Now on ScienceBlogs: The Galaxy's Biggest Valentine
Thoughts on physics, politics, and pop culture, by a physics professor at a small liberal arts college, plus occasional conversations with his dog.
You've read the blog, now try the books! How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is published by Scribner, and available wherever books are sold. How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog is published by Basic Books and will be available 2/28/2012, as foretold by the Maya.
"Uncertain Principles" features the miscellaneous ramblings of a physicist at a small liberal arts college. Physics, politics, pop culture, and occasional conversations with his dog.
"Prof. Orzel gives the impression of an everyday guy who just happens to have a vast but hidden knowledge of physics." (anonymous student evaluation comment)
Emmy is a German Shepherd mix, and the Queen of Niskayuna. She likes treats, walks, chasing bunnies, and quantum physics.
Category: Course Reports
Through a weird quirk of scheduling, I haven't actually taught the intro modern physics course since I started writing pop-science books about modern physics. So, this week has been the first chance I've really had to use material I generated...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 2:24 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Physics
The toy model of statistical entropy that I talked about the other day is the sort of thing that, were I a good computational physicist, I would've banged out very quickly. I'm not a good computational physicist, but by cargo-culting...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 4:22 PM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Data Presentation
In the same basic vein as last week's How to Read a Scientific Paper, here's a kind of online draft of the class I'm going to give Friday on the appropriate ways to present scientific data. "Present" here meaning the...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 10:46 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Course Reports
I reported on the start of this class last week, and sinc ethen, we've had three more class meetings. Since this whole thing is an experiment, I'll keep reporting on it from time to time (heh). First, though, a quick...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 10:19 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
My course this term is on time and timekeeping, but is also intended as a general "research methods" class. This was conceived by people in the humanities, where the idea of generic research methods makes a lot more sense than...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 11:10 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
In comments to Friday's snarky post, I was chided for not engaging with the critique of standardized testing offered by Washington Post education blogger Valerie Strauss. I had intended to say more about the general topic, as there have been...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 2:48 PM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
On last month's post about the public innumeracy of a Florida school board member, Tom Singer posts an update, which includes a link to a follow-up at the Washington Post blog that started the whole thing. In the course of...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:35 AM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Education
Anybody who has taught introductory physics has noticed the tendency, particuarly among weaker students, to plug numbers into equations at the first opportunity, and spend the rest of the problem manipulating nine-digit decimal numbers (because, of course, you want to...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 3:46 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
As mentioned a few times previously, the class I'm teaching this term is a "Scholars Research Seminar" on time and timekeeping. As this is an entirely new course, and will be consuming a lot of my mental energy, I plan...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 1:12 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Academia
It's the first day of class today (for me, anyway-- classes technically started yesterday, but I don't teach on Tuesdays this term). This, of course, means that something will go horribly wrong. The question is, what? What will go wrong...
Posted by Chad Orzel at 9:56 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Orac 02.13.2012
ERV 11.26.2011
Tim Lambert 09.12.2011
Tim Lambert 02.01.2012
Orac 01.26.2012
