The Crime Lab Project

What do tire treads, DNA strands and fingerprints have in common?

No, this time they are not the references to CSI, CSI Miami, or CSI New York. They are not even the reference to Bones or the Profiler. Nor are they a reference to the Science Channel or the History Channel or the Discovery Channel, although you can get great videos at . Or you can Shop at ShopPBS.org.

This time these memes are the images used to frame the pages of the The Crime Lab Project website.

This project is was formed with a vision of updated local crime labs reflecting the abilities and technologies of the forensics departments depicted in TV and movies. The website says it so much better:

• "What is the Crime Lab Project?
• 
  
• "A non-profit organization started by writers and producers, but now
• including many members of the general public, the Crime Lab Project works to increase awareness of the problems facing public forensic science agencies. We seek greater support and resources for crime labs, coroner and medical examiners' offices, and other public agencies using forensic science. We also seek support for forensic science education and research.
• 
  
• "Anyone may join the Crime Lab Project."

Of course there are links to lots of information, including a link to a Federal law on forensics labs and newspaper clippings on the current state of forensics labs in financially strapped communities.

I stumbled across the link to this site on the webpage of Sandra Parshall, mystery writer.

I stumbled on her page when I was exploring the sff net site (while exploring rff links) which claims "SFF Net is home to the most interesting authors, publishers, media pros, and consumers of genre fiction today. What interests you?" More about that site another day.

No, that's not rff as in Resources for the Future, but rff as in Reading for the Future, whose new site is here.

More on science fiction for youth

Yet Another Reason to Read Science Fiction

"...creative perception often anticipates scientific findings..."

so says Science News this week (2/2/08, v 173, p. 79)when it lists a book called Proust was a Neurologist. The book summary states," Lehrer analyzes artistic discoveries such as (these)....

Read the rest of the post at Valerie's Soapbox.

For Science Fiction Readers Everywhere: A New Resource

Hi Y'all,


Because every blog need pictures, I have used an image of one of the PowerPoint slides that I use to illustrate the Template Design Sets that I sell on my VCCTI site and elsewhere. To me it is otherworldly. I call it boy walks in the woods: Can you see the boy?

I received this email notification from some science fiction fans on 2/2/08. I pass it on to you, my friends.

• To Readers of Science Fiction and Fantasy everywhere,
• 
  
• When you have something great, you want everyone to know. So you tell people about it. You share it. You pass it along to friends everywhere. Well, that's what we're doing with InterGalactic Medicine Show. We want to make sure everyone has had a chance to check out what we're doing, so we're offering up a sampling of our stories – for free.
• 
  
• During the month of February we are going to make one story from each of our first four issues available at no charge. Two stories will be set free on February 1st, and two more on February 15th. Just visit www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com and explore the table of contents; the free stories will be clearly marked.
• 
  
• Issue one's free story will be "Trill and The Beanstalk" by Edmund R. Schubert, issue two's will be "Yazoo Queen" by Orson Scott Card (from his Alvin Maker series), issue three's "Xoco's Fire" by Oliver Dale, and issue four's "Tabloid Reporter To The Stars" by Eric James Stone. Each story is fully illustrated by artists who were commissioned to create artwork to accompany that tale – as is every story published in IGMS.
• 
  
• "Tabloid Reporter To The Stars" will also be featured in the upcoming InterGalactic Medicine Show anthology from Tor, which will be out this August (we wanted you to get a sneak peek of the anthology, too). However, the other three stories aren't available anywhere except the online version of IGMS.
• 
  
• It's really quite simple. Great stories. Custom illustrations. Free. We're pleased with and proud of the magazine we're publishing; now we're passing it along to our friends and telling them about it. We hope you'll enjoy it and do the same.
• 
  
• Edmund R. Schubert
• Editor, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show

Please visit this site at http://www.intergalacticmedicineshow.com


A great source of comics and gifts from altiverses is
Things From Another World, Inc.

I have contributed a booklist to the discourse. See this page in my VCCTI website to get the entire list with comments on how to use the books in a classroom. Yeah, I know it is a list of products, but the books chosen are all that I have screened for use with secondary grade students.

bye for now,

Valerie

Want to know how to use science fiction in your teaching?

If you have visited my website, then you know that I am passionate about the usefulness of science fiction to teach science and to explore the ethical issues of both today and tomorrow.

I was pleased to come across this announcement in an email:

• The Life, the Universe & Everything Educator's Conference is Saturday, Feb 16, 2008. Life, the Universe & Everything: the Marion K. "Doc" Smith Symposium on science fiction and fantasy (LTUE) is February 14-16, 3rd floor, Wilkinson Student Center, Brigham Young University, Provo UT. Guests include Orson Scott Card, Gail Carson Levine and Kevin Wasden.


• The conference is FREE. For more information and a schedule go to ltue.org.

But, that's not all. This is a conference for educators. One of the presentations will be on ways to use science fiction in classrooms, including K-12.

I want to thank Dave Anderson for bringing the conference to my attention. I expect lists of books appropriate for students and lesson plans to come out of this conference. If you go, let us know.