Links for 2010-02-05

  • "The newspaper's analysis finds that more than two in five students (41.5%) earned a failing score of 1 or 2, up from 36.5% in 1999. In the South, a Census-defined region that spans from Texas to Delaware, nearly half of all tests -- 48.4% -- earned a 1 or 2, a failure rate up 7 percentage points from a decade prior and a statistically significant difference from the rest of the country."
  • "If you're gonna study something, you might as well study physics. At least that's what I used to tell my students when I taught at the University of Arizona. Physics is the heart of all, physics is the whole enchilada, physics is totality, physics is everything, physics is existence. Every morsel of our lives, every fabric of our being, every bit and piece of all that stuff that we see and don't see is driven by, exists because, and perhaps most importantly is a manifestation of physics. My God (pun totally and shamelessly intended): when you put it that way, why isn't everyone studying physics in school?"
  • "What's awesome about this? They weren't just able to image Pluto's surface, they were able to image the surface as the planet rotated, which means we can see what the surface of the planet looks like everywhere!"
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Well, at least AP Physics scores are up, and in my kids school, AP Physics is reportedly the hardest course taught at the school. I'm a little worried - my son is scheduling his Jr. year courses now, and has put in for 4 AP courses, including Physics, Calc BC, US History and Language & Comp.