Science Education & Policy

I have received this request from a friend roughly 5,000 miles away: My maternal cousin has to prepare a write up for her school.  She needs to write something on 'fun physics'. Alas, I am stumped.  I could write something on "fun chemistry", perhaps, but I would be better placed to write an article on non-fun physics.  This may seem bizarre, since I work in a physics department, but like an immigrant who finds it hard to learn the language, I'm still basically a chemist with an interest in mathematics.  My own experience (from schooldays) and that of my son (who did…

Continuing today's theme of science and the Obama administration... Physicist John Holdren will be Obama's science advisor. I was hoping we'd finally get a biologist in that position, but his expertise on energy and climate issues will be timely. A marine biologist at Oregon State University, Jane Lubchenco has been tapped to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Both of these people are past AAAS presidents.

Larry Summers says that R&D spending should not be part of an economic stimulus package, contrary to what many scientists were probably hoping for. Summers actually has a good point. The rationale for current ideas about a fiscal stimulus package is that government deficit spending is helpful during times when monetary policy isn't getting traction, but such spending has to be followed by a commitment to deficit reduction during better times. So now we spend like it's 1943, but when things pick up we need to cut back. As Summers points out, that's not really a good thing for research…

A greater commitment by science faculty to focus on science education could drive education reform at universities and K-12 schools, according to a new report by a team of five researchers from the California State University (CSU) system and one from Purdue University. Appearing in today's issue of the journal Science, the report evaluates the role that science professors who specialize in science education play in improving how the sciences are taught. To illustrate the pressure universities are under to cultivate an effective learning environment, the report cites an earlier study…

Ivory towers are replacing smoke stacks in Alabama and all over the US. This can be a good thing, but there is a core problem: Until relatively recently, most universities and the cities surrounding them went about their business without taking full stock of what each meant to the other. Many local and state government leaders, notes Temple University political scientist Carolyn Adams, "don't see these institutions as having an economic development function much beyond employment and land development." For their part, hospitals and academic institutions aren't accustomed to thinking of…

Parents of children with intellectual disabilities have long been frustrated by intelligence quotient (IQ) testing that tells them little to nothing about the long-term learning potential of their children. That's because these tests are scored according to the mean performance of children without disabilities. The result is that the raw scores of many children with intellectual disabilities are converted into the lowest normalized score, typically a zero. "We send back these reports that don't tell parents anything about their child," explained David Hessl, an associate professor of clinical…

Obama is going to appoint a Nobel-prize winning physicist to be his Energy Secretary. I don't know anything about the physicist, Steven Chu (except that he's director of the Lawrence Berkely National Lab), but I can't complain anymore that scientists never make it into influential positions in the Executive Branch. Like I said, I don't know anything about Chu, but with his technical background, he ought to be comfortable dealing with issues the Energy Secretary must face, from climate change to biofuels to nuclear power and weapons. I'm not trying to suggest by any means that every position…

College tuition has increased 439% since 1984, and the net yearly cost of college at a 4-year public university is 76% of the median family income, according to a story in today's NY Times. Even community colleges don't end up being a much better deal. It's a scandal. We're pricing most people out of college at a time when middle-class income is stagnating and education is more critical than ever for career success. What is responsible for the soaring costs? These reports never seem to put their finger on the problem - the NY Times story suggests that, at public schools, the increases are due…

Official professional standards in both Scotland and England which aim to nurture the development of new teachers pay too little attention to what 'becoming' a teacher is really like, according to new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) which finds that existing standards ignore the emotional, relationship and personal issues which are the real challenge for teachers starting out in their careers, focussing instead on the acquisition of skills and knowledge. Resulting from the study, researchers propose a new model which aims to improve existing standards by…

There is an interesting story in New Scientist about The Science&Entertainment Exchange, a program initiated by the National Academy of Sciences to improve the science in movies and TV [New project aims to unite science and Hollywood]. It would be hard to make it worse, so this strikes me as a very positive development! The project is described thus: The Science & Entertainment Exchange is a program of the National Academy of Sciences that provides entertainment industry professionals with access to top scientists and engineers to help bring the reality of cutting-edge science to…