Merry Christmas all

As the in-laws recede northward on I-95, I find myself starting to worry about next week. I still have until Tuesday before classes start again, but I can't help thinking about the fact that I haven't graded the tests I brought home, or figured out how to make the next two weeks of material exciting enough to whip the students out of their post-holiday, pre-midterm haze.

I am always looking for new ways to make the material more exciting for myself and my students. It is very demoralizing to come up with an idea to this end and find that it fails miserably. Among the multitude of gifts under the tree at the Wulf household this year was The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Kakalios has been trying to make physics more exciting for his students for a while now, and he thinks that comic book superheroes are a good way in. He notes in the introduction that such a fanciful example for the laws of physics is a great way to sidestep that horrible question, "When am I ever going to use this?" If this book is able to provide some ideas as I get deeper into it, I will recommend it to my fellow science educators. But even if it doesn't inspire me as an educator, I know I will recommend it for the fact that it is very funny and informative.

Okay, it's time to grade that AP test, I know. I will check back in with you all as soon as I can lower my stress levels enough to again feel like I am on vacation.

Hahahah, it's time to add in some photos that are needed for a game I play. Pay them no mind.

Astronomer's Delight

From SpaceWeather.com:

CHRISTMAS MORNING: "Mom, dad, wake up, it's Christmas!" If this happens to you at 5:30 a.m. on Dec. 25th, steal a glance out the window on your way to the tree. The crescent moon will be gliding by the bright star Spica--a pretty close encounter. In some places the moon will actually blot out the star. Check here for sky maps and more information.

Also,

if you get a telescope for Christmas, point it at Mars--fast! The red planet is receding from Earth at a speed of 30,000 mph and shrinking as it goes. Using an 8-inch telescope, Joel Warren of Amarillo, Texas, took these two pictures of Mars five weeks apart:

What a difference: By mid-January, Mars will be only half as bright as it is tonight, and its apparent diameter will have decreased from 13 to 9 arcseconds. So now is the time to observe Mars. Look for it straight overhead after sunset: sky map.

What was the top scientific breakthrough of 2005?

The journal Science has proclaimed evolution the breakthrough of 2005. (article here)

My first thought: Why is this still considered a breakthrough, 146 years after "The Origin of Species"? Wow.

Sabres Fall

My Buffalo Sabres fell tonight 4-1 to the Florida Panthers. Curses!

This ends a 13-game win-streak for goalie Martin Biron, and a 7-game win streak for the team. They are still in great shape overall, but what really burns me is this:

The Sabres, who were last beaten by San Jose 5-0 on Dec. 2, had also won nine consecutive road games, one short of the league record set by the Sabres in 1983-84 and matched by the St. Louis Blues in 2000 and the New Jersey Devils in 2001. Buffalo last lost on the road in Ottawa, 6-1, on Nov. 12. The loss to the Senators was Biron's last defeat.

Sigh. But that's okay - I love this sport, and I am just thrilled they are playing again, after last year's strike. And I love the Sabres, no matter how their season goes. To have them playing and doing this well is just icing on the big fat hockey cake.

Gifts from Former Students?

I have had a couple of years now of teaching high school students, and being on the receiving end of some wonderful (and completely unnecessary) gifts. In fact, as I type I am digging into some Hershey Kiss cookies (we call them Kiss Krinkles) that were dutifully delivered by a student who doesn't enjoy the class much but whose mom probably felt it was a good idea anyway. And I really appreciate every bite of them.

This year, I experienced something I had not heard about before: Gifts from former students. I cannot tell you how surprised I was by this - especially since these students are off at college, not just advanced to the next grade. How touching is that?

The first was yesterday, when I met up with three former students for brunch. They told me about college at rival schools, and gave me a beautiful and hillarious book they had written about what it means to be an AP student. I was swelling with pride as their book explained what nerds they have become in each of the subjects they took at the AP level - including my beloved physics, of course.

