Academia
jstemwedel | January 25, 2008PZ tagged me with a teaching meme. The question is "Why do you teach and why is academic freedom critical to that effort?"
Unlike PZ, I knew I had a thing for teaching long before I had a clue what discipline I would end up pursuing. (My first official paycheck for a teaching gig was issued in 1985.) But at this stage of my life, my reasons for teaching are a bit more complex than "I like it," "I'm good at it," and "It's a requirement of my job to do so."
They're complex enough, in fact, that I'm going to subvert the question a little and talk about why I teach the two main courses I…
terrasig | January 25, 2008When Duke genetics researcher Dr Marcy C Speer died of breast cancer last August at age 47, a huge void was left in the community of her friends, her university, and her field. As Director of the Center for Human Genetics at Duke University Medical Center, Dr Speer was tremendously successful as a scientist, collaborator, and role model. Among her many accomplishments and recognitions was her appointment and service to NIH's Genetics of Health and Human Disease study section.
NIH's Center for Scientific Review, or CSR, is the entity charged with all aspects of the peer-review of some 80,000…
retrospectacle | January 24, 2008Every now and then I do a Google News Search for topics I'm interested in to get good blog fodder ('neuroscience' and 'parrots' are of course perennial favorites). This time one of those searches popped up an interesting news piece in The Hindu newspaper which really resonated with me, tagged with a quote by David Baltimore: "You cannot do science unless you are an optimist." That is one of those truths that becomes so important in grad school when many projects fail, or good ideas get scooped, publication hopes are frustrated, and that final dissertation defense seems so far away. A healthy…
jstemwedel | January 24, 2008Via Bint Alshamsa, this is a version of a "social class awareness experience" used in the residence halls (and possibly also classrooms?) at Indiana State University by Will Barratt et al. In the classroom, students are asked to take a step forward for each of the statements that describe them; they don't talk about the exercise (and how they feel about it) until after they've gone through the whole list.
Doing this online, I'm bolding the statements which describe my background. Also, I'm including a second list that Lauren added based on the suggestions Bint's commenters made as to other…
jstemwedel | January 23, 2008It's been pretty quiet here. Not only have I been engrossed in preparations for the Spring semester (classes start today), but I also went to the 2008 NC Science Blogging Conference. So it seems like a good time to ruminate a bit on how conferences fit into the patterns of (my) academic life.
The official reasons academics go to conferences include presenting their work to others in their field and finding out what other people in the field are working on. In the "scholarly communication" hierarchy, giving a talk or presenting a poster is less valued than getting a peer-reviewed…
drorzel | January 23, 2008Over at Biocurious, Phillip has a post on the generic science seminar outline:
1. Introduction of Esteemed Speaker by Local Professor with the largest overlap in research interests. Enumeration of every award Esteemed Speaker has ever garnered is standard issue, and if Local Professor and Esteemed Speaker know each other, humorous story from "well, not THAT long ago" is recounted, though chances are you probably had to be there (unless it involves breaking obscenely expensive equipment, in which case everyone has a good laugh).
2. Esteemed Speaker takes over, and begins with a bunch of overly…
drorzel | January 23, 2008I haven't linked to Inside Higher Ed in a few days, but lest you think I've forgotten them, they have a short piece today about the results of a survey of employers "with at least 25 employees and significant hiring of recent college graduates," regarding the preparation of their recent hires.
It turns out that employers aren't as frustrated with the skills of new graduates as some politicians and policy makers suggest. In a number of areas, employers appear to think graduates are coming out well positioned. And while employers would love to see better assessment tools used in college (as you…
clock | January 22, 2008On the heels of David Warlick's session on using online tools in the science classroom, this initiative is really exciting:
Teachers, Students, Web Gurus, and Foundations Launch Campaign to Transform Education, Call for Free, Adaptable Learning Materials Online
Cape Town, January 22nd, 2008--A coalition of educators, foundations, and internet pioneers today urged governments and publishers to make publicly-funded educational materials available freely over the internet.
The Cape Town Open Education Declaration, launched today, is part of a dynamic effort to make learning and teaching…
neurotopia | January 16, 2008After the Big Relocation, I've had not much to do while I wait for a job to open up. Specifically there is a university position that is (was) supposed to become available. It's about the perfect position for somebody coming off a rather disappointing postdoc experience (to put it mildly); a lab coordinator for undergrad neuro labs, where I can get a little teaching experience and still enjoy lab work. Problem is, I'm still waiting for the job to get posted.
Today I got a smidgen of good news; I can do some part-time work doing a lot of the same stuff, which is really nice. It lets the…
catdynamics | January 16, 2008So, how much do faculty make.
The Incoherent Ponderer Pseudonymously Reveals All
The US system seems very byzantine on occasion to Us Europeans, lot of gamesmanship.
The IP discusses the situation well, the top private universities - Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Caltech crowd definitely pay top dollar - with the IAS probably paying best.
