During the summer my and Eric Corwin‘s weekly group meetings (our groups meet together) depart from our usual format of presentations of our own research and brief summaries of journal articles to instead tackle some broader topic. Last year, for example, we covered a good chunk of Introduction to Modeling for Biosciences by Barnes and Chu, … Continue reading Microcontrollers
Perhaps thinking about STEM education is warping my mind, since I found myself a few days ago discussing with my 7-year-old how the Empire in the Star Wars movies was generally inept at engineering, building fragile Death Stars and large walking vehicles that are easily tripped. K. has apparently decided to use engineering for good, … Continue reading The Dark Side of STEM education
Since I’m a physicist who works on biological systems and cares about education, what could be better than a special issue of CBE Life Sciences Education on “Educational Initiatives and Research at the Intersection of Physics and Biology?” (OK, lots of things — I’m not that boring a person — but humor me.) I’ve read … Continue reading Physics, Biology, and STEM education
A colleague sent me this interesting report / survey on connections between education, employment, and contentment and disappointment among recent college graduates: Voice of the Graduate, McKinsey & Co. , which relates a bit to issues of STEM education that I wrote about earlier. The opening paragraph: There’s a paradox facing American society today. The … Continue reading STEM education, employment, and happiness
The Eighteenth Elephant 