tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73161546184895563152024-02-22T10:06:41.400+00:00Joel ParcoeurVarious rants, raves and philosophical observations from a biologist who after a long strange trip has landed in the North country of upstate New York.jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-13708009025885338022020-03-27T10:53:00.000+00:002020-03-27T10:53:14.508+00:00Who to blame for the Pandemic.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-J1ER4_gPpj1pl8odB7unjSQM_WubDzarQobZxkPzqkb2VKjCw4-5AUObJjlvLAV71qn9lPs3p7Lkw5NxjXdsB_FUKtpqBl4MX9oyXPzU7EHt0k1HKEZjaA27guvOciTftZg5-bMrlI/s1600/Capture.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="450" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-J1ER4_gPpj1pl8odB7unjSQM_WubDzarQobZxkPzqkb2VKjCw4-5AUObJjlvLAV71qn9lPs3p7Lkw5NxjXdsB_FUKtpqBl4MX9oyXPzU7EHt0k1HKEZjaA27guvOciTftZg5-bMrlI/s320/Capture.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A simple quiz to determine who is responsible for today’s
pandemic:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1) Did you support grounding all international flights in
January?<o:p></o:p></div>
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2) Did you support grounding all US domestic air travel in
early February?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3) Did you support implementing extreme social distancing
and quarantine in cities with the first confirmed COVID case in early February?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you answered no to any of these questions, then you share
the blame for the problem. The inability of the general population and our
politicians to understand and act on science is the problem. The trajectory of
the epidemic, the spread of the infections, the ways to contain such viruses
have all been well predicted and plans have been in place for decades. This is
what happens when we deny the reality of science and science denial becomes an
acceptable political position. Science and math tell us the realities that
should inform decisions, they are not opinions subject to popular debate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-43978620717414366002019-12-13T17:27:00.000+00:002019-12-13T17:54:31.170+00:00To serve thy Chair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lYMjeEYbIrKUDFuLj4UaYef6hVwh8kRFLmdBhxmalsB2VXXPEB0TbV69WtvGSUJmboTqIF7UlKH9aiWwaIcpNTQqnxFCtYOVi9Kwhy4lQaNOyMppqy65W0rgdpd1NkdTZdBcHhyphenhyphenCVAo/s1600/Chimpanzee_seated_at_a_typewriter+%25281%2529.tif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1169" data-original-width="1536" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0lYMjeEYbIrKUDFuLj4UaYef6hVwh8kRFLmdBhxmalsB2VXXPEB0TbV69WtvGSUJmboTqIF7UlKH9aiWwaIcpNTQqnxFCtYOVi9Kwhy4lQaNOyMppqy65W0rgdpd1NkdTZdBcHhyphenhyphenCVAo/s320/Chimpanzee_seated_at_a_typewriter+%25281%2529.tif" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I am about to turn over the chair
of our university Writing Across the Curriculum Committee (WACC) to the
next person. When I took on the job, I thought long and hard about how to be an
effective leader calling on my experience teaching group work to students, what
I know about human nature from sociobiology, and even what I have gleaned from
reading the great books on political philosophy. In the end, it went very well. We went from being demoralized with a 20 year backlog of courses to renew to being caught up and expanding
pedagogical support in teaching writing to faculty. To help others who need to
take on a committee chair or leading a group here is a guide to what I think
are the main factors for this success.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The foundation for leading is to
accept and work with our monkey brains. I know some people have problems with
sociobiology, but sorry folks, we are all just very clever chimps. Like all
other animals, Darwinian self-preservation is the number one biological motivator.
