Via Joerg Heber on Twitter, a great post on gender divisions in STEM by Athene Donald: As children try to work out their personal identities, the difference between ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ is as fundamental and omnipresent as it gets – and they receive the clear messages that collectively society gives out about the attributes implicitly… Continue reading Gender Issues Start Sooner Than You Think
Author: Chad Orzel
Links for 2012-04-23
How do I get my students to prepare before coming to a flipped class? – Turn to Your Neighbor: The Official Peer Instruction Blog A whole lot of words about the virtues of Peer Instruction and Just-in-Time Teaching, followed by a one-paragraph response to the question in the title. Don’t blink or you might miss… Continue reading Links for 2012-04-23
Links for 2012-04-21
Dark Matter: Now You See It, Now You Don’t | Of Particular Significance Both claims that I’m about to describe use novel techniques, and their analyses have not been repeated by anyone else. At this point you should understand that both are tentative, and (based on the history of radical claims) the odds are against… Continue reading Links for 2012-04-21
People Don’t Always Suck
Reading Ethan Zuckerman’s recap of the awful things people said to Xeni Jardin during a recent “twttier bomb” fiasco, it would be very easy to slide into “People suck” mode. Particularly since a large part of my day yesterday was spent in New York traffic. So here’s a quick antidote, also from yesterday: When I… Continue reading People Don’t Always Suck
Mildred Wedel, 1914-2012
Yesterday was the funeral for my great-aunt Mildred, known within the family as “Auntie” (first syllable “ont” not “ant”), who fell and bumped her head last Friday, and just never woke up. On the one hand, she was 97, so this shouldn’t be too surprising, but a few years ago she moved out of a… Continue reading Mildred Wedel, 1914-2012
More Physics of Sprinting
Yesterday’s post on applying intro physics concepts to the question of how fast and how long football players might accelerate generated a bunch of comments, several of them claiming that the model I used didn’t match real data in the form of race clips and the like. One comment in particular linked to a PDF… Continue reading More Physics of Sprinting
Links for 2012-04-18
What’s up in the solar system in April 2012 – The Planetary Society Blog | The Planetary Society Lest you get too depressed about the mothballing of the Space Shuttles, a roundup of all the cool space probes out there producing real science. Yes, I Took My Ninth Grader on a College Tour (and It… Continue reading Links for 2012-04-18
The Physics of Sprints and Kickoff Safety
Over at Grantland, Bill Barnwell offers some unorthodox suggestions for replacing the kickoff in NFL games, which has apparently been floated as a way to improve player safety. Appropriately enough, the suggestion apparently came from Giants owner John Mara, which makes perfect sense giving that the Giants haven’t had a decent kick returner since Dave… Continue reading The Physics of Sprints and Kickoff Safety
Links for 2012-04-17
A few thoughts on Hilary Rosen, moms and work But instead of engaging Rosen’s points, the media storm is about how Democrats Hate Mothers. Or, Democrats Hate GOOD Mothers — you know, the kind who stay at home. The women the Democrats like are those slutty Planned Parenthood sluts, or something. And while all the… Continue reading Links for 2012-04-17
My New Favorite Review of How to Teach [Quantum] Physics to Your Dog
My Google vanity search for my name and the book titles is really frustratingly spotty, often missing things in major news outlets that I later find by other means. For example, I didn’t get a notification about this awesome review in the Guardian, from their children’s book section: I am a ten year old who… Continue reading My New Favorite Review of How to Teach [Quantum] Physics to Your Dog