The second time was today, when a student who graduated two years ago called me and said he'd like directions to stop by my house. It was unexpected but not at all unwelcome - he goes to college in the area and I meet up with him about once a month. He stopped by today and handed me a very heavy gift. I opened it and was quite surprised to find he had given me a gorgeous book on astronomy and cosmology called "Universe".

I have been taken off guard and thoroughly humbled by these two gifts and the sentiments attached to them. I just had to share.

Stem Cell Research

New Jersey has become the first state to use public money to fund human stem cell research. The state announced $5 million in grants Friday to be split among 17 projects, the New York Times reported. Only three involve human embryonic stem cells, with others studying animals or using adult stem cells...
"The grants we have awarded today are based on science, not politics, and have been conceived by some of the brightest minds and best institutions in our state," acting Gov. Richard J. Codey said in a statement. "This funding will hopefully set the stage for a new era in medical treatments that will ease the suffering of millions and ultimately save lives."

(from physorg)

I hate New Jersey, but I love medical research. The libertarian part of me would rather not see this funded by the state, but the scientist in me is much more excited by the fact that the state is not trying to block stem cell research. In fact, my soon-to-be-ex-governor Mark Warner was complaining about Congress's anti-research stance just last week.

Congress, Warner said, has put too much emphasis on issues like the Terri Schiavo case, while blocking stem-cell research and ignoring the challenge of 45 million Americans living without health insurance.

Hey, I'm stuck with statists in the government. I at least want some statists who are interested in scientific research.

Intelligent Design Finally Ruled Unscientific by Courts

"Intelligent Design" is a pretty vague concept. Its proponents feel it is scientific, despite the fact that it makes no falsifiable predictions and is therefore clearly not a scientific theory. It would get tossed out of any 4th grade science fair. Now, this doesn't make it untrue - a lot of things that would get tossed out of any 4th grade science fair still have value. But the measure of truth regarding Intelligent Design cannot be determined by science - it must be determined by faith, which means it does not belong in the curriculum. Today, a federal judge finally spelled it out for the ID camp (who will now return to the drawing board instead of "getting it").

It is amazing to me that a court actually had to say this. Intelligent Design should never be taught in a science classroom as science, period. There is no reasonable way around this position. Having said that, I will still feel the need to bring it up in my science classroom again next year, as I have explained in the past at AtlasBlogged (Science is Not Afraid and ID in my Classroom?).

Some interesting reading on the subject can be found here (pro-ID) and here (against). Both articles appeared in the Philadephia Inquirer and act as a little bit of point/counter point.

Vacation

Well, I am about halfway through my first day of Christmas vacation (I don't count weekends), and I haven't really done anything. That's the point, isn't it? At least on the first day?

The kids are at daycare, the wife is at work, and I am sucking down Kenya AA and listening to Neil Young as I scroll through the blogs and enjoy reading news articles I had saved without reading through. I'm thinking about fixing the blogroll both here at and AtlasBlogged, but that seems a little like work and I am not sure I am up for it.

[glance at huge stack of school stuff]

I'm not sure when I will get to that stuff - grading, writing midterms, whatever. It'll come. Right now it's just time for coffee and Neil Young.

Nortel to Sponsor ''One Laptop per Child'' Initiative; Quanta to Build

Nortel announced today that it has become a corporate member of the "One Laptop per Child" initiative that was founded earlier this year by Nicholas Negroponte. It was announced on Wednesday that Quanta would build the machines.

This initiative (in case you haven't heard of it) was founded with the purpose of putting laptops with wireless connectivity into the hands of children in third world countries (and Massechussets) at a cost of less than $100.

The machines will run Linux and require little energy (turning a hand crank will be enough to power them). Connecting to the Internet will be possible through mesh networking. The first 5 million to 15 million units will get shipped to China, Brazil, India, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria and Thailand.

Will it be a big success? Or a flat failure? Somewhere in between, I'm guessing. I'll keep an eye on the project for my readers, if I have any.

