learning
rallain | December 15, 2008Maybe you have seen some of my posts on basic topics. One of the original ideas I had for creating the "basics" posts was so that I would not need to keep repeatedly explaining what the fundamental physics concepts were for each post. I can only explain the work-energy principle so many times before I go crazy (maybe I am already there).
So anyway, it appears I have written enough of these posts that they could somewhat be considered a textbook. I have thought about textbooks for some time now. I considered writing one, but wasn't sure where to start. This way was really nice because I…
rallain | December 14, 2008I saw this over at ScienceGeekGirl which links to a video from two high school chemistry teachers in Colorado. The two teachers describe how they modified their chemistry courses. ScienceGeekGirl gives an excellent summary of their changes and motivations, so here is the short and dirty version:
They realized that their traditional lecture based course was not very effective.
They made video podcasts of their lectures and used class time for the students to work on problems and do demos and stuff.
Really, that is it. It seems so simple, but it is very interesting. The part I find…
rallain | December 10, 2008There is something that has been bothering me about students learning in college. The question is, how much do I treat students like adults and how much do I treat them like children? I have been leaning towards treating them like adults. For example: do I require them to come to class? Right now, no. I think they are adults and should choose whether they come to class or not. Do I require them to do homework? No. Again, I recommend homework (and I actually let them count it for part of their grade if they so choose). So, I give students the ability to choose what to do.
In…
rallain | December 2, 2008For many people, it is the time of the year to put the bikes away. I live in Louisiana, so now is the time to get the bikes out (too hot in the summer). Learning to ride a bike is a curious thing. Most parents use training wheels to get kids started. I do not think this is the best strategy. In this post, I will focus on teaching bike riding skillz. If you are looking for the physics of bike riding, there are some good links:
David Jones - "The stability of the bicycle" (pdf)This is a great article. The key aspect is that this guy modified a bike in unique ways to see if it was still "…
edyong | November 24, 2008Have you ever seen someone that you're sure you recognise but whose face you just can't seem to place? It's a common enough occurrence, but for some people, problems with recognising faces are a part of their daily lives. They have a condition called prosopagnosia, or face blindness, which makes them incredibly bad at recognising faces, despite their normal eyesight, memory, intelligence, and ability to recognise other objects.
Prosopagnosia can be caused by accidents that damage parts of the brain like the fusiform gyrus - the core part of a broad network of regions involved in processing…
rallain | October 9, 2008Dear High School students,
How are you? I am fine. I am very glad that I am no longer in high school. Maybe you enjoy high school, but for me, it was not so good. Don't get me wrong, I went to an excellent high school (Waubonsie Valley HS). There was something in high school that didn't feel right. Maybe it was being in classes for too long and the lack of time to work on my own projects. Maybe it was lack of freedom in choosing my own classes (there was some freedom to chose). Or perhaps I was just not mature enough to enjoy it. Needless to say, I am past that now.
I think now, how…
rallain | September 30, 2008So, we have some new faculty. New to the university, and new to teaching. What advise can I offer? Here are few things to consider:
Never show fear. Students can sense fear. They see it as a sign of weakness. They may attack. If you are afraid, act like you are not.
When in doubt, imitate. Don't try to reinvent anything. Don't try to find your own style, that will come with time. The goal is to become familiar with teaching and to become familiar with the content. Once you do that, you will have a better idea about how YOU want to run things. So, in the mean time, find an…
rallain | September 17, 2008So here I was in thermal physics class. The students were talking about the assigned homework and then asked: "can't we get some homework credit for this? Why are we even doing this?" Immediately in my head popped "wax on, wax off". This was the same situation Mr. Miyagi (from [The Karate Kid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Karate_Kid)) was in with Daniel-san. Homework should not be done just for the points. Homework should help the students become more proficient at blocking blows from the test.
I really like the movie karate kid. Mr. Miyagi brings up some good points. How does…
grrlscientist | September 9, 2008tags: Irene Pepperberg, cognition, learning, parrots, birds, Alex Foundation
Cognitive scientist, Irene Pepperberg and her parrots, Griffin, Arthur (Wart) and Alex.
Image: Mike Lovett, Brandeis University.
I just wanted to let you know that Irene Pepperberg has several speaking engagements to promote her new book, Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence -- and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process (scheduled release date: 28 October 2008). As you might remember, six months ago, I was given the opportunity to review an advance reading copy of…
rallain | August 29, 2008I teach classes. I ask questions in class. I wait for answers. All faculty do this, so who cares. If you are in a class or teaching a class, how long do you wait for someone to answer your question? Well, I asked two questions of my class this week.
