Helpful Hint

Do not attempt to make pancakes in the shape of an animal you have never successfully drawn by hand.

Today I Love Teaching

Astrodyke linked to a great article about the total lunar eclipse. Among other things, it explains why the moon looks red during the eclipse.

I could not help myself, so I sent an e-mail to students in my last semester's general education science course. In this class we talked about many many different things - but one of them was sky color during sunsets.

Hi former [cool physchembio gened] students!

This article explains why the moon looks red in a total lunar eclipse (See the section "Red Light in the Dark"):

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/home/15357796.html

(And, if you are getting this note in real time - the eclipse looks pretty cool right now!)

- Prof. Twice

And I received back:

I was talking to [another student] earlier and said "why the heck is it red if the Earth is between the moon and the sun blocking the light?" Lol, now I know the answer. Thank you!

Hope the semester is going well,

-A. Student

In another nice episode of perfect timing in teaching, our seminar speaker (a guest I invited, but from a totally different sub-field) spoke about a phenomenon I covered only 6 hours earlier in class. Gotta love it when that happens.

On the not-so-great side, due to the total eclipse of the moon and coming of age in the eighties, I now have the song Total Eclipse of the Heart stuck in my head. And now perhaps you do too. Sorry.

Yesterday

I'm in a meeting with a campus visitor. My cell phone goes off.

Normally, no one calls me on my cell except Dr. H., and I had just spoken with him on my office phone. Normally, I would not answer. Today, however, I'm answering my phone.

My father-in-law's name flashes across the screen, but I just miss the call.

I turn to my visitors, "It's my father-in-law. I have to call him back."

A moment later my father-in-law answers the phone, "Hello?"

"It's Twice. Everyone is okay."

"Are you..."

"Yes, I'm sure. I just spoke with H. He is okay, the kids are okay. The campus is locked down."

"I just heard, I was so worried."

"I know."

"I couldn't get through."

"I know."

"Is the danger over?"

"They don't know yet. But everyone is following emergency procedures, entrances to buildings are secure. It happened in another building, not near H's, not near the kids' daycare. I don't know any more. Can you let everyone know they are okay?"

"Yes, will you...."

"Yes, I will have him call you as soon as he can."


Peace everyone.

Conflicting Signals

In the Hallway

An accident waiting to happen:

Still lovin' the honors class

Friday:

I had a number of basic phys/chem/bio topics I wanted to review in the honors class. One was scientific notation. I did not do an assessment on this, so I just asked "Do you remember how to use scientific notation for large and small numbers?" The entire class (of 8) nodded. "Okay, should we review a few just for good measure?" They shrugged in a way that said to me "sure, knock yourself out" but admitted it wouldn't hurt. So I put up one "large" and one "small" number, reminded them to use the correct button on the calculator (not the 10^x button). Everyone seemed satisfied and agreed we could go on. Total time spent: 2.5 minutes.

Another Change of Plans

After sitting at the airport for a few hours yesterday, Dr. H. came home and canceled his trip. No, his flight was not canceled, he just felt too sick to go. He hobbled in the door, looking like he was about to pass out any minute. He was alternating feeling feverish with chills. That's how I felt last weekend, when I was supposed to be finishing getting my classes ready after all this. My first day of classes went fine, albeit in a feverish haze. Dr. H, however, seems to be getting hit worse.

A few hours after he arrived home, I used my mom-thermometer (aka hand). The calibration chart I almost never actually use because I like the more objective instrumental readings looks something like this:

Hand: Maybe feverish - maybe not	Thermometer: not
Hand: Probably feverish	Thermometer: 99-100 F
Hand: Definitely feverish	Thermometer: 100-101 F
Hand: Wow, really feverish	Thermometer: 101-102 F
Hand: OMG!	Thermometer: > 102 F

A quick touch (I could hardly touch him, he was so hot) and we were clearly in the OMG range. Thermometer says: 103.7 F. Many discussions of the emergency room ensued (because of some accompanying symptoms as well). Eventually we settled on acetaminophen + urgent care the next day.

