school
oracknows | February 4, 2016Well, it's finally done.
The grants that have been taking up so much of my time are finally with the grants office and, hopefully, won't have too many errors flagged as they go through the validation process. So it's time to get back into that blogging thing again, even though I'm admittedly tired. So I'll start out slow. No Orac-ian epics today, just another rather satisfying bit of news mirroring a previous post that I did last week about how making it more difficult to obtain personal belief exemptions to school vaccine requirements works. In states where PBEs are difficult to obtain or…
esiegel | September 6, 2013"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught." -Oscar Wilde
As many of you know, last weekend I launched a suggestion box here on the site, and I've been overwhelmed by the response: about fifty of you have sent something in to me in the first less-than-a-week of this alone!
Image credit: Thao Nelson of http://mycredo.wordpress.com/.
So, let's start answering them! There are more than enough excellent questions and suggestions to keep me busy for a long time, but with the new academic year starting up, one of them…
kcollins | January 10, 2012
America's most fast-paced and fun math contest will be the finale for day one of the 2012 USASEF. Eight area high school students will compete for $4000 in cash and prizes in Who Wants to Be a Mathematician on Saturday, April 28 at 5:00 on the Carver Stage. Students from DC, MD, VA, DE, and WV are eligible to compete. Teachers who are interested in having their students participate in the qualifying process should write paoffice@ams.org, with the subject line WWTBAM USASEF. Include your name, school, courses taught this semester, and phone number in the body of the message.
See descriptions…
grrlscientist | January 17, 2010tags: religion, school, religion, catholicism, comedy, humor, fucking hilarious, Dave Allen, streaming video
Irish Comedian Dave Allen (1936-2005) remembers his introduction to religion -- his first day of school.
David Tynan O'Mahoney (Dave Allen) was popular in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada in the 1960s, 1970s and also in the 1990s; he became known in America through reruns of his shows on public television.
Allen's act was typified by a very relaxed, intimate style -- he would sit on a chair, smoking and holding a glass of whiskey. An atheist[1] (according to Allen himself, "…
grrlscientist | September 8, 2009tags: Obama, education, school, public school, politics, streaming video
Nearly 24 hours ago, President Obama delivered a national address to students across the country to encourage them to work hard on their education. This speech, which ignited controversy among this nation's political conservatives and racists, was delivered to a group of students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, VA.
edyong | April 16, 2009In American high schools, black students typically perform worse than their white peers, which can damage their self-esteem and their future prospects. Studies have found that the fear of living up to this underachieving stereotype can cause so much stress that a child's performance suffers. Their teachers may even write them off as lost causes, and spend less time on them.
With so many students caught in this vicious cycle, where the stereotype of poor performance strengthens itself, it might seem absurd to suggest that you could turn things round in less than an hour. But try telling that…
edyong | March 26, 2009On the 3rd of October, 2006, Nicolas Makris watched a quarter of a billion fish gather in the same place. They were Atlantic herring, one of the most abundant fishes in the ocean and one prone to gathering in massive schools. This was the first time that anyone had watched the full scope of the event, much less capture it on video.
The first signs of the amassing herring appeared around 5pm and by sunset, the gathering had begun in earnest. Once a critical level of fish was reached, the shoal expanded at a breakneck pace, suddenly growing to cover tens of kilometres within the hour. By…
awild | May 26, 2008
Centruroides sculpturatus - Arizona Bark Scorpion
I have a hard time getting worked up over stuff that happened 25 years ago. But here's something that still angers me every time I think of it.
One of those educational safety movies we were shown back in grade school- you know, the "Stop-Drop-and-Roll" variety- presented the dangers of the Bark Scorpion. The film featured dark tones and a dramatic reenactment of a deadly encounter, complete with screams and fainting.
This was shown in Rochester, New York, mind you. We don't have scorpions anywhere near Rochester. The climate is is far…
laelaps | November 5, 2007The fiberglass skull of Barnum Brown's second Tyrannosaurus rex fitted on the revised mount now standing on the 4th floor of the AMNH.The AMNH in New York is home to some of the most impressive biological collections in the world, the institution playing host to various students of natural history. This tradition of allowing researchers and graduate student access to the collections is now taking another step forward with the opening of the Richard Gilder Graduate School, currently offering a Ph.D. in Comparative Biology. As the "Welcome" statement from John J. Flynn states, much of biology…