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The Learning Paradox
The more you struggle to master new information, the better you’ll understand and apply it later. The learning paradox is at the heart of “productive failure,” a phenomenon identified by Manu Kapur, a researcher at the Learning Sciences Lab at the National Institute of Education of Singapore. Kapur points out that while the model adopted by many teachers and employers when introducing others to new knowledge — providing lots of structure and guidance early on, until the students or workers show that they can do it on their own — makes intuitive sense, it may not be the best way to promote learning.
The Prozac Yogurt Effect: How Hype Can Affect the Future of Science | The Crux
The phylogeny of Prozac yogurt.
Download the Universe Right Here: A New Site for Science E-Book Reviews | Wired Science
<img class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a0162fff12125970d0163004cf841970d image-full" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px;" title="Shelf crop 4" src="http://downloadtheuniverse.com/.a/6a0162fff12125970d0163004cf841970d-800wi" alt="Shelf crop 4" width="640" height="248" border="0" /> I’m pleased to announce a new site I’m part of. I’m one of an otherwise distinguished handful of reviewer-editors for Download the Universe , a site conceived by Carl Zimmer in an off-hand remark last month during a ScienceOnline session on e-books. We aim to meet a simple but stark and urgent need: While lots of new science books are coming out in e-book-only form, it’s hard to find reviews of those books or a single site or publication where such books are noted.
The Science Journalist Online: Shifting Roles and Emerging Practices | Climate Shift
Science journalists in the US and UK face unique pressures adapting to the social and participatory nature of online news, to economic conditions that force them to fill a diversity of roles in the newsroom, and to the many hats they must wear if they are to survive as freelancers. As a consequence, science journalists in writing for online media have shifted away from their traditional role as privileged conveyors of scientific findings to a diversity of roles as curators, conveners, public intellectuals and civic educators, roles that are underwritten by the essential skills of criticism, synthesis and analysis. These online science journalists have a more collaborative relationship with their audiences and sources and are generally adopting a more critical and interpretative stance towards the scientific community, industry, and policy-oriented organizations.
This semester, students from a diversity of majors at American University are participating in an advanced seminar I am teaching on science and environmental communication. For the first part of the semester, we are covering core issues and themes. In the process, students will be blogging on related selected topics while finalizing their research paper topic.
Reading List for Course on Science and Environmental Communication | Climate Shift
Any teacher who has assigned group projects to students has at some point had to help those students organize and equitably distribute work. (Or has had to listen to students complaints about other group members not pulling their weight). Here are some tools that you can have students use to manage their responsibilities when working on group projects.
7 Tools Students Can Use to Manage Group Projects
Blogging in the undergraduate science classroom | Center for Instructional Technology
At ScienceOnline2012 , Jason Goldman and John Hawks organized a roundtable discussion of “best practices” for incorporating blogs into undergraduate courses. Participants discussed their experiences and gathered suggestions from each other; the benefits of blogging were briefly discussed, but seemed frankly evident to the attendees. For example, if you assign students to write publicly, their parents can read what they’ve written, which is an incentive for quality work. This discussion traded ideas to facilitate student blogging. Here are some of my notes. For some students, blogging is completely foreign – they don’t read blogs or are intimidated and don’t want to speak out.Safe cycling on Singapore’s roads | Love cycling in Singapore
Key concept for safer cycling in Singapore: Remember you are invisible to cars.
Mind & Brain :: Mind Matters :: January 24, 2012 :: :: Email :: Print Author Susan Cain explains the fallacy of "groupwork," and points to research showing that it can reduce creativity and productivity By Gareth Cook Image: Do you enjoy having time to yourself, but always feel a little guilty about it? Then Susan Cain’s “ Quiet : The Power of Introverts ” is for you.
The Power of Introverts: A Manifesto for Quiet Brilliance
Literature Reviews - Summarising
Summarising your research Research and literature review can throw up a wealth of information and references from which one could fill a whole essay with quote after quote. It is notoriously difficult, having gathered the best of this wealth of information to filter it in order of what is essential information, what is peripheral and what is largely irrelevant (Fink, 2005). The secret to successful research and review is hitting upon the salient points, the points that were the foundations or will represent the way forward in your area of study, that are going to become the bench marks of the future. You have already chosen the reference points that will form the basis of your essay and have written your piece. But with so many points and so much material how do you summarise your essay without writing it all over again?Grooveshark needs no recommendation.