Will Wilkinson has some comments about an article by Malcolm Gladwell from The New Yorker. I basically agree with him about Gladwell, but I’m bothered by the last paragraph: Now, there’s no point in saying things that will make your readers think you are an evilcrazy person, so I can understand why Gladwell wastes words… Continue reading Teachers, Quarterbacks, and Markets
Category: Education
Photoelectric Follies
I spent most of yesterday helping out with an on-campus workshop for high school teachers and students. Seven high school physics teachers and seventeen high school students spent the day doing a half-dozen experiments to measure various physical constants. I was in charge of having them measure Plack’s constant using the photoelectric effect. The actual… Continue reading Photoelectric Follies
Think Before You Plot
There’s a link in today’s links dump to a post from Pictures of Numbers, a rarely-updated blog on the visual presentation of data (via Swans On Tea, I think). There’s some really good stuff there about how to make graphs that are easy to read and interpret. I would like to dissent mildly from one… Continue reading Think Before You Plot
What’s the Matter With Photons?
Over at Dot Physics, Rhett has just completed a two-part post (Part I, Part II) on quantum physics arguing against the use of photons in teaching quantum physics. Part I gives a very nice introduction to quantum physics, which is why I linked it, but Part II goes a little off the rails. There’s not… Continue reading What’s the Matter With Photons?
Physics Books for Middle Schoolers?
Sometime commenter “Dr. Pain” asked, on a mailing list, for book recommendations for his son, who “wants to read up about physics, especially weird modern physics.” He adds some qualifications: Kid’s books on physics are way too elementary for him, but the typical “naive adult” book is over his head. Does anyone have any good… Continue reading Physics Books for Middle Schoolers?
Fixing Education Is Expensive
Edward Glaeser has an op-ed in the Boston Globe arguing for more education funding: The clearest result from decades of education research is the importance of teacher quality. My colleague Tom Kane finds that students who are lucky enough to get a teacher in the top quarter of the teacher-quality distribution jump 10 percentile points… Continue reading Fixing Education Is Expensive
It’s All About Timing
Slate (who, by the way, drive me up the freaking wall with their habit of giving each story about six different headlines, depending on where the link is) has hit the ground running with a panel of distinguished right-wing types discussing what the Republicans should do now. Jim Manzi gets the ball rolling with an… Continue reading It’s All About Timing
Think Like a Videogame Physicist
Over at Dot Physics (which might be the best physics blog in the world at the moment), Rhett Allain has a pair of posts exploring the physics of Fantastic Contraption. The posts don’t really lend themselves to excerpting, so you need to go over there and read them, but I think they’re brilliant, and deserve… Continue reading Think Like a Videogame Physicist
The Teleporter’s Dilemma
One of the annoying things about trying to explain quantum mechanics to a general audience is that the weirdness of the theory forces you to use incredibly convoluted examples. Pop-science books about quantum physics are full of schemes that the producers of the Saw movies would reject as implausibly complicated. I wish I was posting… Continue reading The Teleporter’s Dilemma
Innumeracy on Parade
Via Physics and Physicists, a breathtaking blog at the Washington Post proudly proclaiming the author’s ignorance of algebra: I am told that algebra is everywhere – it’s in my iPod, beneath the spreadsheet that calculates my car payments, in every corner of my building. This idea freaks me out because I just can’t see it.… Continue reading Innumeracy on Parade