science education

Contextual Bias David Nguyen is with Think Tank Learning. See also: Asking, what is more prone to error: Science or scientists?

From Yale president Peter Salovey at Scientific American: We Should Teach All Students, in Every Discipline, to Think Like Scientists For many, knowledge about the natural world is superseded by personal beliefs. Wisdom across disciplinary and political divides is needed to help bridge this gap. This is where institutions of higher education can provide vital support. Educating global citizens is one of the most important charges to universities, and the best way we can transcend ideology is to teach our students, regardless of their majors, to think like scientists. From American history to urban studies, we have an obligation to challenge them to be inquisitive about the world, to weigh the quality and objectivity of data presented to them, and Read More ›

From David Nguyen at Think Tank Learning learning:] See also: Science vs Scientists, with David Nguyen

Coming soon to tax-funded schools near you: 😉 A well meaning math teacher finds herself trumped by a post-fact America. Brought to us by the folk behind Algebra Is Racist and Objectivity is Sexist. A gift to incompetent teachers, timeserving bureaucrats, and sleazy politicians everywhere. See also: Algebra is racist. Objectivity is sexist. and The war on freedom is rotting our intellectual life: Intersectionality

From Catherine Offord at The Scientist: Arizona’s Department of Education is considering new school science standards that would replace or alter references to evolution. School officials behind the change have argued that the wording of the standards, which are available in draft form for public comment until May 28, should be adjusted to reflect uncertainty in the theory. … Although [state superintendent of Education Diane] Douglas has publicly expressed her support for creationism and intelligent design in the past, she emphasizes that there are no moves to include any reference to them in the new standards. “My personal belief and my professional opinion are two very different things,” she tells 3TV/CBS 5. The draft standards have not been well received Read More ›

The other day, I ran across the Wiki article on Laws of Science. While there is much good there, such as: The laws of science, scientific laws, or scientific principles are statements that describe or predict a range of phenomena as they appear in nature.[1] The term “law” has diverse usage in many cases: approximate, accurate, broad or narrow theories, in all natural scientific disciplines (physics, chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy etc.). Scientific laws summarize and explain a large collection of facts determined by experiment, and are tested based on their ability to predict the results of future experiments. They are developed either from facts or through mathematics, and are strongly supported by empirical evidence. It is generally understood that they Read More ›

David Nguyen outlines the history of the Warburg effect at Think Tank Learning: See also: Science News Fact Check: Did Craig Venter create life? With David Nguyen

As claimed in pop science media. David Nguyen asks, at Think Tank Learning: Worth noting, from Elie Dolgin at Nature: Scientists downsize bold plan to make human genome from scratch: With funding still scarce, GP-write project shifts focus to making virus-resistant human cells. “Church’s team used synthesis in follow-up work to recode seven codons in the E. coli genome. That effort needed close to 150,000 genetic changes, and it revealed unexpected design constraints and difficulties in stitching together DNA fragments. These have stymied efforts to make the reconstructed bacterium viable.” “That should be a sobering reminder as the ultra-safe human-cell-line project gets off the ground, says Nili Ostrov, a postdoc in Church’s lab who is leading the research. “In humans,” Read More ›

From David Nguyen at Think Tank Learning: See also: Did you know?: Don’t Let Stereotypes Block Your Smarts With David Nguyen.

From David Nguyen at Think Tank Learning: See also: Science news fact check: Was a new organ really discovered? and Science blunder: Hormone therapy and cancer

From David Nguyen at Think Tank Learning: From [] at : More. See also: Science news fact check: Was a new organ really discovered?

From David Nguyen at Think Tank Learning: See also: Why do science journalists promote “fake physics” to the public? and Distinguishing between causation and correlation: Microwaves and cancer edition, with David Nguyen.

From David Nguyen at Think Tank Learning: See also: Distinguishing between causation and correlation: Global warming edition

Off topic, that is, unless you are thinking of going into debt for someone’s education. From California educator Steven Ma at his blog: The SAT and ACT are important standardized tests in the college admissions process that is inundated with more applications than there is time to read. However, the article in the Wall Street Journal (March 8, 2018) by Nathan Kuncel and Paul Sackett (K&S) is exceptionally misleading regarding evidence that “research is clear: [the SAT/ACT] is an invaluable measure of how students are likely to perform in college and beyond.” The authors state six myths about “standardized tests,” though they primarily are discussing the SAT and ACT, but offer evidence that undermines their own claims as to why Read More ›

From David Nguyen at Think Tank, TTC Learning: Many other science-related claims made in popular media seem to confuse causation and correlation. Dr. Nguyen’s vids are a clear, simple resource for students and interested adults who appreciate tips on sorting the claims out: Cause or correlation? See also: Science vs Scientists, with David Nguyen. Asking, what is more prone to error: Science or scientists