Over at Dynamics of Cats, chief herding theorist Steinn has a post on what we know about how to teach physics: To teach physics well, you provide an intensive, mathematically rigorous in-sequence series of classes. You need at least two different parallel classes per term, each class a prerequisite for the succeeding class and coordinated… Continue reading The Central Conundrum of Physics Education
Author: Chad Orzel
Links for 2011-06-07
Career Advice: Advice for Grad Students – Inside Higher Ed “Some of the greatest catastrophes in graduate education could have been avoided by a little intelligent foresight. Be cynical. Assume that your proposed research might not work, and that one of your faculty advisers might become unsupportive — or even hostile. Plan for alternatives.” (tags:… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-07
It’s Not Just Science Journalism
One of the tabs I opened last week and didn’t have time to get to was this Clastic Detritus post about what it takes to get science stories in the media, which is (quoting Michael Lemonick): I get it that a stories involving science need a little something extra to make it in a magazine… Continue reading It’s Not Just Science Journalism
Get Out the Vote
The voting phase of the 3 Quarks Daily Science Blogging Prize has begun, and will run through Wednesday this week. Obviously, I voted for myself, but you should feel free to vote for whatever you like. Or just spend a week reading the 87 nominated posts. It’s all good.
Links for 2011-06-06
Book Review: ESPN – WSJ.com “The modest idea of Bill and Scott Rasmussen–a failed hockey broadcaster and his college-dropout son–ESPN is now, according to James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales, “the most important component of the Disney empire, worth more than the entire National Football League, worth more than the NBA, MLB, and the NHL… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-06
Achievement Unlocked: Twisty Slide
Why no blogging today? Among other reasons, because we went to the playground with SteelyKid. And this: is a whole lot more fun than the Internet.
Links for 2011-06-05
Bulb In, Bulb Out – NYTimes.com “Over the past few years, in conditions of strict secrecy, a multinational team of scientists has been making a mighty effort to change the light bulb. The prototype they’ve developed is four inches tall, with a familiar tapered shape, and unlighted, it resembles a neon yellow mushroom. Screw it… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-05
A Request for Physics Expertise
As I noted a while ago, I’m giving a talk at DAMOP a week from Tuesday with the title “What’s So Interesting About AMO Physics?”. This is intended as an introduction to the meeting as a whole, for new students or people coming in from other fields. The reason? I found a copy of the… Continue reading A Request for Physics Expertise
Short Story Club: “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made”
In past years, I have griped at length about the awful, maudlin dreck that Mike Resnick keeps putting on the Hugo ballot– see this 2009 post for example. I think Abigail Nussbaum put it very well back in 2009, when she wrote of Resnick’s “Article of Faith” from that year’s short story ballot that “his… Continue reading Short Story Club: “That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made”
Links for 2011-06-04
“Gone For Goode” | Homicide: Life On The Street | TV Club | TV | The A.V. Club “Homicide is not The Wire. But, maybe because so many of the people who were central to its creative team had developed their skills somewhere else besides television, it was something that no one had ever quite… Continue reading Links for 2011-06-04