A resource that every teacher values...is time.
Here at 3D Molecular Designs, we believe that one of the things we can do for teachers is to act as interpreters of cutting-edge science. At some distant time in the past, when you realized you were interested in science, you came to a fork in the road. You could have turned to the east and pursued a career in research, or you could have turned west and pursued a more difficult career as an educator. Had you gone east, you would have been rewarded for spending most of your time digging deeper and deeper into one subject – learning more and more about less and less until in the end you knew everything there was to know… about nothing. But when you chose to become a teacher, your plate was suddenly filled with more responsibilities than any one person could possibly satisfy.
Most importantly, you became responsible for people – young people – and their introduction to the beauty and complexity of science. And not just biology, but also chemistry, biochemistry, organic and inorganic chemistry, microbiology, virology, immunology, synthetic biology, and biotechnology, to name only a few. And of course, you were also expected to be ready to step up and teach astronomy and/or physics when a colleague retired. You might say that as a professional science educator, you spend your career learning less and less about more and more until in the end you know nothing at all about everything.
But don't worry… 3D Molecular Designs is here to help. We have a very dedicated staff of smart people… each with diverse expertise in model design, 3D-printing and injection-molding technologies, cutting-edge augmented reality experiences, and the instructional power of schematic, 2D stamped-foam representations of proteins — that can be easily folded up into 3D protein models.
So, what does this have to do with time… and your lack of it? Well, speaking for myself, as I approach retirement, I find myself in an enviable position in which I have the time to dig into some of these new topics that I presume we have all been ignoring until now. And I am happy as a clam to spend some of that time learning about organic-metal frameworks (MOFs)– the subject of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry – and then summarizing that new work for you in the form of Tim Talks / Webinars / Summer Courses.
Presuming that you find these summaries useful, I could use your help in deciding which topics you might be interested in hearing more about... and that I should spend my precious time investigating… now that the garden is winding down. Please complete this survey and indicate our top 3 topic choices…and then stay tuned to see if your colleagues voted for the same topics… and when/how these topics might be addressed in the future.