People will only act altruistically for some higher cause. If you want your
group to work together, then you have to identify that cause. Selfish behavior
may seem more easily manipulated, but this is a dangerous trap for a group
leader to fall into. With any complex task requiring group work the
number of possible outcomes makes the impact on your group members so
unpredictable as to guarantee they will turn on the group as soon as it is to
their advantage. If you have the power of life and death over your group
then fine, use fear over love as Machiavelli said, but in low stakes volunteer groups
you need to remember you are working with people who feel physically secure
enough to ignore you. The best strategy is to identify that higher goal
and ask your group members to sacrifice their time and energy to reach that
goal. Always bring the discussion back to the higher principle guiding the
group when there is any sign of selfishness. Anyone that you have to manipulate
through their self-interests are a net detriment to your group and need to be
removed as soon as possible.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The next lesson from sociobiology
is that our brains are evolutionarily wired to be exquisitely sensitive to the
slightest challenge to our social status. Remember that we were social animals
living in dominance hierarchies before we were human. Pride is then our
strongest social instinct. Pride is also the single most common problem in
groups. Whenever there is a dispute, always ask is the fight about the actual
work under discussion, or is the topic under discussion simply being used as
ammunition in a dominance hierarchy fight? Nine times out of ten disputes are
more about hurt feelings and pride rather than the matter at hand. The trick is
to bring the conversation back to the topic at hand and assuage hurt feelings.
I am always amazed how much subtext in committee meetings is about preserving
pride or establishing superiority.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
On the positive side, pride is the
number one most ethical and most important motivator a leader should use to get
group members working. Pride is self-love and healthy happy people love
themselves and want to act in a manner they are proud of. The goal for any
leader is to have your group working for the motivating ideal in a way that
everyone is proud of their contribution and know that their specific
contributions are valued. This is where another concept for sociobiology comes
in, the division of labor. If we acknowledge that everyone is different, then
some people are better at some things than others. That is the fact that a good
leader uses to make the team greater than the sum of its parts. By publicly
acknowledging that a group member is better than other members in one or a few
characteristics, that member will be proud of their contribution. Other members
can then be proud by feeling superior in their particular strong areas and
everyone is then proud to be working with such good people who are not a threat
to their own self-esteem. The practical way to do this is to begin by stating
the attributes for a particular job when you ask for a volunteer. That way
everyone is both self-evaluating and evaluating each other for their strengths
and weakness. The person who volunteers will usually be the best and a good
leader will couch the attribute description with someone in mind. If the best
person does not volunteer, the one who does not will feel guilty for not
sacrificing for the cause. This person should then feel like they owe a debt to
the group in the future. If more than one volunteers, then both feel strong
about themselves in that area and paring them off should work if they can
respect each other because they share values. Picking one over the other needs to be
avoided if possible to preserve the pride of the weaker volunteer. All of this
occurs in front of everyone so pride and social standing has to satisfied and
can be satisfied if handled honestly with an awareness of the role of pride.
It is tempting to ask someone in private to take on a particular task, but this
is asking for trouble if others find out and always sounds like flattery and
manipulation to the person being targeted. An absolute requirement here is that
the group needs to be diverse enough that most of the talents brought to the
table do not overlap to a great extent, and that the talent necessary to get
the job done exists within the group.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
With an understanding of these principles,
the first step when taking over a committee or work group is to do your
homework. To understand how a group can get the job done you have to understand
what it is supposed to do, and the history of how it has been trying to do it.
This forensic work is critical. When I took over my faculty senate committee I
went to the bylaws to see what the group was supposed to be doing and then
looked at old files and minutes from when it was formed through to present day.
This revealed the key tasks that were not being done, one set of activities the
group engaged in from the start that went beyond the mandate, and most
importantly, identified the ethos of the committee. Identifying this overarching
ethos, or higher goal that motivated people to join, and that manifested
repeatedly in directing the committee’s actions and discussions was the single
most important factor in succeeding. In the case of WACC, it is improving how
writing is taught. Thus, I identified the ideal that the members had in the
past and would in the future sacrifice their time and effort to achieve.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
The next step was to get practical.
