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01-15-2015, 09:44 AM   #31
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I was an educator at a small-moderate sized 4-year college, teaching various sciences with 85% of students I dealt with being non-science majors, a significant number being from the school of business ("Why do we have to take a science course when science majors don't have to take a business course?"). I could not count how many students told me that: 'I'm just not good in science;" or "I just don't understand science." I eventually came to believe there was truth in such statements, although much of the science I taught was a matter of learning basic facts and vocabulary (here is a term: what does it mean? here is an idea: what term is used for it?*). However, I used to describe teaching science to the non-science majors this way: It's like standing in a thick fog bank and attempting to clear an opening to let the sun shine through by pushing back with your hands.

*Faculty from other disciplines, as well as deans, used to deride learning vocabulary as "just memorizing" rather than "teaching concepts." I eventually told them to consider this: You are the first person to go among the isolated XXX people deep in the Amazon and you're charged with teaching them baseball. They have no vocabulary for it, no word for: ball, bat, throw, catch, out, base, diamond, strike, fielder, grounder, fly ball, hit, single, home run, slide, bunt, foul ball, etc. etc. Furthermore, they have no concept of a "game," or organizing into "teams," or having two groups or people do something where there's competition that isn't warfare. Teach them baseball WITHOUT asking them to learn any vocabulary - no new words/terms/descriptions. Then four months later, give them a WRITTEN TEST to see if they have learned and now do understand the game. How would you write a question? What could you expect as an answer? Enormous amounts of basic science is locked up in language. If you know the word, you know the idea. Words are the hooks on which we hang enormous amounts of knowledge. For a biologist the word "cell" opens libraries full of information in their head, just as for a baseball fan there are strategies, complexities, personalities, controversies, and a vast amount of history attached to the word "pitch."

---------- Post added 01-15-15 at 11:48 AM ----------

QuoteOriginally posted by sherrvonne Quote
This is what I do with the photos I take. I was partially finished with this pastel when I took that photo. However much I like pastel, I am even more obsessed with cameras, that is Pentax cameras.
That's really quite pretty. My artistic efforts, without a camera, would more resemble what you must clean from your fingers.


Last edited by WPRESTO; 01-15-2015 at 10:51 AM.
01-15-2015, 10:13 AM   #32
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QuoteOriginally posted by monochrome Quote
At my university the art school and the business school were at opposing ends of the campus.

By design.
I should get back to work (big business presentation on Monday), but you make a great point that I never thought of before. As my alma mater expanded after WWII, Social Sciences got space to the north-east of the original core, English, Foreign Languages, Classics, Library Science moved east, Fine Arts moved even further east, and Law was so far east some students thought they were off campus. Math, Chemistry and Physics, moved due north, Biological Sciences were mostly NW, Administration and Student Services moved a bit to the west, Computer Science and Agriculture/Forestry further west and Health Sciences and Education moved south. For Commerce and Engineering; starting in the fifties some old service buildings were torn down, and some green space was appropriated to put up CAB (Central Academic Building) and Engineering. Even though I was much lighter and fleeter of foot, it was impossible to make it from the Computer Services building to the Law building in the allocated 10 minutes.
01-15-2015, 10:26 AM   #33
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QuoteOriginally posted by WPRESTO Quote
I was an educator at a small-moderate sized 4-year college, teaching various sciences with 85% of students I dealt with being non-science majors, a significant number being from the school of business ("Why do we have to take a science course when science majors don't have to take a business course?"). I could not count how many students told me that: 'I'm just not good in science;" or "I just don't understand science." I eventually came to believe there was truth in such statements, although much of the science I taught was a matter of learning basic facts and vocabulary (here is a term: what does it mean? here is an idea: what term is used for it?*). However, I used to describe teaching science to the non-science majors this way: It's like standing in a thick fog bank and attempting to clear an opening to let the sun shine through by pushing back with your hands.

*Faculty from other disciplines, as well as deans, used to deride learning vocabulary as "just memorizing" rather than "teaching concepts." I eventually told them to consider this: You are the first person to go among the isolated XXX people deep in the Amazon and you're charged with teaching them baseball. They have no vocabulary for it, no word for: ball, bat, throw, catch, out, base, diamond, strike, fielder, grounder, fly ball, hit, single, home run, slide, bunt, foul ball, etc. etc. Furthermore, they have no concept of a "game," or organizing into "teams," or having two groups or people do something where there's competition that isn't warfare. Teach them baseball WITHOUT asking them to learn any vocabulary - no new words/terms/descriptions. Then four months later, give them a WRITTEN TEST to see if they have learned and now do understand the game. How would you write a question? What could you expect as an answer? Enormous amounts of basic science is locked up in language. If you know the word, you know the idea. Words are the hooks on which we hang enormous amounts of knowledge. For a biologist the word "cell" opens libraries full of information in their head, just as for a baseball fan there are strategies, complexities, personalities, controversies, and a vast amount of history attached to the word "pitch."

