[_ Old Earth _] Not that hard, really.

[Barbarian]

I recently made a bet with a seventh-grade teacher that a bright bunch of 12-year-olds could figure out adaptation, directional selection, stabilizing selection, and stasis.

I got to do a few days with a 7th pre-AP class, doing a simulation I wrote. They all had iPads, and using a site for customized dice and a graphing site, they did six generations of a population of asexually-reproducing organisms.

The process involved computing the fitness of each organism by looking at the value of particular alleles for a specific environment. The two most fit got to reproduce five organisms each, after which dice were rolled to determine if a mutation occurred, to which gene, and what the mutation would be.

Initially, the population evolved rapidly, then slowed, and finally fluctuated around a mean. Students were able to do the simulation and draw conclusions about the reason that fitness tracked as it did.

Not bad.

 

[Sparkey]

I could probably "teach" them World of Warcraft simply by providing the Next-Gen Consoles and letting them have at it. It would not surprise me at all. Cool that you were able to get the students involved!

But it also seems to me that kids are very adaptable especially while engaged and trying to figure out anything even games. I'd bet that it was easy to lead them to the conclusions that you favor too. I mean, we are talking 12-year-olds here.

 

[Claudya]

Meh when I was a kid we had to firgure that out from boring textbooks and "simulations" on chalkboards.
And we barely had a teacher who were creative like that.

 

[Barbarian]

The cool thing about the approach is not having to lead them anywhere. I used the terms "adaptation" and "fitness", and let them draw their conclusions. The data, of course, are simulated, but match up nicely with data actually obtained in real observations.

Never used the word "evolution" at all. My point was that students are more capable than we often think they are. None of the facts in the simulation were in the least controversial; even most creationists would acknowledge them as facts.

I could probably "teach" them World of Warcraft simply by providing the Next-Gen Consoles and letting them have at it. It would not surprise me at all.

I was in graduate school when the first resource-allocation games came out (all strategy games are resource-allocation problems). I've played Warcraft, and while it's a bit hokey, it does teach critical thinking.




Cool that you were able to get the students involved!

 

[Barbarian]

Claudia, I just noticed that you are from Jena. I really love my old Zeiss Contax IIa. Do they still build optical devices there?

 

[Claudya]

It's awesome you have one of those old things... they were built when? 50s? Does it still work?

Yeah they still produce optical stuff here. Afaik mostly microscopes and medical equipment. The Zeiss company was very defining for the local industry, a lot of it is somehow related to optics.
Zeiss was split after WWII when Germany was split in two halves. The bosses and most of the leading technicians of Carl Zeiss Jena were deported by American troops, basically to "save" the know-how from falling into the soviet's hands. So they started a new optics manufactory in western Germany. But the company members that remained here continued the old Zeiss company, using those parts of the company's infrastructure and equipment that had survived the bombings of the city.
So there were two Zeiss companies for decades, one here and one in western Germany. They were reunified when the country was reunified.
Anyway, Zeiss survived all the 20th century madness that this country went through, and they still produce optical elements and technology.
Plus, they have the worst soccer club of the entire country, it's so embarrassing for my city.

 

[Barbarian]

Yes, it still works. But sadly, I don't shoot much film now. l have a leica from the same era, and I have to say, I prefer the Zeiss, with it's longer, better rangefinder, and incredibly sharp 5.0 cm f2.0 Sonnar. The Leica works, but I have to carefully trim the film leader to work for the longer take-up distance, which is a bother. The 3.5 cm Summitar is also very sharp, but not as good, IMO, as the Sonnar.

This was taken about 1975 with the IIa. I had no studio equipment; I was in school, living in a tiny apartment. So I set the rocker in front of the patio curtains,
exposed for the faces, and bounced a flash off the wall to my right. I printed it on Agfa Portriga Rapid for that warm look and velvety finish.

I just love the old cameras; everything was mechanical, and things were built to last. Today, there's no point; the quality improves so fast, you wouldn't want a ten-year-old Nikon or Pentax. But then, I still keep a few dozen slide rules around the office, just because the workmanship and precision is so amazing.

Sorry to hear about your football club.

 

[Claudya]

Is that Mrs Barbarian with the Barbarian kids? Can't stop staring at her glasses.
Very cute and beautiful photograph.

Yeah it's bit like when computers were young: everything required knowledge and skill to make it work. You had to understand the technology and the science behind it in order to be able to use them well.
Nowadays quality and comfort of cameras (and of computers) are so much better and improve fast, but most people are mere users of them and don't understand the technology any more.
And you are right, they were built to last. All the electronical stuff is much more fragile.

Sorry to hear about your football club.

Hehe well I'm not too big into football. But some people here really suffer because their club is doing so bad. Supporting and following the Carl-Zeiss-Jena football club is part of the local identity or so, thus some people, especially those who were born and raised in Jena's working class, are very emotionally involved with the club's fate.
Anyway, there's a real good women's soccer team belonging to the university sports club, and they are playing in the women's national premier league. So if I wanted to watch good soccer I'd go watch the gals.

 

[Barbarian]

Yep. Mrs. B. and the two oldest boys. The one on your left is a software developer and the one on the right is a lawyer.

I find that the effort it took to properly use cameras that required you to set everything, was well worth it. I still switch to manual most of the time, just because I prefer to use my idea of what the exposure should be. Automatic focus is nice, but I sometimes want to override that, too.