Melissa at Confused at a Higher Level has a nice post on the tension between faculty research and teaching: Malachowski writes, “We all know that working with undergraduates is time consuming and in some cases it slows down our research output, but work with undergraduates should be supported, celebrated, and compensated at a high level.… Continue reading Teaching, Research, and Teaching Research
Category: Education
Poll: The Peter Threshold
As a sort of follow-up to yesterday’s post asking about incompetent teachers, a poll on what you might call the “Peter Threshold,” after the Peter Principle. Exactly how many incompetent members can an organization tolerate? The acceptable level of incompetence in any organization (that is, the fraction of employees who can’t do their jobs) is:Market… Continue reading Poll: The Peter Threshold
How Many Incompetent Teachers Are There, Really?
As mentioned in the previous post, there has been a lot of interesting stuff written about education in the last week or so, much of it in response to the manifesto published in the Washington Post, which is the usual union-busting line about how it’s too difficult to fire the incompetent teachers who are ruining… Continue reading How Many Incompetent Teachers Are There, Really?
“Line Plot” is Never the Right Choice (Why Excel Sucks, aleph-nought in a series)
There have been a bunch of interesting things written about education recently that I’ve been too busy teaching to comment on. I was pulling them together this morning to do a sort of themed links dump, when the plot at the right, from Kevin Drum’s post about school testing jumped out at me. This shows… Continue reading “Line Plot” is Never the Right Choice (Why Excel Sucks, aleph-nought in a series)
How to Teach Physics to [Your Pet’s Name Here] (DonorsChoose Challege 2010)
As you may or may not be aware, we are once again in the middle of a DonorsChoose fundraiser to support public school students and teachers. The good news is, the Uncertain Principles entry for the 2010 Challenge is in second place among ScienceBlogs blogs with $373 in donations thus far; the bad news it… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to [Your Pet’s Name Here] (DonorsChoose Challege 2010)
How to Teach Physics With How to Teach Physics to Your Dog
Emmy and I are in Buffalo today, after a long drive last night, made longer by the NY Thruway authorities decidin to randomly sprinkle lane closures along the westbound portion of I-90. They also made the sadistic move of putting on the “tune to this radio station for information” flashers before the big back-up, and… Continue reading How to Teach Physics With How to Teach Physics to Your Dog
DonorsChoose Fundraiser 2010
It’s that time of year again, which is to say “October, when we raise money for DonorsChoose.” As you may or may not know, DonorsChoose is an educational charity which has teachers propose projects that would make their classrooms better, and invites donors to contribute to the projects of their choice. Every October since ScienceBlogs… Continue reading DonorsChoose Fundraiser 2010
Physics Is Not a Mad Lib
Via Tom, a site giving problem-solving advice for physics. While the general advice is good, and the friendly, Don’t-Panic tone is great, I do have a problem with one of their steps, Step 7: Consider Your Formulas: Some professors will require that you memorize relevant formulas, while others will give you a “cheat sheet.” Either… Continue reading Physics Is Not a Mad Lib
How to Teach Physics to Your Dog in the South
One of the things I’ve been stressed about lately is next week, when I’m making a trip to the South, specifically Georgia and Alabama. As I mentioned here earlier, the original inspiration was a get-together with friends from college for the Florida-Alabama football game next Saturday, but it seems a shame to go all that… Continue reading How to Teach Physics to Your Dog in the South
Now THAT’S a Noble Cause: Restoring Truthiness
Via Tom, the folks pushing for a Stephen Colbert rally on the Mall in DC (because if a clown like Glen Beck can do it, why not an actual comedian?) have found a uniquely useful way to try to boost their signal: encouraging charitable donations: See, anyone can join a reddit or Facebook group or… Continue reading Now THAT’S a Noble Cause: Restoring Truthiness