Category: Links Dump

Cocktail Party Physics: a few choice words from the red pen brigade “The hardest thing about teaching anybody anything is finding the right level of communication, and the right way to express the concepts. It would seem logical that you don’t go all jargony on a rank beginner, anymore than you have to spend time… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-11

News: Anything But Studying – Inside Higher Ed “Students’ relatively small dedication of time to out-of-class studying has remained about the same since the survey was first conducted in 2003. In 2008, students in the physical sciences and engineering averaged 15.1 hours each week on out-of-class academic work; while students in the biological sciences reported… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-10

BBC News – More cat owners ‘have degrees’ than dog-lovers My favorite bit is the note that “Cat and dog numbers were last estimated in a scientific peer-reviewed journal in 1989,” because, of course, peer review is critical to the process… (tags: pets dog society education social-science) Bright Idea: The First Lasers — A history… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-09

More than 300 cases of mumps reported in Monsey, New Square | LoHud.com | The Journal News “At least 60 percent of the people in Rockland who have gotten mumps during the current outbreak had not been fully immunized, Facelle said. Mumps were common before the vaccine became available. In 2008, there were only two… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-08

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 6, 010101 (2010): Teaching and understanding of quantum interpretations in modern physics courses “Just as expert physicists vary in their personal stances on interpretation in quantum mechanics, instructors vary on whether and how to teach interpretations of quantum phenomena in introductory modern physics courses. In this paper, we document… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-07

Failure rate for AP tests climbing – USATODAY.com “The newspaper’s analysis finds that more than two in five students (41.5%) earned a failing score of 1 or 2, up from 36.5% in 1999. In the South, a Census-defined region that spans from Texas to Delaware, nearly half of all tests — 48.4% — earned a… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-05

From Fish to Infinity – Opinionator Blog – NYTimes.com I’ll be writing about the elements of mathematics, from pre-school to grad school, for anyone out there who’d like to have a second chance at the subject — but this time from an adult perspective. It’s not intended to be remedial. The goal is to give… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-04

Researchers use infrared cameras to determine taste quality of Japanese beef “Imagine going into a local supermarket or butchery, pulling out your cell phone and using its camera to instantly check for the best piece of meat on display. That is one of the applications that some in Japan hope could become possible one day… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-03

Is Our Students Learning? « Easily Distracted “That’s what I worry about when I hear that there are too many “relativists” around: that the people complaining the most about that supposed surplus are the most supremely relativistic folks you might ever imagine encountering. “a (tags: academia education politics blogs easily-distracted philosophy ethics society culture) Career… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-02

YouTube – Neil Degrasse Tyson: “If you’re scientifically literate the world looks very different to you” “If you’re not scientifically literate, in a way, you’re disenfranchising yourself.” (tags: science education video youtube politics society culture) The Digital Cuttlefish: The Spirit Of Spirit “Why do we care about poor little Spirit? A robot is shutting down;… Continue reading Links for 2010-02-01