education
drorzel | October 5, 2007Inside Higher Ed has a puzzling opinion piece about science and math education by W. Robert Connor of the Teagle Foundation. It's not his arguemtn that's puzzling, though-- that part is perfectly clear, hard to disagree with:
Public and private funders have spent billions of dollars -- sometimes wastefully -- on education initiatives like those in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines without rigorous assessment and evaluation. Not asking for documented results when so much money is on the line misses a golden opportunity to determine whether such programs are…
mikethemadbiologist | October 4, 2007Driftglass, in a post about Janice Shaw Crouse of the Beverly LaHaye Institute (yes, of the "Left Behind" tract series):
Regardless of motive (and we have long since moved past the point where I care much about why the lunatics have a knife to the throat of the Enlightenment, and on to the part where we have to get the knife away from these people and make sure they are never, ever allowed to play with sharp objects again), denying people honest and accurate information about disease and pregnancy prevention because Jebus said they shouldna oughtna is the moral equivalent of....
...designing…
tqa | October 4, 2007
I can't begin to thank the people who have donated to the DonorsChoose campaign enough. As of today - four days into the campaign - we've raised $1045. That's more than was contributed during all of last year's 15-day campaign. That's absolutely fantastic.
As of now, all four of the projects that I picked have been fully funded, but we haven't hit the goal yet. (Either someone donated to one of the projects through this campaign without receiving credit, or someone donated to one of the projects independently of the campaign.) At this point, we're still about $550 short of my goal for the…
mikethemadbiologist | October 3, 2007This year, once again, we ScienceBloggers are raising money to buy equipment for science classrooms. I decided to focus on microbiology and marine biology, because, well, microbiology is what I do now, and marine biology is what I started in. Also, if a new textbook in evolutionary biology is any indication, I think microbiology is going to be emphasized a lot more in college. Anyway, here's what I've put into my challenge:
Genetic Research For Immigrants This targets a school with a mostly immigrant population, and it would buy the equipment needed to do gel electrophoresis, so they can…
clock | October 2, 2007So, I see that several of my sciblings are offering special incentives to their readers who donate through DonorsChoose. So, what could I offer? Should I place my beautiful banner on some Cafe Press merchandise? Give me some ideas.
tqa | October 2, 2007
For those of you who haven't looked over at the sidebar, the DonorsChoose campaign is off to a start that far exceeded my wildest expectations. Yesterday, five donors kicked in an outstanding $687.06. That's more in one day than I had targeted for the entire drive last year, and enough to bring us more than 40% of the way to the total. To everyone who's donated so far, thank you very much.
Some of the other blogs at scienceblogs are offering incentives to donors. I'm trying to think of something, and promise that I'll get some sort of idea up in the next day or two. There are also some…
clock | October 2, 2007Danica gave a presentation at the Waag Society conference in Amsterdam on new concepts and ideas of learning. She put up a wiki and her slides (worth checking out):
The focus of this event was on the theme of challenges in contemporary pedagogy, including the use of new media tools, but also exploring institutional and cultural issues.
tqa | October 1, 2007
DonorsChoose is a fantastic organization. Individual teachers submit proposals for things they'd like to do in their classroom, but can't afford to do. People can go to DonorsChoose, pick projects that they like, and donate money directly to those projects. You truly know where your money is going to go, and you can see what a big difference even a small donation can make.
Last year, we had a major Scienceblogs funding drive for DonorsChoose. Our readers - you - were absolutely fantastic. In just 15 days, we managed to raise more than 23,000 dollars - not counting the 10,000 dollars in…
clock | October 1, 2007Perhaps you remember June last year when a bunch of us sciencebloggers held a fund drive for science education through DonorsChoose.
Well, we are doing it again this year, more of us, and for a longer period of time - throughout the month of October. As was the case last year, the central information place is Janet's blog and she has just posted all the details so go and take a look.
You can check out all the projects picked by my SciBlings here and my own here. You can get to my pledge also by clicking on the thermometer on my sidebar (scroll down a little bit) and watch how the mercury in…
clock | October 1, 2007If anyone shows this to my son, he'll lead a revolution. Like those wonderful, patriotic, thinking students at Boulder High School, who penned their own, most excellent version of the Pledge of Allegiance:
I pledge allegiance to the flag and my constitutional rights with which it comes. And to the diversity, in which our nation stands, one nation, part of one planet, with liberty, freedom, choice and justice for all.
