A conversation this morning:
Dr. Free-Ride: Hey, do you have any pictures you’d like me to scan in for today’s sprog blog?
Younger offspring: No.
Dr. Free-Ride: You mean to tell me you haven’t made any drawings at all this week?
Younger offspring: I’ve made drawings, but I don’t want to scan any of them for your blog.
Dr. Free-Ride: You’re not in negotiations with another blogger, are you?
Younger offspring: Not yet.
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Author Archives: admin
Helping you plan your January 2007.
If you’re ready to admit that we’re almost done with 2006 and that it might be OK to start making plans for 2007, check your calendar and think about coming to the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, a “free, open and public event for scientists, educators, students, journalists, bloggers and anyone interested in discussing science communication, education and literacy on the Web.”
(more after the break)
Delta Airlines and another dangerous liquid.
The liquid in question, of course, is breastmilk.
As reported by the Burlington Free Press:
Murtha, ethics, and “real issues”.
Apparently John Murtha lost his bid to be the new Majority Leader in the House of Representatives to Rep. Steny Hoyer. In the run up to this decision, Murtha was reported as saying the House ethics reforms being proposed by Nancy Pelosi were “total crap”.
As you can imagine, that got my attention.
Below the fold, a bit of the transcript of Murtha’s interview with Chris Matthews where Murtha tries to put his comment in context.
A finding in need of an explanation
On the way home, I heard a story on NPR about a study done at UC Berkeley about the “performance gap” between black kids and white kids in the public schools. I can’t say much about the details of the report — it comes out tomorrow — but one of the people interviewed for the story, Ross Wiener of The Education Trust, noted a finding in this general area of research that screams out for an explanation.
The finding: while white students tend to lose ground during summer vacation (at least with respect to the sorts of performance easily measured with standardized tests and similar assessment methods, one assumes), black kids actually gain ground over the summer. (The text in the webpage for the NPR story says “minority kids lose less ground when they are away from school”, but listen to the sound file linked at the top of that page — Wiener really does say they gain ground.)
So, what could explain this unequal benefit from summer vacation? (For bonus points, how would you test the potential explanations?) And, is this a finding that will play any role at all in the decisions of districts considering eliminating summer vacation in favor of year-round instruction?
Making repairs, staying afloat.
Like sailors we are, who must rebuild their ship upon the open sea, never able to dismantle it in dry dock or to reconstruct it there from the best materials.
Otto Neurath, “Protocol Sentences”
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The Neurath quotation above was offered to explain something about scientific theories and scientific knowledge, but today it puts me in mind of scientific communities instead. For surely, if we could bring the ship of science to dry-dock, there are lots of rotten planks that we might replace with strong new lumber, but that’s not an option. We have to fix the old tub while it’s still at sea, and there are some bits in need of repair that might put the person making the repair in shark-infested waters.
I’ve been thinking about this because of a couple of blog posts that got stuck in my head.
Obligatory stadium relocation rant.
I don’t usually blog about baseball, but today I’m riled. I’m not a hard core baseball fan, but I’m not an enemy of the game either. Beside watching my brothers play little league (and even acting as scorekeeper for their games on multiple occasions), I quite enjoyed the handful of Major League baseball games I’ve attended over the years — even the Red Sox game I went to with my Organometallic Chemistry seminar my junior year, where the skies opened up and soaked us at the top of the seventh inning.
Assuredly, I have mostly paid attention to MLB in order to track the fortunes of the Cubs (since I know that should they win the World Series, it’s time to drop everything so I can go home and face the apocalypse with my family). But I have begrudged no one his or her opportunity to enjoy the game.
But peaceful coexistence is off the table when they decide to move a major league stadium to my town.
Monday grab bag (with important question to readers)
Yeah, I’m grading. (Maybe you would be too if you weren’t reading the blogs, hmm?) But I wanted to check in.
- I pulled my back loading the car for the last soccer game of the season. What’s the proper inference to draw from that (besides the obvious: that I’m getting old and all this grading is doing nothing for my muscle tone)?
- How is it that if I make assignments at school they often are left undone, whereas if I make assignments on my blog, people do the work and turn it in? (Are we now awarding ScienceBlogs course credit?)
- As much as I hate feeding capitalism (seriously, ask these guys) and consumerism, I do like nurturing the interests of the young in positive directions. So, to balance the bad stuff out there on the market, I’m putting together a round up of brain-friendly gift ideas for the youngsters. My question to you: What games, toys, or other giftables would you recommend for a kid who may or may not have an interest in math and science? Tell me by email (and expound on why your suggestion rocks), and I’ll compile a list of the favorites to go up in the neighborhood of Buy Nothing Day. (You can research on Buy Nothing Day, I think).
More when I emerge, victorious, from the stack of papers.
Friday Sprog Blogging: the power of words and the psychology of groups.
This is not a “cute” story. It’s an infuriating story about a school climate gone mad. And, although I suspect an organizational psychologist could give a nuanced analysis of the situation, that’s not my area of expertise, so I’m just going to tell the story.
Elder offspring was sent to the Vice Principal’s office yesterday. When the office called Dr. Free-Ride’s better half about the incident, the crime they reported was “saying the B-word”.
I should say right now, if you’re in earshot of an elementary or secondary school as you’re reading this post, please don’t read it out loud! I would hate to be responsible for your incarceration in the Vice Principal’s office.
So, Dr. Free-Ride’s better half actually had to go to the Vice Principal’s office yesterday, largely because elder offspring was hysterical and unable to put together a coherent sentence to convey the kid’s-eye account of the incident. Needless to say, the Vice Principal interpreted this as elder offspring “knowing that was a very bad thing to say”. The Principal, thankfully, was much less willing to convict on such flimsy evidence. Dr. Free-Ride’s better half was able to calm elder offspring sufficiently to return to class. After school, a more composed elder offspring was able to communicate these details:
Pop quiz on the epistemology of Donald Rumsfeld.
Pencil ready? To mark the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, here’s a brief quiz (essay format, of course) on the epistemology lesson embedded in his comments from a February 12, 2002 Department of Defense news briefing. The comments, poetically transcibed by Slate, are as follows: