Swans on Tea

Dean Dad asks
Why do so many states require only two years of math in high school?
[…]
We have anecdotal evidence that suggests that students who actually take math for all four years of high school do better in math here than those who don’t. We also have anecdotal evidence that bears crap in the woods. Why [...]

100 Incredible Lectures from the World’s Top Scientists

Over at Uncertain Principles there’s a link to topic that seems to have alighted on several vertices of the blogohedron. Deep, or at least deep-sounding, essay questions appear on the French baccalaureate exam (which is apparently their version of the US SAT/ACT) and the debate is whether this implies that our standards are lower [...]

This has it all. A scientist, working on his own, discovering something new (and useful) using proper scientific methodology … and he’s in high school. WCI student isolates microbe that lunches on plastic bags
First, he ground plastic bags into a powder. Next, he used ordinary household chemicals, yeast and tap water to create [...]

How to Teach a Child to Argue
And let’s face it: Our culture has lost the ability to usefully disagree. Most Americans seem to avoid argument. But this has produced passive aggression and groupthink in the office, red and blue states, and families unable to discuss things as simple as what to watch on television. Rhetoric [...]

Uncertain Principles: Algebra Is Like Sunscreen
My one-word piece of advice for students planning to study physics (or any other science, really, but mostly physics): Algebra.
Since we’re on the topic of math, let’s double the fun by visiting Cocktail PArty Physics: NEW VOICES: “math sucks”
“When I write, I can say whatever I want to say, [...]

Gendered expectations in teaching
[T]he expectations of how a male versus female instructor will behave are actually quite different. One of the papers I read discussed the fact that they interviewed students after they filled out evaluations (where a male versus a female teacher were rated and came out the same, quantitatively). It turns out that [...]

Backreaction: The Best Years of Your Life
A summary of a motivational talk on grad school.

physics and physicists: “I’ll Never Use The Skills I Learned In Physics”
zapperz attacks this in a couple of ways, such as the idea that you (can) learn critical thinking skills
The “skills” that one learn out of a physics/science course goes BEYOND physics. It is a skill of thinking things through and systematically. It [...]

When I taught I tried to instill the concept that you should be able to pass an exam without a single correct numerical answer, because the problem set-up was the most important part of the solution. Few of my students believed me, but I see that my experience was not unique. The First [...]

Success!
The rough headcount for the Open House was about 9,000 visitors. This was the first one I had worked (there hadn’t been one of these since 2001) and the expectation from the earlier events was that we could get “a few thousand” people, so I’d have to say that we exceeded expectations. The [...]

For the (statistically speaking) fraction of a reader within commuting distance of Washington, DC. Tomorrow (Saturday) is the Naval Observatory Open House
Though it is raining today, the weather looks like it’s going to be great tomorrow. Which means that no meteorologists will need to be strangled.