Wulf The Hockey Fan

My students are well aware of the fact that I am a huge hockey fan. Hockey is
1) the world's most excellent sport, and
2) a great way to demonstrate the laws of physics.

Thus we talk about it as often as I can get away with. Virginia is a southerly state, and my students who are not actually from here are not generally from hockey country.

Oh, and the Sabres are off to their best start since winning 20 of their first 29 games in 1979-80. I love them, and they didn't lose me over the strike.

(By the way, in 1979-80, Don Edwards and Bob Sauve won the Vezina and the Sabres won the Prince of Wales trophy. They lost to the famous 1980s Islanders in the postseason. More importanly, they played damned good hockey.)

the 22 Greatest Scientific Breakthroughs of the 20th century

In his new book, "The Discoveries," novelist and physicist Alan Lightman offers his list of the 22 greatest scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century, devoting a chapter to each and reprinting the scientific papers in which they were presented. The list of 22 is provided here by the Boston Globe:

1. THE QUANTUM - Max Planck (1900)
2. HORMONES - William Bayliss and Ernest Starling (1902)
3. THE PARTICLE NATURE OF LIGHT - Albert Einstein (1905)
4. SPECIAL RELATIVITY - Albert Einstein (1905)
5. THE NUCLEUS OF THE ATOM - Ernest Rutherford (1911)
6. THE SIZE OF THE COSMOS - Henrietta Leavitt (1912)
7. THE ARRANGEMENT OF ATOMS IN SOLID MATTER - W. Friedrich, P. Knipping, and M. von Laue (1912)
8. THE QUANTUM ATOM - Niels Bohr (1913)
9. THE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN NERVES - Otto Loewi (1921)
10. THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE - Werner Heisenberg (1927)
11. THE CHEMICAL BOND - Linus Pauling (1928)
12. THE EXPANSION OF THE UNIVERSE - Edwin Hubble (1929)
13. ANTIBIOTICS - Alexander Fleming (1929)
14. THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION OF ENERGY IN LIVING ORGANISMS - Hans Krebs and W. A. Johnson (1937)
15. NUCLEAR FISSION - Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann (1939); and Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch (1939)
16. THE MOVABILITY OF GENES - Barbara McClintock (1948)
17. THE STRUCTURE OF DNA - James D. Watson and Francis H. C. Crick (1953); and Rosalind E. Franklin and R. G. Gosling (1953)
18. THE STRUCTURE OF PROTEINS - Max F. Perutz, M. G. Rossmann, Ann F. Cullis, Hilary Muirhead, Georg Will, and A. C. T. North (1960)
19. RADIO WAVES FROM THE BIG BANG - Arno A. Penzias and Robert W. Wilson (1965); and Robert H. Dicke, P. James E. Peebles, Peter G. Roll, and David T. Wilkinson (1965)
20. A UNIFIED THEORY OF FORCES - Steven Weinberg (1967)
21. QUARKS - M. Breidenbach, J. I. Friedman, H. W. Kendall, E. D. Bloom, D. H. Coward, H. DeStaebler, J. Drees, L. W. Mo, and R. E. Taylor (1969)
22. THE CREATION OF ALTERED FORMS OF LIFE - David A. Jackson, Robert H. Symons, and Paul Berg (1972)

So... what are the odds we manage to teach all of this stuff to our children before awarding them diplomas? I may have found a specific goal for this year's classes...

The Richmond City School Board's Johnson

News at Richmond.com:

Stephen B. Johnson resigned as Richmond School Board chairman Monday night after reports last week that his profile appeared on an explicit dating Web site.

(full story here)

Bare-chested photos that have since been removed, but had been posted in the gay section of manhunt.net. Johnson's photo was reportedly not explicit in nature, but the text describing him was reportedly very graphic. Richmond.com and the school board seem to be taking a very tolerant approach to this issue - after all, is a man not free to do what he likes in his private life? He has broken no law, endangered no child, and done absolutely nothing wrong. Deborah Jewell-Sherman, superintendent of city schools, led the school board and meeting audience in giving Johnson a standing ovation last night, and thanked him for his service on the school board, which will continue (just not as chairman).

