education
drorzel | March 18, 2009Yesterday's bad graphic post spurred me to finally get around to doing the "Why Does Excel Suck So Much?" post I've been meaning to do for a while. I gripe about Excel a lot, as we're more or less forced to use it for data analysis in the intro labs (students who have taken the intro engineering course supposedly are taught how to work with Excel, and it's kind of difficult to buy a computer without it these days, so it eliminates the "I couldn't do anything with the data" excuse for not doing lab reports). This is a constant source of irritation, as the default settings are carefully chosen…
grrlscientist | March 18, 2009tags: Northern Pintail, Anas acuta, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Northern Pintail, Anas acuta, photographed in San Bernard Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 March 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/750s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
drorzel | March 17, 2009Over at Unqualified Offerings, Thoreau offers a provocative comment on class and higher education:
Today (OK, yesterday, but I didn't really sleep on the plane, so it's still yesterday, or tomorrow is also today, or something) a friend offered (without necessarily endorsing) the theory that one reason why we try to get everyone to go to college is because it legitimizes a class system: If everybody gets the chance to try college, then their failure to attain economic success must be their own fault.
It's an interesting idea. I'm not sure I agree with it (though I'm not sure I agree with…
sheril | March 17, 2009
Here she is...
You've read about the controversy and now it's time to weigh in. According to Reuters, Dora will continue solving mysteries related to the environment, wildlife, and school while maintaining her sense of adventure.
As I wrote last week, I hope the middle school aged explorer remains curious, clever, self confident, and kind. And if she chooses to do so while wearing cute shoes, she's entitled. Isis and I agree that brains and social consciousness are not defined by appearances.
So folks, what do you think?
grrlscientist | March 17, 2009tags: Lesser Yellowlegs, Tringa flavipes, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Lesser Yellowlegs, Tringa flavipes, photographed at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Titusville, Florida. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Steve Dolan, 29 February 2009 [larger view].
Nikon D90 with the 55-200 zoom set to 200mm (auto exposure).
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
I asked my former Master Birder teacher, Dr. Dennis Paulson, about this bird's ID. Dennis is the Director Emeritus of the Slater Museum of Natural…
sheril | March 17, 2009
Yesterday, we considered the meaning of scientific literacy in America... or lack thereof. So let's take this discussion one step further as it's a particularly interesting topic. According to the National Academies:
Scientific literacy is the knowledge and understanding of scientific concepts and processes required for personal decision making, participation in civic and cultural affairs, and economic productivity. It also includes specific types of abilities. In the National Science Education Standards, the content standards define scientific literacy.
Scientific literacy means that a…
grrlscientist | March 16, 2009tags: Cave Swallow, Petrochelidon fulva, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Cave Swallow, Petrochelidon fulva, photographed at the Water Ranch in Gilbert, Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Richard Ditch, 18 February 2008 [larger view].
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
sheril | March 16, 2009
In our forthcoming book, Unscientific America, Chris and I mention those national surveys where regularly, a large percentage of U.S. citizens fail to correctly answer basic science questions that they supposedly learned in school.
Last Friday, the latest results were released from the most recent quiz by the California Academy of Sciences and Harris Interactive. (See how you do answering test questions here).
From Science Daily:
Despite its importance to economic growth, environmental protection, and global health and energy issues, scientific literacy is currently low among American…
evolvingthoughts | March 15, 2009As you may have noticed, I am something of a Victorian - as well as being from that wonderful state, I also write as if I were a nineteenth century writer. It comes of reading too many of them over too long a period. I have little trouble when the parentheses separate the beginnings from the ends of sentences by two pages. But most people, those who live in the real world, don't have the patience to wade through the archaic language in which most modern English-language philosophy, both originals and translations, are written.
Now, early modern specialist Jonathon Bennett of the universities…
drorzel | March 14, 2009One of my colleagues in biology just finished his Comparative Vertebrate anatomy course. For the final class projects, he has teams of students make little videos presenting the results of their research into some aspect of vertebrate anatomy. Such as, for example, this Sesame Street episode on flying snakes:
The full set of videos are available on Scott's YouTube page, labelled "2009 - CVA." The fake "Colbert Report" segment on polar bears even has a blooper reel.
If you're looking for a way to kill a few minutes in a biology-themed activity, you could do a lot worse than watching these.
grrlscientist | March 14, 2009tags: fledgling Purple Finch, Carpodacus purpureus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Fledgling Purple Finch, Carpodacus purpureus, photographed near a small Olympic Peninsula lake in Shelton, Washington State. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Lee Rentz, 19 February 2009.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Adult male Purple Finch, Carpodacus purpureus, photographed near a small Olympic Peninsula lake in Washington State.
