Road Writer Blog: Musings from the Travels of a retired scientist, teacher, writer, gardener, and philosopher
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Three Cs to an A: Tips on Writing Science (with real student examples)
When I taught science classes regularly at Minnesota State University Moorhead, I often assigned writing exercises, particularly my “One-Page Science Paper” which engaged students in multiple writes, reviews, and rewrites. My own experience with writing assignments in college had often involved producing twenty or more pages, as though making it longer encouraged better writing. I […]
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Science Fiction and the RoadWriter Life, Part 1: Finding Trilobites
Today I’ve been thinking about what makes science fiction, science fiction (spurred by my recent publication of a ghost story-science fiction crossover, “A Visit from Old Earth”, in S’more Spooky Stories, published by Owl Hollow Press). Thinking about science fiction makes me think about trilobites (of course), long abandoned barge canals, and my campervan. Let […]
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Finding Truth in a Post-Truth, Fake-News World—Part 1, observation, reasoning, and investigation
It is now winter in Minnesota (we had a HIGH temperature of 19 below zero Fahrenheit a week or so ago!), and our campervan, although fitted with a solar-panel-powered electric blanket and a small propane heater (including appropriate propane and CO monitors), can’t keep us warm when it gets that cold. Thus, Mary and I […]
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WIP Snippet
One of the delightful discoveries of our retirement campervan travels has been that, with power from our onboard solar panels, we can actually do work while we travel, preparing lessons for courses we are still teaching, getting ready to offer science teacher workshops, and others. We can also work on our special projects, Mary cross-stitching […]
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Spontaneity: Joy of the Road!
My wife and I began planning our joint retirement four years in advance (calling those four years our freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years of retirement, building up to a sense of beginning rather than ending). As the senior year marched toward graduation, we decided that it would be great fun to get a little […]