For a while I’ve thought I should write up a paper on my biophysics-for-non-science-majors course, just to document what its motivations are and how I’ve approached teaching it, in case it helps spur others to create similar courses. I’ve finally done this; a pre-print is on arXiv here: http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.0666 (“The Physics of Life,” an undergraduate … Continue reading Preprint: “The Physics of Life”
Several sources have pointed me to this neat web site of spurious correlations, showing graphically how, for example, the age of Miss America correlates with the number of murders by steam, hot vapours and hot objects, or my favorite: Though spurious correlations can be dangerous (and hilarious), it’s often useful to look for correlations in … Continue reading Reading this post? You get an “A”!
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
I’ve been heavily involved in the University of Oregon’s Science Literacy Program, which aims to improve science education for non-science-major undergraduates by designing innovative classes based on effective “active learning” methods. A student in my Fall term Scientific Revolutions class filmed a story for the campus newspaper on the Science Literacy Program, which is neat! … Continue reading Science Literacy Program video
I’m likely to become involved in an organized effort to improve the persistence of STEM majors at the University of Oregon. (STEM meaning Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, and persistence meaning completing a degree rather than switching to a different field.) Less than half of the undergraduates who start out as intended STEM majors graduate … Continue reading STEM persistence
The Eighteenth Elephant 