1. Estimate how long I wait when I ask you questions.
2. How long should you (ideally) wait in a class for someone to answer?
Here is the data I gathered: (and I will tell you how long I actually wait)
This is a class of about 30 students. Below is a histogram of how long they estimate I wait for an answer. To make things work out, I…
grrlscientist | August 5, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, begging calls, brood parasitism, coevolution, learning, social shaping, ornithology, Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo, Chalcites basalis, Chrysococcyx basalis
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo, Chalcites (Chrysococcyx) basalis,
Capertee Valley, NSW, Australia, September 2003.
Image: Aviceda [larger view].
Brood parasites are birds, fish or insects that deceive unrelated animals of the same species or different species to care for their offspring. By doing so, the parasitic parent is relieved of the energetic demands of constructing a nest and raising its young to independence…
edyong | June 27, 2008For humans, sight is the most important of senses but only after we are born. Within the womb, surrounded by fluid, muscle and darkness, vision is of limited use and our eyes remain closed. But not all animals are similarly kept in the dark.
Cuttlefish develop inside eggs that are initially stained black with ink, but as the embryo grows and the egg swells, the outer layer slowly becomes transparent. By this time, the developing cuttlefish's eyes are fully formed and we now know that even before they are born, they can use visual information from the outside world to shape their adult…
edyong | April 29, 2008Forget 'smart drugs' or brain-training video games. According to new research, a deceptively simple memory task can do what no drug or game has done before - it can boost your 'fluid intelligence', your ability to adapt your powers of reasoning to new challenges. Fluid intelligence doesn't rely on previous knowledge, skills or experience. It's at work when we solve new problems or puzzles, when we draw inferences and spot patterns, and when we test ideas and design experiments. To see what I mean, try testing yours.
Fluid intelligence appears to be strongly influenced by inherited…
edyong | April 24, 2008You all know the score. A train leaves one city travelling at 35 miles per hour and another races toward it at 25 miles an hour from a city 60 miles away. How long do they take to meet in the middle? Leaving aside the actual answer of 4 hours (factoring in signalling problems, leaves on the line and a pile-up outside Clapham Junction), these sorts of real-world scenarios are often used as teaching tools to make dreary maths "come alive" in the classroom.
Except they don't really work. A new study shows that far from easily grasping mathematical concepts, students who are fed a diet of real-…
edyong | March 29, 2008Bad experiences can be powerful learning aids for our sense of smell. A new study reveals that electric shocks can make people more sensitive to the differences between very similar chemicals that previously smelled identical.
Every day, thousands of different molecules waft past our nose. Many of these are uncannily similar and some are more important to others. Wen Li from Northwestern University wanted to see how people learn to distinguish the critical smells from the unimportant ones.
Smell the difference
Working in the lab of smell guru, Jay Gottfried, Li attempted to train 12…
edyong | March 4, 2008The transformation from caterpillar to butterfly or moth is one of the most beguiling in the animal world. Both larva and adult are just stages in the life of a single animal, but are nonetheless completely separated in appearance, habitat and behaviour. The imagery associated with such change is inescapably beautiful, and as entrancing to a poet as it is to a biologist.
According to popular belief, within the pupa, the caterpillar's body is completely overhauled, broken down into a form of soup and rebuilt into a winged adult. Richard Buckmister Fuller once said that "there is nothing in a…
grrlscientist | October 29, 2007tags: Irene Pepperberg, Alex, African grey parrot, streaming video
Alex was a famous African grey parrot who could count to six, identify colors and even express frustration with repetitive scientific trials. He died about five weeks ago, after 30 years of helping researchers better understand the avian brain. This streaming video below the fold has a wonderful tribute to Alex and his many talents. [2:39]
grrlscientist | September 13, 2007tags: Alex, African grey parrot, Psittacus erithacus, cognition, learning, speech disabilities, Irene Pepperberg
Alex, the African grey parrot, Psittacus erithacus,
who worked with Irene Pepperberg for more than 30 years.
Image: Illustration by Andrew Kuo, Photograph by John Woo.
An article about Alex, the African grey parrot who worked with Irene Pepperberg, has been reprinted on the Seed magazine site. This piece was originally published in 2004 and reappears now as a memorial to Alex. It includes lovely images, such as the one above.
Alex is an African Grey parrot, but in all…
grrlscientist | September 12, 2007tags: Alex, African grey parrot, Psittacus erithacus, cognition, learning, speech disabilities, Irene Pepperberg
Alex, the African grey parrot, Psittacus erithacus,
who worked with Irene Pepperberg for more than 30 years.
Image: Brandeis University.
Alex, the African grey parrot who worked with Irene Pepperberg, has managed something that most of us never will: his obituary is in today's LATimes (even more remarkable, it was in yesterday's NYTimes);
Some scientists have questioned whether Alex was as smart as he seemed. African grey parrots are very social birds, and some scientists…
grrlscientist | September 11, 2007I promised that I would post the link to the interview with Irene Pepperberg by All Things Considered, so here it is. It also includes a streaming version [3:53]