Today was the first day of Physics Class. Another eager group of freshmen. We shall see how they meet up compared to the class of 2016. Alas, there is no Gryffindor this year.
In the news today: Frederick Pohl Died. My favorite book by him is Gateway a great space exploration story.
When I went to look at Pohl on Amazon, I received an add for the new Kindle PaperWhite. It returns me to a discussion I had with some of my fellow Faculty today about paper vs e-books. Maybe I will get a PaperWhite.
Also in the NY Times today, a discussion of how the Chinese are worried that their obsession with test scores and a lack of hand-on science is stifling critical thinking. The take away, hands-on exploration is needed, or they will never produce those Nobel Prize winning scientists. We’re doing the opposite here at BUA with an emphasis on the hands-on inquiry based science.
Last cool NY Times article is that Sesame Street is explanding beyond teaching the alphabet to teach engineering skills!
“In the last four years, “Sesame Street” has set itself a much larger goal: teaching nature, math, science and engineering concepts and problem-solving to a preschool audience — with topics like how a pulley works or how to go about investigating what’s making Mr. Snuffleupagus sneeze.”
