In an old comedy routine of disputed origin, two people are present when the telephone rings. One of them answers it and after a brief silence remarks, “You don’t say!” Then, more silence as he listens, then again: “You don’t say!” Another period of silent listening, and another “You don’t say!” Then finally, “Okay, goodbye, then.” The other fellow turns to him quizzically and asks who had called. The fellow who answered the phone replies solemnly, “He didn’t say.”

Parents of special-needs children do their best to help their kids thrive in typical society, but at times this can be challenging. For instance, I want my son, Harrison, to be able to participate in as many activities as he would like—but this can involve more than just signing him up and paying the registration fee. Fortunately, with a flexible approach and some simple tools, we have found that Harrison can still enjoy “normal” activities. Sometimes, all it takes is an honest conversation.

A winner has emerged in the most recent Poster Puzzler contest! Congratulations are in order for Rose Bradley, secretary III, Cancer Research Technology Program. The current Poster Puzzler image shows the refrigerant condensers for the two-story freezers in the Building 1073 repository, which are used to store samples at -20°C. Put simply, the condensers act like the outdoor unit on a home AC system.

If the only way for high school students to learn science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is through textbooks, then count me out. But how then do you get students to learn STEM outside of the classroom? The focus of this article is to advocate for high school STEM education through experiential learning.

To be gratuitously loquacious will probably obfuscate. Huh? Oh, sorry. Let me try that again. The unnecessary use of flowery language is likely to confuse the listener and interfere with understanding. Was that dumbing the message down? I don’t think so—it took a few more words, but it was probably clearer.