In the spirit of the newly clarified regulations governing the Academic Competitiveness Grant and National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent (SMART) Grant Programs administered by the Department of Education, I am pleased to announce the Uncertain Principles Physics Scholarship Program. Under this program, I pledge to personally pay the full tuition for any… Continue reading Announcing the Uncertain Principles Physics Scholarship Program
Category: Education
Homework for Parents
The New York Times has a story on a novel approach to teaching high-school English: assigning homework to parents: So far, Mr. [Damion] Frye, an English teacher at Montclair High School, has asked the parents to read and comment on a Franz Kafka story, Section 1 of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” and a speech… Continue reading Homework for Parents
Accountability for Educators, If Not Op-Ed Writers
Inside Higher Ed has a puzzling opinion piece about science and math education by W. Robert Connor of the Teagle Foundation. It’s not his arguemtn that’s puzzling, though– that part is perfectly clear, hard to disagree with: Public and private funders have spent billions of dollars — sometimes wastefully — on education initiatives like those… Continue reading Accountability for Educators, If Not Op-Ed Writers
Reality Lets Me Down, Again
From the “You Read Too Much SF” file: I was really disappointed by the press release that went with the headline: Mysterious energy burst stuns astronomers A headline like that really ought to involve bodies strewn about a remote observatory, and enigmatic alien forces roaming free, perhaps being hunted by menacing government agents. Sadly, it… Continue reading Reality Lets Me Down, Again
Direct Instruction: Scripts are Not the Issue
The libertarian side of the blogosphere is all abuzz about “Direct Instruction” at the moment, thanks to a Marignal Revolution post by Alex Tabarrok touting the method: Ayres argues that large experimental studies have shown that the teaching method which works best is Direct Instruction (here and here are two non-academic discussions which summarizes much… Continue reading Direct Instruction: Scripts are Not the Issue
Looping in Education
Wednesday was a Day of Meetings for me, starting at 8am, which means I didn’t have time to type up a bunch of blog posts and schedule them as usual. Having just clawed my way out of Meetingville, though, let me take a few minutes to throw up another Academia post, before the topic gets… Continue reading Looping in Education
Teaching Science in SF
In a comment to my Worldcon wrap-up, “fvngvs” asks a question following up on the science in SF panel: So Chad, now that you’ve had some time to think about it, can you think of a list of books/stories with a really good treatment of science concepts? It’s a good question, and deserves a full… Continue reading Teaching Science in SF
Math: It’s Good For You
That’s the conclusion of a new study from Harvard and the University of Virginia, anyway: Researchers at Harvard University and the University of Virginia have found that high school coursework in one of the sciences generally does not predict better college performance in other scientific disciplines. But there’s one notable exception: Students with the most… Continue reading Math: It’s Good For You
Learn Math the Winnie Cooper Way
I can’t resist the snarky title, but this is a serious topic. Tara Smith has a review of a math book by Danica McKellar, titled Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail. It’s aimed at getting middle-school girls to have more positive feelings about math in… Continue reading Learn Math the Winnie Cooper Way
Peer Instruction
The Paper of Record today features an interview with Eric Mazur of Harvard, a physicist who is probably best known for his pedagogical work. He talks aabout how typical science teaching sucks, and why we need to change it: From what I’ve seen, students in science classrooms throughout the country depend on the rote memorization… Continue reading Peer Instruction