I really don’t mean to turn the whole blog over to all algebra, all the time, but Richard Cohen’s idiocy has proved to be a good jumping-off point for a lot of interesting discussions (and a surprising number of comments, links, and TrackBacks…). The other ScienceBlogs comment on the whole thing that I’d like to… Continue reading Algebraic Intervention
Category: Education
Algebra and Storytelling
(It’s Presidents’ Day, so remember to vote!) Razib over at Gene Expression offers some thoughts on the algebra issue, in which he suggests some historical perspective: The ancient Greeks were not unintelligent, so the fact that many of us (rightly I believe) take symbolic algebra for granted as a necessary feature of our cognitive landscape… Continue reading Algebra and Storytelling
Son of “Notes Toward ‘Weird Quantum Phenomenon'”
A continuation of the lecture transcription/ working out of idea for Boskone that I started in the previous post. There’s a greater chance that I say something stupid about quantum measurement in this part, but you’ll have to look below the fold to find out…
Notes Toward “Weird Quantum Phenomenon”
I’m teaching our sophomore-level modern physics course this term, which goes by the title “Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, and Their Applications.” The first mid-term was a couple of weeks ago, on Relativity (special, not general), and the second mid-term is tomorrow, on Quantum Mechanics, and then we get three weeks of applications (basically, whatever topics out… Continue reading Notes Toward “Weird Quantum Phenomenon”
We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us
In a comment to the AP post, “hogeb” asks an excellent question about pedagogy: I’d like to enlist your advise and the advise of any readers who can provide it. I teach physical science to pre-service elementary school teachers. I try to elucidate the somewhat subtle differences between the application of a force and the… Continue reading We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us
Advanced Placement: Threat or Menace?
Kevin Drum reports receiving an email from a professor of physics denouncing the Advanced Placement test in Physics: It is the very apotheosis of “a mile wide and an inch deep.” They cover everything in the mighty Giancoli tome that sits unread on my bookshelf, all 1500 pages of it. They have seen not only… Continue reading Advanced Placement: Threat or Menace?
Physics Face
Thursday night, I needed to work late, so rather than upset the dog by going home for dinner, and then leaving, I went for sushi at a local restaurant. I had a very pleasant meal, which I spent reading through the first few chapters of the textbook I plan to use for my Quantum Optics… Continue reading Physics Face
We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Theorems
There was a postdoc in my research group in grad school who had a sister in college. She called him once to ask for help with a math assignment dealing with series expansions. He checked a book to refresh his memory, and then told her how to generate the various series needed for her homework… Continue reading We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Theorems
Science is Utterly Wet
Posting has been (relatively) light this week because today was the first day of classes. I’m teaching introductory modern physics (relativity and quantum mechanics), a class that I’ve taught before, but I’ve been putting a significant amount of time into revising my lecture notes, to keep the class from getting stale. This has led to… Continue reading Science is Utterly Wet
Value Added Testing (or “Merry Christmas, Novak”)
One of the more contentious recurring topics around here over the years has been education policy, mostly centering around the question of teacher evaluation and teacher’s unions. It’s probably the subject for which there’s the biggest gap between my opinions and those of some of my regular readers. As this is a good time of… Continue reading Value Added Testing (or “Merry Christmas, Novak”)