Sunday, August 24, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The Push For Quotas For Women In Science
"The NYTimes has a story about how Congress has quietly begun to press for an equal number of women in the hard sciences and engineering under Title IX, which is best known for mandating numerical equality for boys' and girls' sports for institutions that accept federal funding. The problem is, the article says, it is not merely that women face discrimination from male colleagues, though that is often true, or that they are discouraged from pursuing these fields. Rather, women with aptitude in these areas often simply have other interests and so pursue their education and careers in other fields like law, education, or biology. Opponents of this plan, including many women in scientific fields, say implementing sex-based quotas will actually be detrimental because it will communicate that the women can't compete on even terms with men and will be 'devastating' to the quality of science 'if every male-dominated field has to be calibrated to women's level of interest.'"
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday July 15, @05:48PM on slashdot.
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday July 15, @05:48PM on slashdot.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Hippocratic Oath for Scientists?
"I promise never to allow financial gain, competitiveness or ambition cloud my judgment in the conduct of ethical research and scholarship. I will pursue knowledge and create knowledge for the greater good, but never to the detriment of colleagues, supervisors, research subjects or the international community of scholars of which I am now a member."
Article: Living the Scientific Life
Article: Living the Scientific Life
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Teaching Math
What do kids want to learn and how do they want to learn it? There are certain requirements for every course that must be mastered by the students. But what makes learning enjoyable for some and drudgery for others? As a teacher, I can show my students an outline for the course and try to put everything in perspective so that they have a better idea of where I am taking them through the course. They know where they are and they know where they are going.
It always happens in every math class that I have taught that one day a student will as me why they need to learn this stuff. They are not impressed with explanations of how math trains their minds to think logically and teaches them to solve problems in a sequential manner by applying properties and theorems. The best answer that I can give my students is that I don’t know. And they don’t either. It depends on them and what they end up doing with their lives. Some of them will probably never use any of it. I am giving them tools to use and it will be up to them to decide if and when to use them.
I look at it as they are on a journey, one that I have already traveled. In high school algebra and geometry, they are at the beginning of a journey that will take them to calculus and higher math. Calculus is the door to a whole new way of looking at the world and leads to an understanding of the way things work. They are beginning a journey that will take them places and allow them to understand things that they haven’t even imagined.
I realize that most of my students will end their journey early and go no further than the basic algebra and geometry that is required for them to graduate from high school. That is fine. Math isn't for everyone. As long as you can make change and balance a checkbook. You probably learn all of the math that you need for normal, everyday life by 6th grade.. But there are a few who will make the journey. They will take the tools that I give them and acquire many more along their journey.
Hopefully, one or two of my students will continue the journey even further than I have gone.
It always happens in every math class that I have taught that one day a student will as me why they need to learn this stuff. They are not impressed with explanations of how math trains their minds to think logically and teaches them to solve problems in a sequential manner by applying properties and theorems. The best answer that I can give my students is that I don’t know. And they don’t either. It depends on them and what they end up doing with their lives. Some of them will probably never use any of it. I am giving them tools to use and it will be up to them to decide if and when to use them.
I look at it as they are on a journey, one that I have already traveled. In high school algebra and geometry, they are at the beginning of a journey that will take them to calculus and higher math. Calculus is the door to a whole new way of looking at the world and leads to an understanding of the way things work. They are beginning a journey that will take them places and allow them to understand things that they haven’t even imagined.
I realize that most of my students will end their journey early and go no further than the basic algebra and geometry that is required for them to graduate from high school. That is fine. Math isn't for everyone. As long as you can make change and balance a checkbook. You probably learn all of the math that you need for normal, everyday life by 6th grade.. But there are a few who will make the journey. They will take the tools that I give them and acquire many more along their journey.
Hopefully, one or two of my students will continue the journey even further than I have gone.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
A New Enerprise
CGI artist Gabriel Koerner has confirmed this is actually one of his designs. I'm really looking forward to the new Star Trek movie next summer. I really don't mind that it is a restart of the original series (TOS), as much as I am a fan of all things Star Trek. I think the modern way of story telling may be what the series needs to get a new generation hooked on making the future happen as much as my generation has been influenced by TOS.
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