Swans on Tea

How to be a good TA over at Built on Facts.
Disclaimer: I never did recitations as a TA in grad school, though I did tutor students (for a whopping 8 bucks an hour). I had just gotten out of the navy, where I had logged somewhere around 2500-3000 classroom teaching hours, so it’s [...]

Back to School, Nifty Sayings & Bless Your Heart
Richie’s Nifty List of 5 Sayings You Can Probably Use Without Getting Fired
[…]
At a recent summer workshop, we decided that you can say just about anything as long as you end your statement with “Bless her heart” or “Bless his heart.” Now before you go off being [...]

Adopt-a-Physicist
Fall 2008 Schedule
Teachers Registration: Now - Sept. 8 (or until full)
Physicist Registration: Sept. 9 - Sept. 15 (or until full)
Teachers adopt physicists: Sept. 16 - Sept. 23
Discussion forums open: Sept. 29 - Oct. 17
This effort is led by Sigma Pi Sigma, the physics honor society, and aided by American Physical Society and the American Association [...]

The question asked at incoherently scattered ponderings: Why would anyone want to get a PhD in sciences?
[T]he bottom line is that 10 years later non-PhD path can provide on the order of 0.5 million more in earnings than the PhD path. And one could argue that the career options after completing PhD and 1 [...]

Teaching evolution — and, by the sound of it, doing a good job — in Florida. He realizes that if the science sounds dogmatic he’s lost before he even starts.
A Teacher on the Front Line as Faith and Science Clash
When Florida’s last set of science standards came out in 1996, soon after [...]

Sucky Schools - How To Repair Our Education System
Lots of good stuff.
Our schools are fact-junkies. We teach students thousands of useless facts that will be forgotten as soon as the next exam is over. Hell, usually they’re forgotten even before that, and then you see students cramming late into night, only to forget it all [...]

Are we science-savvy enough to make informed decisions?
Let me guess: no. I mean, really, is this a gimme or what?
Seventy-six percent of Americans say presidential candidates should make improving science education a national priority, according to a national Harris Interactive survey of 1,304 adults in November and December. Results were released this spring.
But [...]

Matt’s discusses the disaster of grades in The Final Countdown
I just finished grading three problems worth of the final exam (the other two TAs are taking care of the rest), and I think the exam can be safely described as a debacle. It was a disaster. The scores haven’t been tallied up yet, but I [...]

Via Physics Buzz, The things I didn’t believe in graduate school
Graduate school is a hazing ritual, designed to make sure you really truly want to be allowed through the gates into the Ivory Tower. Those who don’t want it hard enough, generally can’t make it through the gauntlet of tests, homework sets, research walls and [...]

The Make-Believe World of Real-World Physics (Eric Mazur)
Mazur argues that — mostly through our textbooks — we paint a picture of physics that is
Really weird
Different from the real world
Truly confusing
[...]
Silly art makes us look weird
Misplaced realism makes physics different
Lack of precision confuses

The importance of stupidity in scientific research
I recently saw an old friend for the first time in many years. We
had been Ph.D. students at the same time, both studying science,
although in different areas. She later dropped out of graduate school,
went to Harvard Law School and is now a senior lawyer for a major
environmental organization. At [...]

Thoughts on Conferences at Faraday’s Cage is where you put Schroedinger’s Cat
The second case was a conference where the only requirement for approval was an abstract. I realize that some of the more “cutting edge” conferences proceed this way so that people can present their latest results. I don’t like them, however, because many people [...]