learning
rallain | February 25, 2010I thought this was an interesting idea. One of my colleagues does not collect homework. Instead, the students turn in a sheet that lists which homework problems they worked on and how much time they spent on homework. By doing this, the students get a small homework grade - independent of how much time they claim they spent. I am pretty sure it is not a large percentage of the total grade.
Along with this "report", the students are supposed to keep notes on the homework they claim they did - just for reference. Theoretically, the instructor could verify that the student did the problems…
rallain | February 20, 2010The kind folks over at BloggingHeads TV were nice enough to offer me an opportunity to discuss some science stuff with Ed Grabianowski from io9.com. Here it is:
In this discussion, we talk about:
Learning physics and physics education research
The value of science educators
Good and not so good science on TV
Journalism and 'balance' with regards to science
Science fiction as a guide to the future
rallain | February 13, 2010Do you like my title? I will make a connection in just a bit. This post is mostly about online colleges. I saw on TV that Kaplan now has online courses. So, what do I think about that? Here are some points.
Some people can learn online
I think this is an important starting point. Yes, there are people that can do just fine in an online course. Say there is an online course in physics (and there are). I think that students (not sure how many - could be a lot) that could perform just as well on a physics test as a student that took a traditional format course.
I don't think this is a…
rallain | February 8, 2010This came in the mail.
This is an ad for someone's online homework service (I am not saying who). The important part, that you might not be able to read, says:
"Make Learning Part of the Grade"
I think I can interpret this logo in two different ways. Both of these interpretations are not too helpful.
Isn't that what a grade is supposed to be?
Maybe you already know that I am not a big fan of grades (grades and obedience, the point of grades). So really, what is the purpose of grades? I think of a couple of things, but most people should be able to agree that they somehow (magically)…
rallain | February 6, 2010So, I put together part of my online textbook (finally). Let me give a little history and insight into this 'textbook'. Ok - I blog, I am sure you got that part already. When I write a post, I like it to start from the basic ideas so that anyone could find it and get what I am saying about some physics thing. Well, I started to realize that there were some things that I kept repeating (like how to add vectors). Instead of re-writing this every time a post had vectors, I made a post Basics: Vectors and Vector Addition. Then, I realized that I could keep doing this and slowly build up a…
rallain | February 3, 2010I am sure I have talked about this stuff before, but it came up recently in a discussion so I figured I should put it here.
Let me draw a picture of learning.
The path of learning goes through the swamp of confusion. Suppose you are in a class and you are confused. This is good. If you are not confused, you are not going through the learning process.
All too often I see a student put their big toe in the swamp. It is icky, so they stop. Their thoughts are:
This can't be the right way. I am sure I made a wrong turn somewhere. I can't possibly go through this. If this IS indeed the way…
rallain | January 27, 2010Here, I am referring to Dan Meyer's "Be Less Helpful" mantra. I like it, but maybe you aren't familiar with Dan. Here is his take on a high school physics problem. Or maybe you would like the video version:
Be Less Helpful - CMC North 2009 - Dan Meyer from Dan Meyer on Vimeo.
What does this have to do with Reddit? Check out this comment posted in physics. Basically, someone is asking for help finishing physics homework by that night. I really like the following two comments. First, another user said:
"This might help you in the short term, or for this course. But it won't in the long…
rallain | January 26, 2010This is one of my favorite things to do in class. I don't do it too often, or it would lose its specialness. Probably the best time to do this is near the end of class.
I pass out half-sheets of blank scrap paper. Students are told to write a question on the paper and turn it in. The question can be about anything. Or maybe it could be a statement about something that was covered and is still confusing. I tell the students not to put their name on it.
I collect all the questions (or statements) and pick some to go over in class. Usually, I get some off the wall non-sensical type…
rallain | January 25, 2010There is a question that keeps coming up in discussions I have. "What should elementary students study in science?" Probably the best answer to this question is: something other than what they are doing now.
What do I think students should know about science? Should they learn how to calculate kinetic energy? Should they learn the difference between mass and weight? These things are important building blocks for other ideas, but sometimes it seems like there is a lot of focus on these building blocks and no focus on science. Just talking about kinetic energy is not necessarily science.…
rallain | January 11, 2010I am totally ready to get back to blogging. In fact, I have a post that is 3/4th complete that I have been working on since before Christmas. Anyway, in order to procrastinate a little bit more I would like to share two learning observations (maybe they are not really about learning).
