Directions for Book Blogging

Welcome to our summer book blog! Unlike most blogs that have one blogger- everyone gets to blog about the book, To Engineer is Human, and share ideas about K-12 engineering education and the "human side" of engineering. To reply to a post, click on Comments at the bottom of the post. To start a new post, click on New Post at the top right. However, to start a new post you have to have a Google account. If you don't want to register on Google, you can send me the text for your post and a title, and I will post it for you.

Who do we have on the blog? Our book blog consists of 16 high school teachers, 1 middle school teacher, 7 elementary teachers, 4 faculty or engineering students from the University of Maine, 3 MMSA staff, and 2 DOE staff. We have a diverse and well-rounded book group which should lead to some interesting conversations. One thing to remember- the most recent post is always at the top of the blog. If you haven't been on for awhile, scroll down and work backwards.

If you start a new post you also have the option of adding photos or other graphics as well as making a hyperlink. Play around with it a bit to get to know how it works. Try a test post- you can always delete it afterwards. Also, you will notice we will build a collection of links listed on the right. Since only the person (Page) with the Google account can add these, if you have any you would like to share, just send them to me at pagekeeley@gmail.com and I will post them for you. This is the first time we have ever tried this as a blog, so we're all getting our feet wet. Don't hesitate to wade right in!

Thursday, July 19, 2012


  • While reading our engineer book I am also reading a excellent YA historical fiction, The evolution of Calpurnia Tate.  It's about a young girl who is a naturalist in 1899. This book uses Darwin's,  On the Origin of species as Calpurnia learns of how evolution works.   I teach evolution.  I am thinking about the similarities and differences of mutations and failure and the role failure plays in improvement.   It is natural to look at natures creations, such as our bodies, trees, etc, and the engineering process.  Yet does failure and fatigue in a bridge means something different then in our bodies?  I think of a back injury I had a few years back as failure of my back ( and more so my judgement and sense), but depending on when it happens I don't know if it would be considered a failure in an evolutionary sense.  I think if it happened late enough in my life that my children were grown, it would not be be considered an evolutionary failure. 
  • Two conflicting thoughts:  I love the trend of Biomimetics, where nature is observed as an insight to good design. Think of burrs and velcro.  However, I worry about the simplest and wrong application of looking at nature and seeing engineering as is done by those resisting evolution with the false science of intelligent Design.  
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousAugust 3, 2012 at 7:40 PM

    Dear Dan,

    I love showing students examples of how engineers and scientists turn to nature to help create a solution. I find it fascinating.

    On another note...I had been hoping to ask this when at the Mt.Vernon beach- but our paths have not crossed or when they have I have forgotten to ask. I will blame the cold medicine that I am still taking combined with the lack of sleep experienced with both my children being ill as well. The question is- how do you create your own post? I can comment upon others info., but I can not create a "new post" for others to comment upon.

    Thanks for your help.

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