July 2012 - Posts

Guest post by Albert Einstein: What are you doing to the children?


27 July 12 10:04 AM
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education. Albert Einstein Ah, a treat today! While London security focused on the Olympics, I snuck into the British Museum and grabbed a slice or two of Albert Einstein's brain tissues--while I couldn't Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 3 Comments    

What do you care to know about the world?


26 July 12 10:13 AM
Teaching matters. We owe it to our children to get it right. What do you care to know about the world? There's a place for what used to be called boredom, for empty spaces to slide into your mind. It's not particularly unpleasant, but it lacks the dopamine Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 2 Comments    
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"Why Smart People Believe Dumb Things"


23 July 12 08:20 AM
Daniel T. Willingham is not just another pretty face. Robert Marzano, on the other hand, looks like he spends more time on a single eyebrow that Willingham does on his whole head, but to be fair to Marzano, he has a lot more hair to contend with. I have Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 15 Comments    

Totally vs. fully human


21 July 12 10:20 AM
A big ray washed up on our beach yesterday. If you had a choice, would you be fully human or totally human? The dichotomy is strikingly simple--do you want to live in an orderly universe defined by human parameters, or do you prefer the dangerously chaotic Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 0 Comments    

Universal truth


20 July 12 03:12 PM
"It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.” Neil deGrasse Tyson I have never regretted a moment under the sky; I have wasted far too many under fluorescent lights. We Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 8 Comments    

Starving for technology


16 July 12 06:06 PM
Just because you're going forwards Doesn't mean I'm going backwards. Billy Bragg, "To Have and To Have Not" We keep pushing new technologies, harder than we push for full bellies and safe homes for our children. An hour or two bouncing around various Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 16 Comments    

Link between Sesame Street and heroin


16 July 12 10:07 AM
We are visual critters, bound by a brain molded by countless generations in a very different environment--if something moved, it mattered. Computers themselves don't move much, other than an occasional trip through a window. We are, however, captivated Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 9 Comments    

"Just because..."


14 July 12 09:11 AM
One of the first things students notice as they walk into Room B362 is a huge " WHY? " sign on the wall facing them, in bright pink letters, in an odd font designed by the man who cut out the letters. (OK, I was in a rush when I did it...) It has sparked Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 10 Comments    

Clowning around with magnetism


13 July 12 09:44 AM
By Dharmuli, under CC "So I’m not going to be able to give you an an answer to why magnets attract each other except to tell you that they do." Richard Feynman , around 6:43 Science doesn't take the romance out of the universe. School does. I would love Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 9 Comments    

Classroom slaughter


11 July 12 09:36 PM
Raking for quahogs in February I'm taking my nieces clamming tomorrow. It's fun catching quahogs, and even more fun eating them. It's their tough luck to be so tasty. The more you get to know clams, or anything alive for that matter, the more you appreciate Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 13 Comments    

"Freedom to doubt"


11 July 12 10:55 AM
Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. Richard Feynman Richard Feynman, boy from Brooklyn. I recently ranted about what should not be presented as science in school. We live in an age of the expert, of the specialist. Few folks can even change Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 10 Comments    

Teach science


10 July 12 05:02 PM
The Next Generation Science Standards are not going to save the day. But we can. Let's try this--let's teach science. Not vocabulary. Not outdated models presented as "fact." Not "experiments" with pre-determined outcomes. Not trips to glitzy edu-wow Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 6 Comments    

The original God particle: the Rutherford atom


09 July 12 02:43 PM
This is a bit long-winded. I hope at least one elementary school teacher reds this through. Science education lives and dies by those who teach before children before they can shave. Learning science here in Jersey is a bit like learning in catechism Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 10 Comments    

"Certainty is absurd"


08 July 12 12:16 PM
"NSTA’s most serious and profound concern with the NGSS first public draft is the explicit omission of nature of science." National Science Teachers Association 's comments on NGSS draft "Trapped," xkcd, of course! My grasp of the world is as tenuous Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 3 Comments    

The suits don't own us: Independence Day


04 July 12 09:07 AM
Last year's post revisited. I liked it then, and I like it now. "...[A]t the length truth will out." I love the Fourth of July. Today we feasted on the first local tomatoes, a completely different beast than the imposters sitting on your grocery shelves. Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 1 Comments    

We're not evolving....


03 July 12 10:48 AM
"I can here safely give the reason why children are not taught science, and I think you will all agree with me: teachers do not really know science themselves , on account of textbook methods." Francis W. Parker Talks on Pedagogics, 1894 It's not something Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 1 Comments    

Developing students with attitude


02 July 12 11:59 AM
"In a word, the great danger in teaching science, as in anything else, is to teach a perfect reliance upon human authority." Francis W. Parker, Talks on Pedagogics A flat of basil I grew in class from seeds handpicked from last years fertilized flowers Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 2 Comments    

Greenhead fly season


01 July 12 07:04 PM
The greenhead flies are biting again on the mudflats, as they will in July. The female Tabanus nigrovittatus saws away at your flesh in order to lap up some blood, so she may be fit to lay another set of eggs. I clam anyway. I clam because I enjoy it. Read More...
Postedfrom doyle | 1 Comments