Category Archives: Education

The Gender Bias of Physics

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A couple of posts relating to gender issues in physics that I have run across recently.

Scientists, Your Gender Bias Is Showing

To test scientist’s reactions to men and women with precisely equal qualifications, the researchers did a randomized double-blind study in which academic scientists were given application materials from a student applying for a lab manager position. The substance of the applications were all identical, but sometimes a male name was attached, and sometimes a female name.
Results: female applicants were rated lower than men on the measured scales of competence, hireability, and mentoring (whether the scientist would be willing to mentor this student). Both male and female scientists rated the female applicants lower.

*Sigh* For whatever reason I’m having trouble accessing the actual article, so I don’t know if they show how much worse this might be than in general (assuming that there is gender bias elsewhere, and I’m pretty sure there is), and if there is an age component, i.e. is this more of a problem with older folks, who might soon be removing themselves from being part of the problem. However, that’s a small and faint hope, having observed some of the attitudes displayed in some corners of the internets and in the blogohedron, where presumably the age bias might be in the other direction. I recognize that certain types of change might occur on generational time scales, but it’s 2012, and we (well, women, actually) are still dealing with crap like this.

The second post deals with wondering why women stay, and why they drop out of the physics pipeline.

Why I’m Asking Why

I want to know WHY the percentage of women in physics going down. Right now there is a ton of support for women entering physics. We have conferences and mentorship programs all over the nation. But one crucial voice is missing: the women who dropped out of the physics major, and the women who majored in physics but chose to not go on to graduate school. I write this blog because I want to hear from the women who chose not to continue in physics. They are the ones who can shed the true insight! I also want to hear from women who did continue in physics. What made you pick physics, and what made you stay?

Uncle Mitt: I Don't Want You

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(Sorry, it’s politics-induced spleenvent time)

For all his wealth, Mitt Romney can’t buy a clue. If you live in the US and not under a rock, you’ve probably heard by now, what Mitt Romney said at a fundraiser about the roughly 47% of people who pay no federal income taxes.

There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it — that that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. … These are people who pay no income tax. … [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

Most full-time students don’t make enough to pay federal income tax, so they are included in that 47%. If you are a student and don’t pay federal income tax, Mitt Romney thinks that you are not taking personal responsibility and care for you life. Let that sink in for a moment — pursuing higher education, to him, means you aren’t trying to care for your life. It’s not a responsible thing to do. If you have to take out a loan and get some federal assistance with that, like a low interest rate, you’re a mooch. A loser.

On top of all this is the math-challenged implication that he thinks that this 47% is a static group of people — nobody moves in or out each year, depending on their circumstances — and that it’s the same 47% that support Obama. These victims, these entitlement freeloaders, none of whom take personal responsibility and for their lives. You students. You, who paid into social security all your life and are now retired. You, who got crushed by the economic situation Obama inherited, or devastated by not being able to get insurance, and ended up not paying income tax. You’re irresponsible, and not worth the candidate’s time or representation, should he be elected. He doesn’t want you, and doesn’t want to be your president.

Wow.

What Kind of Question Is That?

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“Is Algebra Necessary?” Are You High?

Towards the end, Hacker’s reasoning gets just bizarre. He keeps emphasising how important “citizen statistics” is. I’m baffled as to how one could teach statistics in any useful way without the material he wants to throw out! Prerequisites: we needz them. “Is Algebra Necessary?” If you want to do statistics or economics, yes, it is.

One thing Blake doesn’t address (perhaps it’s in one of the links he provides) is part of the larger picture: the idea that because students are not graduating, we should lower the bar. Which makes a diploma quite meaningless; they are not simply participation awards.

edit: PZ Myers does bring it up in his post

Don't Flame Me

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Alan Alda attacks science jargon in “Flame Challenge,” a science communications contest for young people (video)

In this PBS NewsHour segment, science correspondent Miles O’Brien reports on a contest launched by actor and author Alan Alda that challenges scientists to explain the science behind a flame, while flexing their communication muscles. The judges are thousands of 11-year-olds.

I missed the part where Alda specificaly attacks jargon, so I’m not sure where the title came from. He explains why communication is important (we swim in an ocean of science) and how great is was that the students were so enthused about science, and wanted something more substantive than quick answers.

This Just In: Bearing False Witness No Longer a Sin

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Apparently, anyway.

How American fundamentalist schools are using Nessie to disprove evolution

Jonny Scaramanga, 27, who went through the ACE programme as a child, but now campaigns against Christian fundamentalism, said the Nessie claim was presented as “evidence that evolution couldn’t have happened. The reason for that is they’re saying if Noah’s flood only happened 4000 years ago, which they believe literally happened, then possibly a sea monster survived.

“If it was millions of years ago then that would be ridiculous. That’s their logic. It’s a common thing among creationists to believe in sea monsters.”

Private religious schools, including the Eternity Christian Academy in Westlake, Louisiana, which follows the ACE curriculum, have already been cleared to receive the state voucher money transferred from public school funding, thanks to a bill pushed through by state Governor Bobby Jindal.

Walking Into a Cloud

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Clouds

One of my favourite bits about being a dad is, every now and then, just casually blowing my little boy’s mind – with science. Last weekend, we were out for a stroll when he came out with “I wish I had a rocket so I could go and stand on a cloud”. Sensing an opening, I explained that clouds were made of tiny drops of water that hang in the air, so you wouldn’t ever be able to stand on one. But that, when it’s misty, that’s just a cloud that’s really low down on the ground, so it’s actually very easy to stand inside a cloud. That pleased him, as he acknowledged his chances of owning a rocket any time soon were sadly marginal.

Same Old Story

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Same Old Story : Too Many Graduate Students

I saw this report from the NIH advisory committee. The summary of the problem: there are too many graduate studnets (sic) produced in biomedical fields for the number of academic positions that will be available for them in the future.

Same old story: ignoring the fact academia is not the only career for someone with a science PhD. The NIH report doesn’t make this mistake. From the summary (emphasis added):

The model should include an assessment of present and future needs in the academic research arena, but also current and future needs in industry, science policy, education, communication, and other pathways. The model will also require an assessment of current and future availability of trainees from the domestic and international communities.

In the actual report they note that the number going into academia has dropped, ~34 percent in 1993 to ~26 percent today. So it hasn’t been the case that most biomedical PhDs go into academia for at least 10 years. Why are people pretending that this is the case?

One thing I don’t get is the claim that graduate school does not prepare you for a non-academic career. (In contrast to my time in school, when I heard the complaint that it doesn’t prepare you for an academic career, because there was little to no preparation for becoming a teacher.) Maybe my own experience in physics is atypical, but I didn’t have to learn a whole lot about how to conduct research when I got my current job outside of academia (working in a government lab). The implication of the study is that in biology this isn’t the case, so sure, you should go ahead and fix that.

There may well be a good argument that we have too many graduate students. But comparing that number directly to the number of academic positions isn’t one of them.

A Moment of Science, Please

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A Moment of Science

I remember watching a TV special (probably National geographic) on Louis Leakey’s expeditions to Olduvai Gorge and the discovery of fossils of early humans. If biology didn’t require dissecting frogs, I might have gone in that direction. As it turns out, dissecting circuits and vacuum systems are more my thing. But that’s one instance I remember science grabbing me and pulling me in that direction.

The moment of science that hooked me into physics has to be constructing a version of the monkey-and-hunter experiment in my neighbor’s basement. (The target drops as soon as you fire the gun, so where do you aim?). I thought that was so cool. That was when I knew I was going to study physics.