Education
lbock | October 16, 2012Read More…
Although dance was among her first loves while growing up in Decatur, Alabama, Mae Jemison also had a high degree of interest in science, particularly space exploration. "I always knew I'd go to space," she says with a smile. A desire to help others through medicine was also high on her list. With determination, she set out to make her dreams come true. She entered college at age 16 as a chemical engineering student and after earning her degree, she completed medical school and practiced in Los Angeles before joining the Peace Corps' as a Medical Officer in Sierra Leone and Liberia…
jdupuis | October 11, 2012Well, I've done it. I've signed up for a MOOC. MOOC, of course, being Massively Open Online Courses, are all the rage in higher-ed-more-disruptingly-than-thou circles, what with their potential is greatly expand the reach of higher education beyond a campus-bound constituency. But not without criticism, of course. Coursera is a popular example of a company that's offering MOOCs but there are a bunch of them out there now.
Having read so much about them over the last year or so, I thought I'd give one a try.
And as a bonus, this one is about the changes happening in the higher education…
esiegel | October 10, 2012"It's Dr. Evil, I didn't spend six years in Evil Medical School to be called "mister," thank you very much." -Dr. Evil, from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Graduate school is hard work, and Ph.D. programs in Physics and Astronomy are some of the most demanding and competitive ones out there. It's well-known that it's incredibly difficult to strike a good work/life balance while you're in graduate school, and that between classes, homework, reading, research, and any teaching or service duties you may have, you cannot expect to spend only 40 hours a week on all of your…
lbock | October 8, 2012
PLEASE SHARE IF YOU ARE INSPIRED BY THIS STORY!
(Tell Us What You Think: What are some of the science and engineering skills that Lonnie used to invent the Super Soaker? He proves that science can be TOTALLY fun!)
It seems that Lonnie Johnson was born to be an engineer. Growing up in Mobile, Alabama, he was a quiet and curious child who was fascinated about how things worked. “Lonnie tore up his sister’s baby doll to see what made the eyes close,” his mother recalls. As he grew older, he began making things, including rockets powered by fuel cooked up in his mother’s saucepans. In his…
gregladen | October 8, 2012NCSE executive director Genie Scott chats with polar explorer Will Steger about their experiences and perspectives on climate change education. Steger is an educator and author of several books on his expeditions and environmental issues, including climate change. Where: University of Minnesota.
esiegel | October 4, 2012“One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.” -Joan of Arc
Regardless of what intrinsic differences any person or group of people have from another, everyone deserves to be treated as an individual, afforded the same opportunities to pursue their passions, goals and dreams, and evaluated on the merits of their performance. Although this is not yet the way the world works, I am confident that many strides are consistently being made in the right direction, and I was…
gregladen | October 3, 2012For three decades, the National Center for Science Education(NCSE) has focused most of its efforts on defending the teaching of evolution in the classroom. Increasingly, however, the teachers its executive director, Dr. Eugenie Scott, hears from are under fire for teaching global warming. So much so that in January, the organization formally added a climate initiative to its efforts to support the teaching of science. Scott spoke on August 6, 2012 in Minnesota, sponsored by the Will Steger Foundation and the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs, where she was joined by…
gregladen | October 2, 2012How Religion and Science Interact and the Issue of Evolution
A featured speaker at Westminster College's 2012 Symposium on Religious Experience in a Global Society, Dr. Eugenie Scott, Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education (Oakland, California), discusses religion, science and evolution. Almost 80 years after the Scopes trial, the debate over the teaching of evolution continues to rage. There is no easy resolution—It is a complex topic with profound scientific, religious, educational, and legal implications. Dr. Scott discusses the nature of the evolution-creationism…
gregladen | September 26, 2012
A small college out east. Photo by wallyg.
I very strongly agree with the basic conclusion offered by a post at teenskepchick by Ali Marie, advice for those now looking at college: “…what’s the undecided student to do? My advice: community college.”. Ali discussed the problem of getting all the required courses in within a four year time span. The key problem she points out is that unless you know pretty much what you want your final major will look like you may end up having to take more than the expected number of courses and thus, have a hard time graduating in four years. I’ll add to…
oracknows | September 20, 2012It's feast or famine in the ol' blogging world, and right now it's such a feast that I can't decide what to blog about. For instance, there are at least two studies and a letter that I wouldn't mind blogging about just in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine alone. Then there's SaneVax and Dr. Sin Hang Lee, who has apparently released another study again claiming that the anti-HPV vaccine Gardasil is contaminated with—horror of horrors!—DNA. A quick perusal of it tells me that it's probably the same principle of PCR that I've discussed before, namely that it's quite…
drorzel | September 19, 2012In which we look at the death of a sports-media pioneer, the settling of the Chicago teachers strike, writing while a parent, why even highly educated people hate school teachers, and a different approach to teaching students not to plagiarize papers.