Kids these day
First, I was in the airport. When I am sitting around starring at the walls, I can't help but accidentally overhear someone that is 4 feet away. So this guy was talking about how impressed he was with kids these day in school. They are learning all sorts of stuff that he had already forgotten…
rallain | December 10, 2009It is the end of the semester, and I hear stuff. A lot of this stuff I do not like to hear. This is a sample (essentially):
"I don't have to take the final in that class, the instructor said I just have to organize some folders instead"
"I got an A on all the tests, but the instructor said my grade was a B because I missed too many classes"
Those are just two examples I have heard recently. When I hear these kinds of things, I try not to pass judgment on other faculty because I am only hearing one side of the story (I can only imagine what crazy things students say about me). However, I…
edyong | November 12, 2009How would you fancy a holiday to Greece or Thailand? Would you like to buy an iPhone or a new pair of shoes? Would you be keen to accept that enticing job offer? Our lives are riddled with choices that force us to imagine our future state of mind. The decisions we make hinge upon this act of time travel and a new study suggests that our mental simulations of our future happiness are strongly affected by the chemical dopamine.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that carries signals within the brain. Among its many duties is a crucial role in signalling the feelings of enjoyment we…
rallain | October 15, 2009The basic idea of the student response system is that each student gets some electronical (or not - see below) device that lets them answer multiple-choice questions. (Science Geek Girl has a good summary of clickers also) A computer then displays the distribution of responses for the class. Simple, no? They are becoming super popular, and I really like them. I used to just use them for large enrollment lecture classes (like 100 students). However, this semester I started to use them in my intro physics course for science majors with just about 30 students. I didn't realize the impact…
edyong | October 14, 2009In the 1990s, Colombia reintegrated five left-wing guerrilla groups back into mainstream society after decades of conflict. Education was a big priority - many of the guerrillas had spent their entire lives fighting and were more familiar with the grasp of a gun than a pencil. Reintegration offered them the chance to learn to read and write for the first time in their lives, but it also offered Manuel Carreiras a chance to study what happens in the human brain as we become literate.
Of course, millions of people - children - learn to read every year but this new skill arrives in the context…
edyong | September 23, 2009This article is reposted from the old Wordpress incarnation of Not Exactly Rocket Science. The blog is on holiday until the start of October, when I'll return with fresh material.
Many patients would like their doctors to be more sensitive to their needs. That may be a reasonable request but at a neurological level, we should be glad of a certain amount of detachment.
Humans are programmed, quite literally, to feel each others' pain. The neural circuit in our brains that registers pain also fires when we see someone else getting hurt; it's why we automatically wince.
This empathy makes…
rallain | September 8, 2009Here is a quick story. A faculty member came to me last week disappointed about the introductory physics students' lack of understanding with regard to electric potential. Let me call the faculty Beta, because I think that would be a cool name. Beta was disturbed that the students didn't get potential and it was covered last semester in the first part of the course.
Beta also said, "and electric potential is so simple". My reply was to show Beta my favorite 3-d puzzle. I think it is called a snake cube. Basically, it is a set of 27 wooden cubes attached together in some fashion that…
rallain | September 2, 2009Students are starting to get the flu around here - and that means that it is time to debate. Clearly there are going to be some absences in the coming month. The question is: what to do about it? There are two camps of thought here:
Camp 1: Excuses are bad
This camp of faculty is worried. They are worried that the administration is going to issue a statement something like this:
"These are difficult times. Every is somehow affected by the flu. To encourage...blah..blah...blah... please allow students to make up any missed work without any doctor's note."
So the faculty in camp 1 say "…
grrlscientist | August 26, 2009tags: Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan, newsreel footage, human behavior, learning, streaming video
Helen Keller, the American author, political activist and lecturer, and her instructor and lifelong companion, Anne Sullivan, appear in this Vitaphone newsreel from 1930. In this rare footage, Sullivan demonstrates how Helen Keller learned to talk. The final line of this footage, "I Am Not DUMB now!" is touching.
rallain | August 26, 2009I re-watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night and my wife and I noticed something about teaching. Of course I mentioned that this would make a good blog post (and she may still post it on her blog, but I can't help myself). If you have not read the book or seen the movie, I don't think I will give away any serious spoilers - but who hasn't at least seen the movie? If you were going to see it (or read it) you would have done so by now - right?
The Order of the Phoenix shows at least three different examples of teachers and teachings in the movie. Here they are:
Dolores…
rallain | August 22, 2009I found this link on twitter from New Scientist.
'iTunes university' better than the real thing
This pretty much sums it up:
"Students have been handed another excuse to skip class from an unusual quarter. New psychological research suggests that university students who download a podcast lecture achieve substantially higher exam results than those who attend the lecture in person."
The article also mentions a research study by McKinney that gave half of a class of 64 podcast lectures instead of a traditional lecture. Looking at the details, it doesn't seem like too convincing of a study.…