The large public universities probably pay better than most of the private small liberal arts universities, although it is generally incorrect to say that they receive a lot of funding from the government - faculty term salaries come primarily out of student…
clock | January 12, 2008OK, this may not be very new, but for all of you taking a look at science in North Carolina next week due to the focus on the Science Blogging Conference, The Scientist has published a number of essays looking at every aspect of Life Science in the state - check it out: The State of Life Sciences.
For the latest news on life science in North Carolina, visit the Bioscience Clearinghouse, a very useful website hosted by The North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research.
terrasig | January 12, 2008The word on the e-streets is that DrugMonkey co-blogger, PhysioProf, has hung out a new shingle at. . .PhysioProf, the blog. (So as not to confuse the issues, DrugMonkey is the lead blogger at DrugMonkey the blog. . .does that make sense?).
But we get the best of both worlds: PhysioProf will still be continuing his more academic gig at DrugMonkey.
PhysioProf has been a thoughtful commenter 'round these parts and has been a strength over at DM, especially with regard to academic research, funding, career development, and general issues such as how not to screw up one's own faculty interview…
catdynamics | January 11, 2008Penn State Professor: "...an academic who blogs is contributing to the demise of Western culture"
Darn tootin'.
Er, any Deans reading this...?
Just remember that man is a most Dangeral Professor.
clock | January 11, 2008From an e-mail from the Science Communicators of North Carolina:
At noon on Friday, January 18, the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in Durham will host a seminar by Josh Rosenau, the Public Information Project Director at the National Center for Science Education. Rosenau, who is in town for the Science blogging conference, will opine on the subject of "Talking to the Media about Evolution and Creationism." The discussion is sure to be lively.
kcontreary | January 11, 2008I just want to say before I start that I wrote this whole post by myself, and the parts I didn't write are correctly attributed to the proper sources.
Jacob Hale Russell, writing in 02138 Magazine (Harvard's alumni magazine), discusses some disturbing trends in academic writing. Specifically, he takes on the modern practice of employing numerous research assistants to essentially ghostwrite works for publication.
In 2004, Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree issued a statement apologizing for plagiarism in his book All Deliberate Speed, plagiarism which he didn't know about, and which he…
jstemwedel | January 10, 2008Saying you've seen everything is just asking the universe to do you one better. So I won't. Still, this story nearly required grubbing around the floor on my hands and knees to find the location to which my jaw had dropped:
Bogus university scam uncovered
Investigation
By Nigel Morris
BBC London Investigations Producer
An international education scam that targets foreign students who come to study in the capital has been exposed by a BBC London investigation.
The bogus Irish International University (IIU), which offers sub-standard and worthless degrees, has been allowed to flourish in…
clock | January 8, 2008Following his (excellent) article in Seed on the topic, my SciBling Chris Mooney blogs about the future of the position of the Science Advisor to the President, suggesting some potential names, and Matt Nisbet, RPM, Blake Stacey, Brian Switek, Scott Hatfield, Lila Guterman, Larry Moran, Mike Dunford, Flavin, c4chaos, Gordon Watts and PZ Myers chime in with their own opinions on the potential candidates.
For some reason, all the bloggers are focusing on popularizers of science and charismatic figures. But the job of a Science Advisor to the President is not really that public (unless the next…
clock | January 8, 2008PLoS ONE is the first and (so far) the most successful scientific journal specifically geared to meet the brave new world of the future. After starting it and bringing it up from birth to where it is now one year later, Chris Surridge has decided to move on.
Do you think you have the skill and experience to pick up where he leaves off? Do you want to be at the cutting edge of scientific publishing? If so, take a look at the new job ad for the Managing Editor of PLoS ONE:
The overall responsibility of this position, which will be located in the San Francisco office, is to lead the…
drorzel | January 8, 2008Commenter "Matt" wrote a comment that pissed me off, and while it's probably futile to take on union-bashing again, it does highlight a couple of the things that make this so frustrating.
In response to several people observing that teaching is not the cushy 8-to-3, summers-off job that lots of people claim, he writes:
Here are the facts. Teachers do not "have" to work harder than the rest of us. They do not "have" to deal with different or unique problems. Granted, some choose to work hard and some choose to deal with parents, misbehaving kids, etc. But people the world over in all jobs have…
catdynamics | January 7, 2008After thinking occasionally about it, for months, and talking to a couple of friends and neighbours, by golly, I think I've got it... It is all about the OWL levels, really.
There are three aspects to the problem of US education: the structure, the pedagogy and the content. I will pontificate on some and touch upon all.
Now UPDATED - I concede a major point... - I rather naughtily moved the date up. This originally came out on Jan 4 at 8 am. I want it higher on my page now that SciBlogs frontpaged it.
First of all, the "No Child Left Behind" act must be abolished.
Last time I read it, my…