Archive for April, 2010

Published by Brunsell on 21 Apr 2010

Teaching Physics…

The typical topics in a high school physics course leads students to believe that physics is all about memorizing things that were discovered a few hundred years ago.  If they are lucky, students might get a glimpse at some "modern physics" - you know, the stuff that was done 50-60 years ago.

Sean Carroll (the physicist) thinks we should be doing it differently,

"What we need to do is find a new way to teach the spirit of physics. What we do now is water down what professional physicists do and make it into this dry puzzle-solving thing with little pictures of pulleys and things like that. We ought to teach kids more about the Big Bang and entropy and particles. Every high school graduate should know that everything in the universe is made of a handful of particles. That’s not a hard thing to know. But that’s not what’s emphasized."

I agree. If we want kids to be inspired to go into science, we should probably let them explore the big questions and frontiers of science.

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Published by Brunsell on 20 Apr 2010

Science 2.0

Science 2.0: Great New Tool or Great Risk?

"To me, opening up my lab notebook means giving people a window into what I'm doing every day. That's an immense leap forward in clarity. In a paper, I can see what you've done. But I don't know how many things you tried that didn’t work. It's those little details that become clear with open notebook, but are obscured by every other communication mechanism we have. It makes science more efficient."

     – Bill Hooker, a postdoctoral cancer researcher at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Portland, Ore

Under Bradley's radically transparent "open notebook" approach, as he calls it, everything goes online: experimental protocols, successful outcomes, failed attempts, even discussions of papers being prepared for publication. "A simple wiki makes an almost perfect lab notebook," he declares. The time-stamps on every entry not only establish priority, but allow anyone to track the contributions of every person, even in a large collaboration.
  
    – Drexel University chemist Jean-Claude Bradley, who created his independent laboratory wiki, UsefulChem in 2005

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Published by Brunsell on 13 Apr 2010

Highest Paid Degrees…

The results of the 2010 National Associaiton of Colleges and Employers Salary Survey was just released.  Science, Technology, Engineering & Math is still pretty important…

Engineering majors dominate the list of top-paid bachelor’s degrees, according to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). 

NACE’s Winter 2010 Salary Survey shows that engineering disciplines account for eight of the 10 most highly paid degrees.  

The only non-engineering related degrees in the top 10 were computer science and information sciences and systems.

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Figure 1: Top-Paid Bachelor's Degrees

 

Major    

Average Salary Offer
Petroleum Engineering $86,220
Chemical Engineering $65,142
Mining & Mineral Engineering (incl. geological) $64,552
Computer Science $61,205
Computer Engineering $60,879
Electrical/Electronics & Communications Engineering $59,074
Mechanical Engineering $58,392
Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering $57,734
Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering $57,231
Information Sciences & Systems $54,038

Source: Winter 2010 Salary Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers. Data represent offers to bachelor’s degree candidates where 10 or more offers were reported.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.naceweb.org/Press/Releases/Top-Paid_Majors_Among_College_Class_of_2010_%283-11-10%29.aspx

So, why isn't it common to have 3 years of HS science required AND K-12 engineering standards? 

 

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Published by Brunsell on 07 Apr 2010

Neil deGrasse Tyson on science education

Hat tip to Ben Wildeboer (http://blog.benwildeboer.com/) and Stop Trying to Inspire Me (http://uninspiredteacher.blogspot.com/) for bringing this to my attention.

Neil deGrasse Tyson sat down with NPR's Linda Holmes for a fantastic interview.  Read the whole thing here:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/02/neil_degrasse_tyson_on_literac.html

deGrasse Tyson on a scientific mindset...

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Most people you ask, "What is science literacy?" They'll say, "Well, you gotta learn about DNA, and learn about how microwave ovens work, and learn about nuclear power." Yeah, that's an aspect of science literacy.

Leslie Holmes: What do you mean by science literacy?

NdT: The center line of science literacy — which not many people tell you, but I feel this strongly, and I will go to my grave making this point — is how you think. If someone comes up to you and says, "I have these crystals. If you rub them together, it will heal your ailments." I don't want you to say, "Oh, that's bunk." No. Because extreme skepticism, such as that, and extreme gullibility are two equal ways of not having to think at all. And I don't think I'm the first to say that.

Why kids should be allowed to break stuff, the "measure of what it is to be educated," and more, after the jump.

So the thought is — what's your next thought when someone approaches you with the crystals? It should be, "How does that work? How do you know it works? By what mechanism does it work? How much does it cost? Where did you get the crystals? What evidence do you have that it would work on me?" Start asking questions. And people who are just charlatans out there, or are self-deluded, you'll reach a point where they don't have answers to those questions, because if they did, they wouldn't be trying to sell you crystals.

LH: And those aren't incredibly complex questions.

—

And deGrasse Tyson on beating curiosity out of kids in school…

NdT: You learn, and they test you, and you need a high score on the test, and the teacher only likes the kids who get the high score and the kids who are quiet while they're teaching, because they're the well-behaved ones. What are we promoting in society? Well-behaved automatons that spew back what they learned in a book. That's not science. You can get a parrot to do that. Give me somebody who sees — now this could get dangerous, right? Somebody who sees a wall outlet and wants to stick a wire into it to find out what happens. So you don't want kids dying from their experiments, so yes, there's a certain oversight as a parent you have to exercise. But any sensible parent would know what those limits are. I would claim that those limits are much higher than what are normally granted the behavior of children.

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Published by Brunsell on 03 Apr 2010

Science Fail: The Navy Planning on Capsizing Guam.

During a recent hearing, Navy Admiral Robert Willard described the Navy's plan for expanding operations on the island of Guam.  Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA) asked a stunning question.

Johnson, "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated and tip over and capsize."

Willard, "Aah, we don't anticipate that."

Apparently, Johnson thinks that islands are like giant inflatable rafts floating in the ocean.  One too many kids jumping on and everything tips over.  

The hearing was held the week before April Fool's day.  On April Fool's Day, Congressman Johnson released the following statement:

"The subtle humor of this obviously metaphorical reference to a ship capsizing illustrated my concern about the impact of the planned military buildup on this small tropical island."

I don't think his excuse holds water.  He delivered the line with no hint of jest. Seriously, is this the best we can do?  - legislators that couldn't pass a simple middle school science test. Thankfully, Rep. Johnson is not a member of the House Committee on Education and Labor.

The comments are at the 1:24 mark.

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Published by Brunsell on 03 Apr 2010

Classic Video Game Enshrined in the Solar System

"If Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music."

 <> Marcus Brigstocke,  British comedian

To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of Pac-Man, NASA released this image of Saturn's moon, Mimas.

– The highest-resolution-yet temperature map and images of Saturn's icy moon Mimas obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal surprising patterns on the surface of the small moon, including unexpected hot regions that resemble 'Pac-Man' eating a dot, and striking bands of light and dark in crater walls.  

And yes, there is a natural explanation… http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/newsreleases/newsrelease20100329/

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