Board member Carol A.O. Wolf, District 3, said Johnson demonstrated true leadership when he decided to voluntarily resign as chairman of the school board.
"He is a good man and a great soul," she said. "He will continue to fight to make things right for the children of Richmond . . . A lesser man would have been undone by this invasion of privacy. He deserves respect for being willing to admit error and to keep working to make our schools better."

I will keep these comments in mind the next time I see that a teacher is found to be posting images and information on an explicit gay singles website. I am curious to know whether Richmond.com and the parents will show the same level of understanding. I await the standing ovation that teacher receives from the school board.

I have nothing against Mr. Johnson, and it certainly does not bother me if he is gay, but his decision to post this type of singles ad was so ill-advised as to be worrisome. Would you want someone this foolish holding such power over the schooling of your children? What are those children to make of the example he is setting here? This is a member of their School Board!


Not everyone is taking the example Johnson sets so lightly. Richmond Morning Show host Jimmy Barrett asks, "Is Stephen Johnson right when he says the Times-Dispatch article about him is a cheap shot?" (at Newsradio 1140 AM)

Last night's Richmond School Board meeting was a Stephen Johnson lovefest as employees lined up to defend his actions and accuse the Richmond Times-Dispatch of running a smear job on the embattled school board member. Johnson himself called the article that outed his presence on a pornographic gay dating website "a cheap shot." The impression you get is that it was done strictly for political reasons. That somehow Richmonders do not have a right to know about this "private" part of Stephen Johnson's life. OK, I'll grant you that he wasn't involved in child pornography but this website does cast doubts about his decision making abilities and would be unsavory for any school official to be involved with. Interestingly enough, we did find out from school board member George Braxton that this would not present a job problem for ANY school employee, teachers and prinicipals included....That's a scary thought! The overall opinion expressed by many other Richmond school employees seems to be 'everyone makes mistakes' and 'Mr. Johnson did no wrong.' A liberal urban school agenda? Or are they right? Cheap shot? Or public service? That's our Question of the Day.

84% of respondents say Johnson is wrong, and voters have every right to know what kind of man he is. Normally, I really don't care for talk-show callers or on-line polls, but I think this is in such stark contrast to the opinions expressed by the school board members that it merits some thought. Again, this is the example he set for teachers and students - we all now know this is completely acceptable behavior in Richmond, VA.

At least we are clear on that.

A couple of inches of snow, and the city of Richmond shuts down.

I'm okay with that. A day at home, reading my current book and enjoying hot drinks. I'm catching up on a little school work and planning to watch a movie. I'd like to take a second to note that Virginia is a very progressive state that relies primarily on solar power for snow removal. No pollution there.

Failure at Math is a Disaster for Society

I sometimes note to people that math literacy is not given the same amount of respect as reading literacy. This absolutely drives me nuts. Think about how acceptable it is to say "I am not good at math" or "I am not a math person". The principal at my school once said "I am not very good good at math," to the entire faculty at the beginning of a meeting. Would it be considered at all the same to say "I am functionally illiterate" or even "Big words escape me"? Heck no.

But math literacy is inherently important - arguably as much as reading literacy. I found a wonderful article on the importance of math literacy, though I admit you have to be reading literate in order to comprehend it.

Working Past Midnight all Month

What a month. I have had a great time moving from the pendulum lab to a circular motion lab, for all classes. And AP is nearly caught up! But it has been absolutely brutal - Thanksgiving break was spent fixing the kitchen instead of prepping for class. And being a student on top of being a teacher is not helping - that reading class is really sucking up the time. Add to it that I am a parent, and my wife works retail - you can guess how much help she is around the house at this time of year. I have been up past midnight most nights this month, just trying to keep my proverbial head above water.

Thankfully that will soon be over. As soon as they quit trying to tell me how to be a better teacher, I can get back to actually trying to become a better teacher.