Kudos to them! Watch the movie:
clock | September 29, 2007Janet and Abel alert me that Six Apart (yup, those folks who made MoveableType on which I am typing right now) are supporting DonorsChoose, by issuing a bloggers challenge: "You can request a gift certificate worth $30 at donorschoose@sixapart.com. Request your code now -- they're available until noon on Monday." What a great way to support good teachers and their students, especially in poor schools.
tqa | September 29, 2007
A couple of weeks ago, I posted two ridiculous quotes that are found in the Bob Jones textbook that's involved in the California Creationism lawsuit. I'm still wading through these texts and Behe's report explaining why it's really a very good book for high school students to use to learn biology. It's a slow process, and a painful one, but I've found another couple of outstanding quotes to share with you.
This time, I'm including three different types of quote. There are a couple where the authors say things have absolutely nothing to do with science of any kind (and are totally out to…
drorzel | September 29, 2007From the "You Read Too Much SF" file: I was really disappointed by the press release that went with the headline:
Mysterious energy burst stuns astronomers
A headline like that really ought to involve bodies strewn about a remote observatory, and enigmatic alien forces roaming free, perhaps being hunted by menacing government agents. Sadly, it just refers to some sort of surprisingly large radio emitter in the very distant reaches of the universe.
drorzel | September 28, 2007The libertarian side of the blogosphere is all abuzz about "Direct Instruction" at the moment, thanks to a Marignal Revolution post by Alex Tabarrok touting the method:
Ayres argues that large experimental studies have shown that the teaching method which works best is Direct Instruction (here and here are two non-academic discussions which summarizes much of the same academic evidence discussed in Ayres). In Direct Instruction the teacher follows a script, a carefully designed and evaluated script. As Ayres notes this is key:
DI is scalable. Its success isn't contingent on the personality…
mikethemadbiologist | September 27, 2007When I was a post-doc, I once advised a student who definitely needed some remedial language skills help (since then, said student has gone on to be a very successful doctor--I take no credit for the student's success, but I just want to note that this student was very bright). What I learned is that, while additional resources are necessary for remedial education, they are not sufficient. That funding needs to be placed in the hands of competent teachers. Which leads me to this excellent point about remedial education by Bob Somerby (italics mine; bold original):
Throughout this report, […
neurophilosophy | September 26, 2007Just posted on the Seed website is an article about the evolution of language by Juan Uriageraka, from the October issue of Seed Magazine. Most of the article concerns the role of the FoxP2 gene in the brains of songbirds. (I discussed this gene earlier in the week in my post about echolocation.)
Also on the Seed website are the winners of the second annual Seed Science Writing contest, in which the contestants were asked to write an essay about what it means to be scientifically literate in the 21st century. The winners are Scientific Literacy and the Habit of Disclosure, by Thomas M.…
neurophilosophy | September 25, 2007The Learner.org website has a large collection of video teaching modules for high school, college and adult students, including modules on the brain and mind.
The Brain module has 32 film clips, ranging in length from 5-20 minutes. They include films about Phineas Gage, the visual system, sensori-motor integration, the role of synaptic plasticity in learning, the brain's language centres and neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric conditions.
The 35 videos in the Mind module include films on brain mechanisms of pleasure and addiction, the role of the frontal lobes in cognition and awareness…
tqa | September 25, 2007
Most of the readers of this blog are intelligent, interested, scientifically literate individuals, but I'm guessing that at least a few of you aren't familiar with one of the nouns in the title. Those of you who do know what a conodont is are probably wondering what it has to do with the others. If you bear with me for a little bit, the connection will be clear shortly. It has to do with fossils, fossilization, and the latest spectacular misunderstanding of those two things at Uncommon Descent.
Conodonts are (or, rather, were) an interesting group of animals. They were around from late in…
neurophilosophy | September 20, 2007The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has just published its annual Education at a Glance report.
The survey includes statistics on enrolment and completion rates for primary, secondary and tertiary education from the 30 OECD member countries, including the numbers of students completing each level of education, the proportions of national wealth and of public and private investment spent on education.
It also summarizes trends in tertiary education, such as the numbers of women entering university, percentages of university graduates by subject, and numbers of…