Posts Tagged ‘wonder’
Imagine if the key-word in the Leaving Cert Physics syllabus was ‘wonder’
Posted by: ozymandias1 on: April 22, 2012
This is an image, courtesy of Wordle.net, of the current Leaving Certificate Physics syllabus. Wordle is a program that gives the most common words the largest font size: This is a similar image of the proposed new syllabus. Notice the new focus on the words ‘learners’ and ‘learning’. Imagine if a syllabus had as its [...]
The Two Cultures – why our schools are to blame
Posted by: ozymandias1 on: December 6, 2011
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer By Walt Whitman When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room, [...]
Did you know that you won the lottery?
Posted by: ozymandias1 on: March 17, 2011
We have always assumed that ‘we’ will be around forever; not only that but we wonder how long it will be before we can colonise other planets and solar systems. We conveniently ignore the fact that our being here in the first place may be nothing more that the fortutitous result of an incredible set of [...]
Harry Chapin – Flowers are red
Posted by: ozymandias1 on: October 31, 2010
- In: songs | wonder | Wonder in Science
- 2 Comments
Criticising our education system is not new – why would it be when it’s like shooting fish in a barrel? One of the better known recent commentaries came from Sir Ken Robinson at a TED conference a few years back who made a very convincing argument for changing our focus away from the academic subjects and instead develop a greater emphasis [...]
An Engineer’s Guide to Cats
Posted by: ozymandias1 on: October 23, 2010
- In: engineering | wonder
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For many years now many of my brightest and best students have gone on to study Engineering, despite my best efforts to the contrary. I consider an engineer to be a physicist who has lost his sense of wonder. By the way, do you know where the term ‘civil engineer’ comes from? Apparently it was [...]
The BBC – supporting Science
Posted by: ozymandias1 on: May 11, 2010
- In: RTE | wonder | Wonder in Science
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Tagline: This series is part of World of Wonder – a year of Science across the BBC in 2010. From popular science to Chaos Theory, there’s a little something for everyone. Did you know that the BBC has a Science homepage? It’s called “World of Wonder” – what a cool title. You see the BBC [...]
On the lack of wonder in education: Monbiot hits it on the button
Posted by: ozymandias1 on: April 8, 2010
George Monbiot, who writes for The Guardian, finished a recent piece on communication in science with the following: We are deprived by our stupid schooling system of most of the wonders of the world, of the skills and knowledge required to navigate it, above all of the ability to understand each other. Our narrow, antiquated [...]
A science-teacher’s apology
Posted by: ozymandias1 on: March 11, 2010
We educators take this incredibly exotic jungle of knowledge called science and distil it until all the wonder has been removed and we are left with nothing but a heap of dry shavings. We then pour this into our syllabus and textbooks and make our students learn it off by heart so that it can [...]
Wonder in Science (why do we hide it?)
Posted by: ozymandias1 on: March 9, 2010
- In: wonder
- 2 Comments
Yes, yes, yes, yes! Just read this online article from Simon Jenkins in the Guardian I devour popular science, finding its history and its wonder a constant delight. . . . It is a mystery how so many science teachers can be so bad at their jobs that most children of my acquaintance cannot wait [...]
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