---------- Post added 01-15-15 at 11:48 AM ----------



That's really quite pretty. My artistic efforts, without a camera, would more resemble what you must clean from your finders.
exactly why I use a camera to record anything for art, just like numbers, I can't remember the small details in my head. I do however know the contents of 4 different household refrigerators and pantries, Their closets, and what their pets eat.
01-15-2015, 10:28 AM   #34
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QuoteOriginally posted by sherrvonne Quote
exactly why I use a camera to record anything for art, just like numbers, I can't remember the small details in my head. I do however know the contents of 4 different household refrigerators and pantries, Their closets, and what their pets eat.
Everyone has their unique skill set...

01-28-2015, 07:42 AM   #35
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01-28-2015, 11:36 AM   #36
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QuoteOriginally posted by sherrvonne Quote
exactly why I use a camera to record anything for art, just like numbers, I can't remember the small details in my head. I do however know the contents of 4 different household refrigerators and pantries, Their closets, and what their pets eat.
I can remember most of 'fridge contents, because I do most of the cooking, but every now and then I find something unremembered in the back that has become fuzzy.
01-28-2015, 12:09 PM   #37
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QuoteOriginally posted by WPRESTO Quote
I can remember most of 'fridge contents, because I do most of the cooking, but every now and then I find something unremembered in the back that has become fuzzy.
We should start a thread, 'Photograph the most disgusting thing in your fridge at this moment."

01-28-2015, 12:27 PM   #38
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QuoteOriginally posted by normhead Quote
We should start a thread, 'Photograph the most disgusting thing in your fridge at this moment."
Only if it's mandatory to include a recipe.
01-28-2015, 03:18 PM   #39
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Since this seems to partially be a discussion about studying maths, I'd just like to mention the fact that math students in general are terrible at arithmetic. Real numbers are below us. We prefer greek letters, usually the kind that look like you had a stroke when you drew them. Actual numerical answers to exam questions are a rare occurrence, and they tend to be messy and a little scary.

Also. If there's a most disgusting thing in your fridge thread, I might have to have a post limit per week. Some of the people I share a fridge with don't quite seem to understand the concept of food going bad.
01-28-2015, 03:27 PM   #40
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QuoteOriginally posted by ZoeB Quote
Since this seems to partially be a discussion about studying maths, I'd just like to mention the fact that math students in general are terrible at arithmetic. Real numbers are below us. We prefer greek letters, usually the kind that look like you had a stroke when you drew them. Actual numerical answers to exam questions are a rare occurrence, and they tend to be messy and a little scary.

Also. If there's a most disgusting thing in your fridge thread, I might have to have a post limit per week. Some of the people I share a fridge with don't quite seem to understand the concept of food going bad.
You always have the most interesting take on things.....
01-28-2015, 03:49 PM   #41
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Thanks for the chuckle. Terrific post.
01-28-2015, 05:19 PM   #42
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QuoteOriginally posted by ZoeB Quote
Since this seems to partially be a discussion about studying maths, I'd just like to mention the fact that math students in general are terrible at arithmetic. Real numbers are below us. We prefer greek letters, usually the kind that look like you had a stroke when you drew them. Actual numerical answers to exam questions are a rare occurrence, and they tend to be messy and a little scary.

Also. If there's a most disgusting thing in your fridge thread, I might have to have a post limit per week. Some of the people I share a fridge with don't quite seem to understand the concept of food going bad.
Understandable. A finite quantity of Greek letters, and infinity of numbers. As i said to Pi, "Be rational." As Pi replied to i: "Get real." Sigma summed it up, but e got to the base of it all. And adding logs is really powerful, although occasionally square; subtracting them is rooting for trouble. Alpha started it all, but omega will end it. Psi!
01-28-2015, 05:52 PM   #43
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QuoteOriginally posted by normhead Quote
most disgusting thing in your fridge at this moment."
The most disgusting thing about my fridge at the moment is that She Who Must Be Obeyed would not allow me to buy a 6 pack of Guiness Blonde American Lager to put in it.
01-29-2015, 12:12 AM   #44
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QuoteOriginally posted by normhead Quote
You always have the most interesting take on things.....
Maybe it's just all the math in my head. Makes me kinda loopy.
01-29-2015, 09:50 AM   #45
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QuoteOriginally posted by wombat2go Quote
She Who Must Be Obeyed would not allow me to buy a 6 pack of Guiness Blonde American Lager to put in it.
The fact that she won't even allow American lager in the refrigerator suggests that she may have pretty good sense when it comes to beer.
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