultural crops, other store wild plants. Beyond that, seed it not turned down out of some perception of "value". The banks exist to achieve a scope beyond what we currently value, to protect what we have and conserve what we may need!
Seed banking is a one-time process.
This goes hand in hand with the previous notion, though I figured it would be a continuous process via never being able to complete the seed banks. The banks will need to be replenished as seed is dispersed after those afore-mentioned disasters. Also, apparently even freezing is not perfect, and the seeds will still die. Before that happens, they will be withdrawn and planted so they are not wasted, and their seeds harvested.
As a teaching magazine, it ends with a great idea for a classroom seed bank. I'd thought about doing one after reading about Svalbard's seed bank, but wasn't sure how to implement it. They already have some ideas for me! WEE!
As far as what I normally write about, I'll get back to it in a couple days, but I need need needed to get some of the things on my quest list (read, assignment list) knocked out by due dates.
Later Alligator!
I do actually have something neat to talk about. I subscribe to National Science Teacher Association magazine and they had a piece on Seed Banks! It was back in the March issue, but I stack them up and go through them a page at a time, when I can steal that sort of time, so I only just found it. This interests me, dear reader, because I had chosen a TED talk on Norway's seed bank for an Anthropology assignment. Keen!
Banking on the Future: Seed bank investigations teach biodiversity and biocomplexity by Renee Clary and James Wandersee, published in the 2013 March issue of NSTA's The Science Teacher (the secondary science publication) talks about the need for seed banks, the existing seed banks already operating, and dispels some of the media myths about seed banks.
The five most common misconceptions about seed banks mentioned are:
Seeds kept in a so-called “doomsday vault” can “source” the replanting of a devastated and barren Earth.
Personally, I think this comes from people not being exposed to, or falling asleep during, the primary and secondary succession lectures of high school biology. Since I don't recall having that lecture in my high school, I'm not terribly surprised that more people my age and older (without higher education) wouldn't have heard about it.
All plant seeds can be “banked.”
This is false, because not all seeds can be banked. They specifically mention banana seeds!
Only in a global catastrophe will the banked seeds be used.
I think I believed this one. It turns out that the seeds will likely be dispersed once a year, as global catatrophes (like typhoons) destroy local seed crops and stashes.
Seed banks mainly store important plant seeds—those most valuable to the greatest number of people.
I think I addressed this one in my writing about seed banks. Though some banks only store agricultural crops, other store wild plants. Beyond that, seed it not turned down out of some perception of "value". The banks exist to achieve a scope beyond what we currently value, to protect what we have and conserve what we may need!
Seed banking is a one-time process.
This goes hand in hand with the previous notion, though I figured it would be a continuous process via never being able to complete the seed banks. The banks will need to be replenished as seed is dispersed after those afore-mentioned disasters. Also, apparently even freezing is not perfect, and the seeds will still die. Before that happens, they will be withdrawn and planted so they are not wasted, and their seeds harvested.
As a teaching magazine, it ends with a great idea for a classroom seed bank. I'd thought about doing one after reading about Svalbard's seed bank, but wasn't sure how to implement it. They already have some ideas for me! WEE!
As far as what I normally write about, I'll get back to it in a couple days, but I need need needed to get some of the things on my quest list (read, assignment list) knocked out by due dates.
Later Alligator!
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