EurekAlert had a press release yesterday regarding a new study on the training of middle-school math teachers. It’s not pretty: Middle school math teachers in the United States are not as well prepared to teach this subject compared to teachers in five other countries, something that could negatively affect the U.S. as it continues to… Continue reading Problems with Middle School Math
Author: Chad Orzel
Science wa Hanashimsu Ka?
Over at Page 3.14, they’re marking the launch of the German-language site scienceblogs.de (for real, this time) with a poll about language skills: they want to know what languages other than English ScienceBlogs readers speak, and what you think they should target next. Current sentiment is running in favor of French or Spanish next, but… Continue reading Science wa Hanashimsu Ka?
Tree of SCIENCE!!! #2
Today’s picture from the Tree of SCIENCE!!! is a two-fer: That’s a glass star and a wooden crescent moon, and together, obviously, they stand for astronomy and planetary science. Really, that’s so easy and obvious that I don’t need to say any more.
University of Pharyngula?
One of the alternately entertaining and depressing things about the culture wars in the US is the existence of a sort of parallel academic universe, in the form of vanity universities like Oral Roberts University, Bob Jones University, and Jerry Fallwell’s Liberty University. These provide both a thin veneer of credibility for pseudo-academic nonsense and… Continue reading University of Pharyngula?
links for 2007-12-12
Malaria – Vaccine – Mosquitoes – Research – Medicine and Health – New York Times A profile of efforts to make a vaccine for malaria. (tags: biology medicine animals economics drugs) Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education – Inside Higher Ed :: Campus Fight Club Dorm-room boxing, yet another brilliant student idea… Continue reading links for 2007-12-12
Santa Claus is a Physicist
Dave Ng over at the World’s Fair is at it again, asking what sort of science background Santa Claus has: So the premise is that Santa is at least several hundred years old, and you’ve got to assume that somewhere along the line, he spent some time in academia and probably got a degree or… Continue reading Santa Claus is a Physicist
Particle Physics Requires Faith
Faith in theory and curve-fitting, at least… Tommaso Dorigo reports some new results, which are based on a figure that could be titled “Why I Am Not a Particle Physicist #729”: “What’s the problem?,” you ask, “There’s a nice big peak there, looking a little like a black-body spectrum.” Ah, but that’s not the signal.… Continue reading Particle Physics Requires Faith
Colling: Not Crazy Enough
I have a good deal more synmpathy for the plight of religious scientists than most of my fellow ScienceBlogs bloggers. For example, I’m willing to believe that people can both have sincere religious faith and be practicing scientists, without assuming that they’re either brainwashed or evil. I really find myself feeling sorry for Richard Colling,… Continue reading Colling: Not Crazy Enough
Tree of SCIENCE!!! #1
Here’s the first of this year’s series of pictures proving that our Christmas tree is all about SCIENCE!!! (which, for the record, needs to be said like it’s in a Thomas Dolby song). Some of these will eventually get kind of obscure, but we’ll start with an easy one: This little guy, obviously, stands for… Continue reading Tree of SCIENCE!!! #1
links for 2007-12-11
Catholic World News : Vatican astronomer likens creationism to superstition Brother Guy Consolmagno, talking sense as always. (tags: astronomy religion science biology) Daily Kos: What was wrong with the debate education question A good discussion of the issues involved with merit pay, teacher compensation, and teacher’s unions, from a teacher and union member. (tags: education… Continue reading links for 2007-12-11