The PA was stunned he did not have pneumonia. But you know, it could always be on its way.

Ambiguity

Slush
Unpredictable, wet
Preschool is closed
Campus open, classes on
Imminent

Snow
Wet, slippery
Going home slowly
Classes met, others canceled
Intensifying

Storm
White, heavy
Spouse to conference
Flight still on time
Weird

Good Problems

My honors class (non-science majors) is up to eight students. Last week, it had seven and the Honors Program secretary called me and offered to cancel it if I didn't want to teach a class that small. If I didn't mind, she said the director wanted to let it run. So do I mind? Uh...No-o.

The first day, I tried to find out a little about what the students already know about physchembio. Good thing too - several had taken an AP class in high school. A few more had an honors class in high school. One had taken a semester of college physchembio. And highest math level? Two with trig, a bunch with pre-calc, and one with calculus. Nice.

To find out how much they remembered, I gave a quick assessment: "Define/describe these five basic terms/concepts from physchembio." They worked individually for awhile, then I broke the class into two groups and had each group repeat the assessment on a new form. It works well - they talked about science and reviewed what they already know - I find out what that is.

And what do they want to learn about? Here is a sampling: Is ethanol going to save the world? Will a killer asteroid hit the earth? Stay tuned.

A new challenge in storytelling

I'm about to begin my spring term of teaching, and I find myself wondering:

Which stories do I tell?

How should I tell them?

My science class for non-majors is an "issues" course. That is, we look at current issues in science of interest to the general community. Energy, climate change, that sort of thing. Back in the day, I used to present both sides of the global warming debate. I thought I had to, you know, to be fair. I don't know why - maybe to overcompensate for my liberal nature. As I became increasingly uncomfortable with this, I began to minimize the debate itself, and just present mechanism, facts and numbers. I addressed the debate, but only briefly.

In 2005, after a break of a few years, I taught the course again. Just beforehand, I went to a seminar where I had the opportunity to discuss the issue of what to present in class with real climate scientists. The other instructors (non-climate scientists like me) and I wanted to know what to do about the other side of the debate. We all felt some discomfort not presenting both sides. The climate scientists felt no such discomfort. "Present IPCC," they said, "this is the consensus of the scientific community." A fine point, I thought.

I presented the IPCC conclusions. I talked about how climate modeling was done. I showed Hanson's famous graph and explained how it was routinely misrepresented. This all went well. Half way though the term (and after the climate change section), the students in my class asked where I fell politically. I told them I try not to discuss my own politics. They said, "But we want to know!"

There are two schools of thought on this question: full disclosure and don't ask, don't tell. Having opted for the second, I now found myself facing a room full of students asking for full disclosure instead. Astonishingly, to me at least, they went on to say, "We really don't know!" How could they not know? Anyway, there was really no conflict here. The students asked me a fair question. They knew me well enough to believe me when I said the following: "Me? OK. I'm a raving liberal. Does that mean you have to agree with me? No. Does that mean your grade on issues papers depends on agreeing with me? No. I care that it is well written. I care that you have reasons for your opinions and that you can articulate them."

So, what have I learned? A reasoned approach to the evidence does not necessarily get you branded as a raving liberal.

I'm teaching this class again this term. I was planning on taking the same approach. This is all well and good. However, I find myself wondering if my story needs to change. Why? Well, there is a faculty member on my campus who is a global warming skeptic. He teaches this topic. A lot. His contention that climate change is not caused by humans is appealing to the students. And why wouldn't it be? It means they don't need to think about changing their lifestyles. It is hard to counter this.

I'm hoping the way I tell the story of climate change is up to the challenge.

scientiae-carnival

My opinions of Matt Damon and Jerry O'Connell have gone way up this week

First up, Jerry O'Connell makes a hilarious parody of the Tom Cruise video. If you haven't seen the original, it is still available here.



And, if you want more commentary on the crazy man, check this out (via Wil Wheaton's Blog).

And this Sarah Silverman video (via Skepchick) made my day (not safe for work):