Author Archives: Karyn

Astronomy the wicked step-sister of Biology?

BioLogos has a little post today about Astronomy. It is not an article, but it did remind me about a little pet peeve I have. It seems to me that Christians often focus all their attention on issues of biology and ignore the big questions that astronomy raises. I don’t have time today to put together a long post on this (packing and preparing for a conference), but I do think it merits some more discussion. What do you think? Does astronomy get the short end of the stick in discussions of origins?

Wanted: YOUR Distance Learning Experiences (Students and Teachers)

I’d like to get some feedback about (Undergrad/Grad level) Distance Learning. I’d like to hear from both those who have taught distance education classes and those who have taken distance education classes.

I hope to get as much information as possible, so please direct folks to this post and ask them to help by leaving their own experiences in the comments.

If for some reason, you have experiences you would prefer to keep private, please email me: karyn@stay-curious.com and I will keep your comments confidential.

I will make this easy. Just 2 questions.

1. What did you like most about the distance learning course that you took/taught? Please avoid the obvious answers: “I didn’t have to be on campus” or “I could do it at my own pace/time.” Instead, think about how the teacher-student(s) interaction worked, the user interface, or options that worked better online than in a classroom.

2. What did you dislike (i.e. what really drove you crazy?) about the distance education course? You can be specific to a particular class, or to the entire experience (or both).

Please include in your comment if you were a student or a teacher. Feel free to add more comments, suggestions, etc.

Thank you for helping!

“Animated” Comic: Jonah

Many of you may be familiar with this resource, but I know some people are still unaware of it, so I am posting about it again (and will add it to my Hebrew Resources page). Charles Grebe, (Briercrest Seminary, Saskatchewan, Canada) has created an “animated” comic of the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah is often taught in first year Biblical Hebrew classes, so this is an especially relevant resource.


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Youth

I just found a post that J. Randall Short put up in June. He wrote about the Birmingham Boys Choir performing in Japan. He highlights one of the pieces they sang, which is based on the poem “Youth” by Samuel Ullman. I had never read this poem before. Below are the first and last stanza. Be sure to read all of it (and his comments) at his blog.

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind;
it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees;
it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions;
it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
…
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism,
then you are grown old, even at twenty,
but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism,
there is hope you may die young at eighty.

I think it was C.S. Lewis who said, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

Here’s to Youth, at whatever age.

Enjoying Life

Me and Maggie, being crazy and enjoying life (this was taken right before Maggie saw a snake in the water).

Vocabulary Resources: Part 2

My recent Boulders2Bits contest asked readers to submit suggestions for vocabulary resources. Here’s the second (of two) posts giving an annotated list of the suggestions (Part One can be found here). I’m apologizing up front for all the screen captures. I know it makes the post look cluttered, but I think it helps to visualize the programs.

Aleph Bet

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Vocabulary Resources: Part 1

My recent Boulders2Bits contest asked readers to submit suggestions for vocabulary resources. Here’s the first (of two) posts giving an annotated list of the suggestions.

Aleph Bet

Actually, two people (Joseph Kelly and Colin Toffelmire) suggested this first one.

I have used this program in conjunction with Landes: Building Your Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary Learning Words by Frequency and Cognate: http://home.earthlink.net/~vikn/hebrew.htm These two resources work well together.

Here’s my entry: http://home.earthlink.net/~vikn/hebrew.htm
It does Hebrew and Greek, has options for flashcards, multiple-choice, fill in the blank, or a combo of those. And the kicker? Totally free!

I like this resource and will continue to use it. It has a very easy user interface, well organized word lists (for beginner through advanced based on word category and frequency), and a variety of tools (drill, flashcards, quiz).
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And the winner is…

Aleph_Bet magnets

Ken Brown!

Thank you to everyone who entered the first ever B2B contest. Ken was randomly selected from all the submissions and will be receiving his very own set of Hebrew Aleph-Bet magnets.

Ken’s suggestion was:

There’s the iVocab program, which includes the 1000 or so most common lexemes on audio-visual flashcards readable for your iPod. It also includes pre-made playlists for each of the vocab lists accompanying in several intro Hebrew Grammars. I have both the Greek and Hebrew versions and found them useful, though installing them was a bit cumbersome.

http://store.kregel.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1809

If you didn’t win this time, don’t worry! This may have been the first, but it won’t be the last contest. Or should I say this may have been the Aleph, but it won’t be the Tav (see here for context).

I’ve been looking over everyone’s suggestions and will post a review of the submitted vocabulary resources soon.