A Positive Solution for Plagiarism - Do Your Job Better - The Chronicle of Higher Education
The first writing assignment I give students in my writing courses involves plagiarism as a topic. I ask them to investigate and read resources on the Web assembled by experts on the subject such as Nick Carbone, a new-media consultant for Bedford/St.…
esiegel | September 19, 2012"Science enhances the moral value of life, because it furthers a love of truth and reverence—love of truth displaying itself in the constant endeavor to arrive at a more exact knowledge of the world of mind and matter around us, and reverence, because every advance in knowledge brings us face to face with the mystery of our own being." -Max Planck
Our standard model of elementary particles and forces -- with the recent discovery of the Higgs boson now behind us -- has now had every expected particle within it discovered, and we can explain where the elementary particles get their masses from…
esiegel | September 14, 2012"I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like to be taught." -Winston Churchill
My very first time leading a classroom -- on my own -- was back in June of 2000. I was 21 years old, fresh out of college, and was teaching science in a middle school classroom. And I asked what I thought was an innocuous question, designed to pique their curiosity. I asked the class, "What are we -- you, me, and all human beings -- made of?"
I was expecting many possible answers common to all living things, ranging from "blood and guts" to cells, molecules, or atoms. From a scientific standpoint,…
cmonforton | September 11, 2012Let's say you're curious to know whether there's evidence that a particular compound is carcinogenic to laboratory animals or to humans. Maybe you're wondering about UV radiation from tanning beds, or wood dust, or the drug tamoxifen. Do you want to rely solely on the opinion of the compound's producer or an industry trade association, or might you like to know the views of a panel of independent scientists?
Hearing from the latter was the vision for the U.S.'s Report on Carcinogens. It is a program put in place in 1978 by Public Law 95-622 with amendments to the Public Health Service Act…
jdupuis | August 10, 2012This is the third and hopefully final summary post on the controversy at the University of Virginia surrounding the forced resignation of President Teresa Sullivan. The previous two are here and here.
Trouble With Transparency
A Much Higher Education: UVA has its president back. But the fight to save our universities has only just begun.
Being the innovation shield
After Leadership Crisis Fueled by Distance-Ed Debate, UVa Will Put Free Classes Online
Going Public the UVa Way
U-Va. parent: Online learning is an oxymoron
University of Virginia’s peaceful revolution grew strength online
Most…
jdupuis | August 3, 2012This is some vacation catch-up...
Is Algebra Necessary?
Mathematical Illiteracy in the NYT
There Are Many Ways to Improve High School Education: Dumbing It Down Is NOT One of Them
Does mathematics have a place in higher education?
Abandoning Algebra Is Not the Answer
It’s Not the Algebra, It’s the Arithmetic
The challenge for scholarly societies
Concrete Options For A Society Journal To Go OA
Re-skilling for Research: An investigation into the role and skills of subject and liaison librarians required to effectively support the evolving information needs of researchers
The future of…
jdupuis | August 2, 2012
Horses, motorcars and mergers on the LIS horizon
Mergers, boundaries, and image
St. Kate’s MLIS program is going under the business school
Maker Faire KC 2012 and what it means for libraries
At Libraries, Quiet Makes a Comeback
Blogs as Serialized Scholarship
Why Millennials Don't Want To Buy Stuff
Concrete options for a society journal to go OA
I Want It Today: How Amazon’s ambitious new push for same-day delivery will destroy local retail.
Online Higher Education
Opening Ceremonies (changes in schol comm starting to seem inevitable)
Is online learning really cracking open the public post-…
pharyngula | July 30, 2012I would have thought that it was a relief, a minor bit of unconcern, that Mitt Romney nominally supports evolution (he's one of those waffly theistic evolutionists, so he doesn't really…but at least he wouldn't be brazenly contradicting all of the evidence). But there's a potential problem looming: who will he pick for vice president? Who does he turn to advice on education? Ken Miller discusses the situation, and points out that his key advisor on education reform and potential VP pick is…
Bobby Jindal, creationist governor of Louisiana.
Jindal has an elite résumé. He was a biology major at…
oracknows | July 29, 2012And now for something completely different...
Well, not really, but kind of different.
I realize that my niche here has become discussing science-based medicine, evidence-based medicine, and the atrocities committed against both by proponents of so-called "complementary and alternative" medicine, but every so often I need a change of pace. Unfortunately, that change of pace was something I came across in the New York Times on Sunday in the form of a commentary so bad that I seriously wondered if it was a parody or a practical joke. Alas, it wasn't. I'm referring to an article by Andrew Hacker…
cmonforton | July 23, 2012A night out for the midnight premiere of the summer blockbuster "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises" turned deadly. Twelve people are dead and at least 59 were wounded. The victims will be mourned, the suspect studied, and the incident relegated to our criminal justice system. In my circle, however, we see gun violence a public health problem. It affects people, it causes death, injury and disability, and it can be addressed with environmental, legal, and behavioral interventions. A classic paper examining violence in a public health frame was published in a 1993 issue of the journal Health…