Academics
pharyngula | November 16, 2006Rob Helpy-Chalk has a horrific video of a student being repeatedly shocked with a taser…for not exiting a UCLA library quickly enough. If you'd rather not listen to a hand-cuffed young man screaming in pain, you could just read the story. There are a few campus police officers who need to be sacked immediately and publicly; there are no excuses for their abuse of power.
pharyngula | November 11, 2006My day was spent in the Twin Cities attending the inaugural public meeting of the Minnesota Citizens for Science Education (MnCSE), and I can safely say now that Science Education Saturday was a phenomenal success: a good turnout, two top-notch talks, a stimulating panel discussion, and an involved audience that asked lots of good questions. You should have been there! I expect that, with the good response we got today, that there will be future opportunities to attend MnCSE events.
I'll just give a brief summary of the main points from the two talks today. I understand that outlines or…
pharyngula | November 10, 2006Spank me and make me cry. Or just read this freakin' terrifying article about homeschooling kids. First, start with the arrogance of Patrick Henry College:
"Christians increasingly have an advantage in the educational enterprise," he says. "This is evident in the success of Christian home-schooled children, as compared to their government-schooled friends who have spent their time constructing their own truths." The students, all evangelical Christians, applaud loudly. Most of them were schooled at home before arriving at Patrick Henry—a college created especially for them.
Then take a look…
pharyngula | November 8, 2006In news guaranteed to cause distress to dashing, globe-trotting, heroic professors everywhere, Henry Jones Jr has been denied tenure. I hope there is an appeal.
(via Savage Minds)
pharyngula | October 31, 2006Wow. Our very own Shelly Batts is a finalist in competition for a blog scholarship. Help out a promising young neuroscientist and Vote Shelly!
It is also an interesting turn to make blog popularity, as measured by a poll, the deciding factor in awarding a fairly substantial sum of money. I hope they've made the voting fairly secure.
Dang, I've also been contacted by one of the other nominees—you should actually look over the field of candidates and make an informed decision about which one you favor. Vote for the best blogger!
pharyngula | October 26, 2006Of course you do. Would you believe there is now a thousand dollar scholarship for students who blog? And you can nominate yourself?
pharyngula | October 26, 2006
I got a query about this old article of mine, which stirred up a good bit of discussion back in the day, since it is on a subject truly important to academics…so I thought I'd resurrect it and see if my more recent and larger audience can be driven to equally passionate arguments pro and con.
Yesterday's Star Tribune has a front page article on the University's steady abandonment of blackboards.
When Prof. Lawrence Gray enters a math classroom at the University of Minnesota, his teaching tools are his brain and a stick of chalk.
He stands at a blackboard and chalk flies over the smooth black…
pharyngula | October 25, 2006Female Science Professor is polling her readers on what's on their computer desktop. It's not a weird question pulled out of thin air: she noted that male professors may be more comfortable showing pictures of their families than females, who have to be more sensitive to the stereotypes.
It's not a scientific poll in any sense of the word, but just out of curiousity, let's see what emerges.
My answer was "Other." My desktop image right now is of a hypothetical cephalopod-like alien swimming in a methane sea beneath an orange-red sky. What would fit her hypothesis, though, is that my desk has…
pharyngula | October 19, 2006Some people find the connection evades their understanding, but Ian has found it.
pharyngula | October 5, 2006A revised curriculum at Harvard may include a required course in religion, as Jim Downey has brought to my attention. There isn't enough information in the article to decide how to regard this decision, though; I don't object automatically to requiring college kids to learn to think critically about religion, and I would hope that a course at Harvard wouldn't be anything like a tutorial in Jebus-praising at Pensacola Christian College, but who knows? The summary is impossibly vague.
"I think 30 years ago," when the school's curriculum was last overhauled, "people would have said that religion…
pharyngula | October 2, 2006Since John Wilkins has already commented on Paul Hanle's article on the declining competitiveness of Americans in science, I'll focus my opinion on a narrower point. I think Hanle is precisely correct when he points out that ID and creationism are shackles that handicap science education in our country.
By teaching intelligent design or other variants of creationism in science classes at public schools — or by undercutting the credibility of evolution — we are greatly diminishing our chances for future scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations, and are endangering our health,…
pharyngula | September 24, 2006Oh, sure…Sean Carroll has Richard Feynman's desk. But I have PZ Myers' office and desk (I moved in right after the building was finished, so there's no history to speak of in here.)
I think the burden of living up to my furniture's standards is a lot lower for me.
pharyngula | September 19, 2006I confess that I have not read Bérubé's new book, yet. It's on my list, but that list is long and dreadfully discouraging…and now, Chris Clarke has undermined the book's sales by publishing a condensed version of its contents. I also suspect that Bérubé's book lacks the beautiful illustrations.
All hail the democratizing power of the net! Information must be free!
pharyngula | September 11, 2006Look, everyone! The Lehigh University biology department is hiring! I wonder if they're searching for a "design theorist" to complement their eminent Professor Behe…
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Evolutionary Biology
The Department of Biological Sciences seeks candidates with outstanding research that employs modern analytical methods in the study of fundamental aspects of the evolutionary process. Areas of specialization may include field and/or laboratory studies on molecular aspects of population genetics, molecular mechanisms of phenotypic expression, cell division, asexual or sexual development,…
pharyngula | September 8, 2006Perusable blogaliciousness for your Friday morning:
Carnival of Education
Friday Ark #103
Mendel's Garden #5
The Hairy Museum of Natural History has put out a call for submissions to the Tangled Bank, with an early deadline. If you want a shot at maybe seeing your link with a custom illustration, send it in by Sunday evening. He'll try to accept stuff up through Tuesday, but make life easy on the guy, OK?
pharyngula | September 7, 2006I've been asked if this is a common occurrence at scientific conferences: at an Australian conference on climate change, the entertainment at a social dinner was a burlesque show. And the answer is…no. Every meeting dinner I've attended has had some white-maned elder statesperson of the discipline do the 'entertainment', which is usually thin on the bare flesh and the humor, thick with jargon and historical detail. It can be fun—I recall one talk by JZ Young that was full of squid and voltages that I really enjoyed—but I don't think it would have been improved if he'd been up on the podium…
pharyngula | August 28, 2006
It's not every day that one of the Istari gets tenure.
Say, did anyone mention to his review committee that he's an immortal? This is going to wreak havoc with the college's finances once he has accumulated some more seniority.
pharyngula | August 25, 2006Janet asks, "How should we professorial types be addressed by our students?" I'm introducing myself to a new crop of students in an hour, so this is something I also go through every year.
My answer: if the students don't know the professor, the default should be "Dr" or "Professor." Always. It's the safe thing to do.
To my students, I always tell them I'd rather not be addressed so formally, and "Paul" or "PZ" are better choices. "Hey, Myers!" is a little too brash.
I think the appropriate way to answer the question is to turn it around: how do we professors address the students? If you…
pharyngula | August 23, 2006The syllabus for Biol 4181, Developmental Biology is now online. Start reading! It looks like I'll have you reading 50-100 pages of Wolpert and Carroll or Zimmer a week.
I want you all to know this is something of a miracle—I usually finish my syllabus the night before the class starts, so I'm very proud of myself for getting it done a whole four days ahead of time. Of course, the reason it's early is that I've got a stack of extra-curricular writing that needs to be done in the next couple of days…
pharyngula | August 20, 2006You can get a jump on the class—I've posted a list of the textbooks you'll need on the class website.