Nothing is typical. As I’m sitting here in the lobby of the hotel noticing that far fewer than half of the people waking back and forth in this busy hotel are wearing unusual science fiction or fantasy costuming (that will change as the day develops) this (“nothing is typical”) is the phrase that sticks in my mind from this morning’s session on Skeptical Blogging.
Continue reading Musing about skeptical blogging. Thoughts from SkepchickCon
Tag Archives: Education
Home Chemistry: A New Guide for Hobbyists and Home Schoolers
Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments: All Lab, No Lecture (DIY Science)
Chemistry Set Combine the sciences of Chemistry and Microscopy in one big laboratory set! Microscope has a magnification of 60 power, plus unique Polaroid device that shows the brilliant colors of specimens under the lens. Set includes “Fun With Gilbert Chemistry”, “Gilbert Microscope”, “Glass Blowing” manuals and dissecting stand. From the Eli Whitney Museum and Workshop
Continue reading Home Chemistry: A New Guide for Hobbyists and Home Schoolers
What I had for breakfast: Belief = Blame
They don’t exactly equal each other. But from the perspective of a skeptic, I would like you to consider that belief and blame are very similar. Yesterday at the Skeptics 101 panel at Connie, I heard the fact that not everyone today is already a questioning, thoughtful, intelligent skeptic blamed on the usual things. Kids these days. The school system. Standardized tests. Dumb-ass political leaders. And so on.
Buried in this is a thread to a second thought I wanted to get on the table quickly: In the US, we need academic standards for K-12 that are uniform across the country. Anything less, it turns out, is classist and possibly racist, inefficient and ineffective. Think about it. It is good education to have nation-wide curriculum standards that specify to grade.
I will try to connect the dots later. In the mean time, you can blow some shit up. It is July 4th. Just make sure you to it legally and safely and don’t drink to much and avoid driving.
The biggest danger to All Americans on July 4th is radiation. From all the radar guns pointing at us.
Girls Doing Math
This is a struggle I can relate to:
Perez Hilton thinks that hot chicks can’t do math. I have taught math to children of a variety of ages. It is difficult to convince young women in our society that they can do math. Young women often lack self-confidence about mathematics. Many of them think that “only the ugly, unpopular girls” do math. One high school student once told me that she didn’t want to go to a summer math program because if she did “everyone will think I’m uncool.”
See this post for the big picture and the gory details.
I can tell you that there was a lot of stuff going on in my household this year regarding math, and anti-math socialization. Just so you know, Julia got a lot of helpful support in the nitty gritty of algebra from the household math expert, which of course is Amanda.
These two school administrators need to be driven into the swamp with torches and pitchforks.
Check it out:
ATLANTA – A suburban Atlanta principal who resigned during an investigation into cheating on students’ standardized tests was arrested Friday and accused of altering public documents.
The school’s assistant principal also turned herself in to local police Thursday night in a case that the head of a state teacher’s group described as rare. School officials allege that the two changed answers on fifth-grade standardized tests to improve scores and help their school meet federal achievement standards
This sort of behavior (only alleged so far in this case, but whatever …) can not be tolerated at all, because we need less, rather than more, blindingly bureaucratic oversight in our schools. Accreditation should mean “doing a good job and we trust them” and not “no one has been arrested for any felonies lately.”
Jeesh.
Are the “new atheists” not civil enough?
There is an interesting post on The Intersection called Civility and the New Atheists, by Chris Mooney. In the post, Chris reviews Barbara Forrest’s statements that in engaging int he cross-world-view debate (scientists vs. creationists, atheists, vs religion, etc.) one should maintian etiquette, respect and understand diversity, and practice humility.
Atheist and pro-science writer Mooney notes in speaking of a talk by Forrest:
Forrest therefore concluded her talk by saying that we need are “epistemological and civic humility”-providing the groundwork for “civic friendship.” To which I can only say: Amen.
This is, of course, going to make certain commenters including Jason Rosenhouse cringe (see: Coyne is Right, Mooney is Wrong). It makes me cringe too, in a way .. the Amen part (OMG, Chris, a little OTT????). But I actually do agree that the conversation should always be done in the context of these three virtues. But at the same time, I believe it is possible to practice Etiquette while kicking someone’s balls up into their throat if necessary. Diversity is to be respected, but the far right needs at this point to be simply cut out of the conversation.
And Humility is good. As long as you understand that it is, like, my tenth or eleventh greatest quality.
But seriously, I agree completely with what Chris is trying to say here. At the same time, I do not want to see any compromise whatsoever in the science and the law. The trick is, how to do that. Without occasionally kicking someone’s balls up into their throat, diversely, and with humility.
Meanwhile, I eagerly await the chance to read Crhis and Sheril’s new book on a related topic (scientific illiteracy) … maybe it’s in the mailbox now…
Don’t mess with Tex …
… tbooks. (get it?)
Josh Rosenau, of the National Center for Science Education, has a piece in Seed online:
The National Center for Science Education, in Oakland, CA, where I work, has tracked hundreds of attacks on evolution education in 48 states in the last five years. In the last two years alone, 18 bills in 10 states have targeted the teaching of evolution. These bills, like the flawed science standards approved by the Texas Board of Education in March, don’t ban evolution outright. But they do authorize teachers to omit evolution or include creationism at their whim. “These bills give cover to school boards and teachers who want to teach creationism,” says Barbara Forrest, a professor at Southeastern Louisiana University who studies the history of creationism. “It’s as simple as that.”
Somebody’s got to stand up to the experts on evolution!?!!?