Image: Lee Rentz, 19 February 2009.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours…
cmooney | March 13, 2009There were some great comments on our last post announcing the "Two Cultures" 50 year anniversary conference at the New York Academy of Sciences. I wanted to build on that discussion, but haven't gotten around to it until now.
So let's address some of the more noteworthy points; meanwhile, I also suggest that anyone interested should get a copy of Snow's amazing little 1959 lecture. This is the edition that I own, and I highly recommend it.
Why is C.P. Snow's "Two Cultures" argument so influential and cited? Ironically, it has in part to do with the conflict that resulted after F.R. Leavis…
cmooney | March 12, 2009Yale Environment 360 interviews the renowned New Yorker journalist, who blames the media and scientists alike for our staggering failure to deal with this issue. Here's a long quotation:
e360: We've talked about journalists and generally the challenges in conveying this issue to the public. But what about scientists? I mean, scientists have a responsibility to get their information out to the public whether it's through the media or through their own writings and work. How good a job do you think they have done in conveying this whole issue?
Kolbert: Oh, I don't think they've done a good job…
grrlscientist | March 12, 2009tags: Prairie Warbler, Dendroica discolor, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Prairie Warbler, Dendroica discolor, photographed at Newton Hills State Park in southeastern South Dakota. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Terry Sohl, June 2007.
Photo taken with a Canon 50D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
ddobbs | March 11, 2009
Obama gave a major education speech at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce yesterday. The money quote:
For decades, Washington has been trapped in the same stale debates that have paralyzed progress and perpetuated our educational decline. ... It's more money versus more reform, vouchers versus the status quo. There has been partisanship and petty bickering, but little recognition that we need to move beyond the worn fights of the 20th century if we are going to succeed in the 21st Century. Well, the time for finger-pointing is over.
Been much buzz about this talk -- the main points of…
mikethemadbiologist | March 11, 2009A while ago, economist Paul Krugman described the institutional loss of knowledge in the discipline of economics:
And the latter group, the equilibrium macro side, was so convinced of the logical correctness of its position that schools dominated by that view stopped teaching demand-side economics. (Schools dominated by new Keynesians, on the other hand, did teach real business cycle theory.) I haven't been able to dig up the quote, but somewhere along the line Ed Prescott declared that his students wondered who Keynes was, because he was never mentioned in their courses.
And those trained…
grrlscientist | March 11, 2009tags: Elf Owl, Micrathene whitneyi, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] Elf Owl, Micrathene whitneyi, photographed outside a gorgeous little bed and breakfast on the outskirts of Tucson, Arizona. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Terry Sohl, 7 May 2008 [larger view].
Photo taken with a Canon 50D, 400 5.6L.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Review all mystery birds to date.
razib | March 11, 2009In my post below where I show that different groups accept free speech to different extents some asked if the fact that those with better vocabularies supported free speech could just be that they were college educated. To some extent this seems to be true. Here is the chart again of support for a racist being allowed to speak by vocabulary test score (0 out of 10 on the left, 10 out of 10 on the right).
Less than High School:
High School:
Some College:
College:
Graduate School:
There aren't too many with college & graduate educations who have vocab scores below 5 out of 10, ergo,…
bioephemera | March 10, 2009So I observed Pi day by baking a pie. But Representative Bart Gordon of Tennessee, Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, has a much grander idea: let's pass a resolution!
Witness H.Res.224, introduced yesterday:
Supporting the designation of Pi Day, and for other purposes.
Whereas the Greek letter (Pi) is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter;Whereas the ratio Pi is an irrational number, which will continue infinitely without repeating, and has been calculated to over one trillion digits;Whereas Pi is a recurring constant that has…
cmooney | March 10, 2009Over a year ago, we had an idea: We were doing a book that discusses the work of the British physicist-novelist C.P. Snow, and the 50 year anniversary of his world famous "two cultures" argument was coming up--May 7, 2009. Precisely 50 years earlier, Snow had delivered a lecture at Cambridge University lamenting the gap between scientists and humanists, or as he called them then, "literary intellectuals," and suggesting it was a grave threat to policymaking and to the future.
We believe this is still a deeply important and resonant argument, and so we got in touch with the New York Academy of…