Becky Hirta is thinking about exams: For the giant calculus class I’m starting to write multiple choice questions. For a class like that, really the only issues for me to consider about the final are how to avoid cheating (change the order of the MC questions and the numbers in the long-answer), how to make… Continue reading True Exam Stories
Category: Academia
Dorky Poll: Physics Scavenger Hunt!
In the same basic spirit as the previous post, but with a physical science slant: What items should be on the list for a scavenger hunt through an academic physics department? The idea here is to keep a big group of grad students occupied and entertained for an afternoon by having them find items characteristic… Continue reading Dorky Poll: Physics Scavenger Hunt!
Race, Class, and Graduation Rates
There are a couple of stories in Inside Higher Ed today talking about college graduation rates. One is a passing mention that the NCAA has released complete graduation rate data for Division I schools through its impressively awful web site (the statistics are available as a series of one-page PDF files, one for each institution,… Continue reading Race, Class, and Graduation Rates
Physics for Everyone (for Some Value of “Everyone”)
In today’s New York Times Natalie Angier has a nice story about increased interest in physics: Many people wring their hands over the state of science education and point to the appalling performance of America’s students in international science and math competitions. Yet some of the direst noises about our nation’s scientific prospects may be… Continue reading Physics for Everyone (for Some Value of “Everyone”)
DonorsChoose Payoff: Changing Categories
An anonymous donor asks a tricky question, namely: how apparently successful research faculty … can best make the transition to a small teaching/research institution? This is a tricky question not only because anything relating to academic jobs is tough, but also because I don’t have a great deal of experience with it. I’ve been in… Continue reading DonorsChoose Payoff: Changing Categories
“Gifted” is not a “Special Need”
Mark Kleiman has rediscovered a semi-clever approach to the problems of smart kids: So here’s the puzzle: is there any justification for not treating high-IQ kids as having “special needs” and therefore entitled to individualized instruction? Yes, yes, I know that in the South “gifted” programs have been used as a technique of within-school resegregation.… Continue reading “Gifted” is not a “Special Need”
Kids Those Days
One of the odd things about blogdom, and the commentariat in general, is the way that people will all seem to latch on to some particular idea at about the same time, despite the lack of any obvious connection between them. I keep having days when I scan through my RSS feeds, and find the… Continue reading Kids Those Days
Overheard on Campus
I was standing in the back of the Taiko Ensemble concert tonight, when two students I didn’t know came in, carrying large, elaborate Nerf guns. They had a certain… hunted look about them. “Hey,” I said, “Who’s winning?” “Oh, man,” said one, “The zombies are kicking our asses. They’re multiplying really fast.” Yes, it’s Humans… Continue reading Overheard on Campus
N Skills Every Scientist Should Have
A little while back, Popular Mechanics published a list of 25 Skills Every Man Should Know. Seven of the 25 are car-related, another four have to do with construction, and an additional six are outdoorsy things. Of course, they also threw in “extend your wireless network,” for the nerds out there, but it does tend… Continue reading N Skills Every Scientist Should Have
Secrets of Academic Survival: The Secretary
I’m not going to explain exactly what prompted this, but I want to remind my readers of one of the absolute essential rules of life in academia: The most important person in any academic department is the secretary. Naive outsiders often think that the department chair is the most important person, or possibly the most… Continue reading Secrets of Academic Survival: The Secretary