It’s hard to stand up to brilliant people!
This guy is OTT. I was waiting for him to explode the whole time. Ouch ouch ouch ouch. My brain hurts now.
Genie Scott, Two-Three Other Guys, Honored by Scientific American
Scientific American names the 10 most important leaders in science and technology
… a press release from the National Center for Science Education
OAKLAND, CA May 18, 2009
Barack Obama and Bill Gates are in good company. The NCSE’s Dr. Eugenie C. Scott joins Obama and Gates as members of the Scientific American 10 honor roll. This honor roll pays tribute to the ten people in the last year who have “demonstrated exceptional leadership and accomplishment in guaranteeing that future technologies will be applied to the benefit of humanity”.
Continue reading Genie Scott, Two-Three Other Guys, Honored by Scientific American
Texas School Board Prepares To Ruin Social Studies
Having totally borked science education in the Lone Star State, the Texas School Board is now winding up to stuff their right wing ideologies into the Social Studies curriculum.
I for one can’t wait until Texas leaves the Union so we can put Texas and Turkey in the same category and begin to summarily ignore them. In the mean time, have a look at what they are doing, from the Texas Freedom Network:
Continue reading Texas School Board Prepares To Ruin Social Studies
Texas Education Experts: Shame on you
The whole world is watching. And it is rather embarrassing.
Global Warming: Not a Problem!
According to Texas Education Expert!
She knows because she looked at some web sites!!!!!!!!! Holy Crap!!!!
Science Education: How to do it right.
The podcast for today’s radio discussion with Fellman, Scott and Laden is available.
A bit about the history of the NCSE; cultural relativism in the science education movement; Greg disses bench scientists again; The appeasement question; A phone call from a famous Pharyngulistum; Science standards; Local control. The Minnesota Science Standards. An intelligently designed buffet and the question of “alternative curriculum.”
Go listen, and come back and comment.
What do science teachers need to say or not say about religion?
… In public schools. According to one Federal Judge in the US, not much.
A Mission Viejo high school history teacher violated the First Amendment by disparaging Christians during a classroom lecture, a federal judge ruled today.
James Corbett, a 20-year teacher at Capistrano Valley High School, referred to Creationism as “religious, superstitious nonsense” during a 2007 classroom lecture, denigrating his former Advanced Placement European history student, Chad Farnan.
The decision is the culmination of a 16-month legal battle between Corbett and Farnan – a conflict the judge said should remind teachers of their legal “boundaries” as public school employees.
In some ways, this ruling is correct, in my view, according to the current law. Statements about religion in a public high school classroom in a class that is not about religion can be taken a lot of ways by students, and given the authority enriched position of a teacher, almost always risk violating the establishment clause one way or another. This is why teachers are advised to make different kinds of claims, such as “Your question, Little Timmy, is about religion. This is a science class. Take your question elsewhere please.” … And after Little Timmy has asked the same religiously oriented question (related to Evolution) the third or fourh time, “Timmy, I asked you to stop disrupting the class in this manner, go to the office.”
On the other hand, if a question about evolution is legitimately raised in a science classroom, which can happen a number of different ways, a teacher may have the responsibility at some point to say that the scientific view is valid and the religious view is not. If the source of the conflict is not the teacher (is not in the curriculum) and is not merely a discipline issue (a student disrupting the class by handing out bible pages) then a direct retort may be valid, in my view.
But maybe not in this legal framework.
This brings up another question which to me is very disconcerting. Do these rules (the ones we are speaking of here as well as other case law regarding teaching science) apply to public colleges? Personally, I do not see the distinction between public high schools and colleges in many of these rulings. I find it fascinating that this has not come up as an issue. Yet.
In the case in question:
“Corbett states an unequivocal belief that Creationism is ‘superstitious nonsense,'” U.S. District Court Judge James Selna said in a 37-page ruling released from his Santa Ana courtroom. “The court cannot discern a legitimate secular purpose in this statement, even when considered in context.”
There clearly is a weaknessin the ruling here, and I think we can refer to Dover for this. The teacher is making te case that Creationism is not valid science. Perhaps the teacher used strong words to say it, but that is not the issue here. The teacher is technically correct. So, the court has suppressed a valid statement of truth in favor of a subjective opinion. That may be how this decision goes away at some higher level.
[source of the story]
This is being discussed here.
Learn Physics At Home
Head First Physics: A learner’s companion to mechanics and practical physics 
However, Head First Physics plays a very different role as it is for learning in a field of science. Head First Physics provides the material that is normally included in AP Physics B, focusing on mechanics. The purpose of this book is NOT to give the average Joe or Maria a basic idea of what Physics is about. That would be fairly easy and could be done in a much less ambitious work. Rather, this book is explicitly designed to be equivalent to the Advanced Placement course. It isn’t really equivalent, of course, in that a real AP phyiscs course will have elaborate labs and opportunities for discussion with someone who actually knows what they are doing. But this book does provide labs and it does a good job of anticipating those areas where such discussions might take place.
A student heading to Physics, a home schooler, or someone interested in the topic but unable for some reason to take the Intro college physics class or the HS AP class will probably find this book serves them well.
The reason Head First Physics (and presumably other Head First books) works is because almost every element … at the smallest scale … is designed to be a splash of cold water on the student’s face. “Well, so is water-boarding” you may say. And rightly so. The true geek who could enjoy any technical review of any hard science may not want to mess with the “Keep ’em interested” approach of this book. But for the average student, or more so for the student who is turned off by this sort of material, this book might work well.
1“Bobo” is Kinande for “Moron.”