The number one complaint about most university meetings is that the meeting was a waste of time. So a chair must make sure that each
meeting actually gets something done. This requires being organized, naming and
assigning tasks, and assessing and following up on those tasks. A chairs
greatest friend here is an Excel spreadsheet. Not wasting time also requires a
ruthless directing of all conversations during the meeting to prevent being
sidetracked. Some people are better than others at this. The difference comes
down to being undistractible and to not being afraid of being rude. The chair
needs to be aggressive at cutting people off by saying we need to get back on
topic. I have a terribly rude bad habit of interrupting and talking over people
when I think they are not getting to the point. This annoying impolite flaw in
myself has served me extremely well when running meetings.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
My other practical advice is to
document everything. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
1) Take good minutes yourself (as
chair) and always have an agenda circulated before each meeting. We started out
with someone else taking the minutes, but I later found that taking the minutes
myself allowed me to reflect on what was said and to have a better grip on what
was going on. It allows a better focus for the group to see what is happening from
one mindset (the chair) than from two (the chair and the note taker). Circulate
the draft minutes early to get the alternative points of view and incorporate
those into the final minutes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
2) One trick that makes all of the
differences is use the word <b>ACTION </b>in bold in the minutes and
agenda documents. When anyone is supposed to do anything put that person’s name
and what they are supposed to do after “<b>ACTION:</b>”. Do this for both
the minutes and agenda and make sure that person is called upon in the next meeting.
People will tend to do their actions either right after a meeting or right
after the next agenda is circulated. Hence, circulating the minutes quickly and
the agenda a few days before can help maximize completion of tasks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
3) Set up a realistic timeline to
meet the goals. I find that spreadsheets can be especially helpful here. In our
case, we set up a schedule spanning several years to dig out and catch up with
course renewals. We were able to stay on task and get the job done by setting
up a doable number per semester and scheduling ahead.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
4) Stay true to your overarching
goal. When we identified improving the teaching of writing as our number
one goal, then making that happen drove all other thinking in setting up the
course renewal process. Instead of just ticking off boxes and thinking in terms
of completing the tasks, we asked how can use this task to help faculty improve
their teaching. My forensic work also revealed long-standing efforts to improve
teaching pedagogy that fell outside of the senate bylaws establishing WACC.
This aspect was ultimately added to the bylaws as one our official duties.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I realize that I had it easy
serving on a committee with a clear goal that all academics can get behind. It
would be much harder with committees like General Education where differing
philosophies and self-interests make it difficult to agree to common goals.
More mundane busy work type committees can also present a challenge to find a
higher ethos. At the other end of the spectrum is the challenge for extremely high-level
group tasks like forming university vision statements. In both of these cases,
there is the temptation to break it down into unmotivating tasks that need to
be done. The trick is to understand that there can be only one over-arching
high-ideal ethos and to not default to listing several practical outcomes. The
question every committee, group, or community member will ask before doing
anything is, is it worth making a sacrifice of my time and effort? A leader can
expect only naked self-interest unless they can articulate some higher ideal
the whole group believes in.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-41087753173271226152019-09-20T17:53:00.001+00:002019-09-20T17:53:39.107+00:00Power in Mr. Robot<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeiDI-8H9-lDBInfDMZFZcM7A-_ZUu4_qG0sSx27uY5kHn_jBnIAI8Mj9AXEWiNpc7Wsi6ioL9DoxIk3vD3ox1YKM-bqIvcdUjJ5L8c3XQOk7RK_vmzkMIj76l-CSX0skzP3peruilHqc/s1600/Mr+robot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="655" data-original-width="969" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeiDI-8H9-lDBInfDMZFZcM7A-_ZUu4_qG0sSx27uY5kHn_jBnIAI8Mj9AXEWiNpc7Wsi6ioL9DoxIk3vD3ox1YKM-bqIvcdUjJ5L8c3XQOk7RK_vmzkMIj76l-CSX0skzP3peruilHqc/s320/Mr+robot.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mr. Robot on Amazon Prime is a very deep interesting TV show,
not just for the insights into technology but more importantly on the changing nature
of power in modern society. One character wants to control the money, some are
trying control their own mortality by manipulating time, some just want to lead
but are not up to the task, others see power as the ability to limit the
powerful, and the main character simply wants the power to control himself. The
key element is that all of those seeking power are seeking it for different
motivations and thus define power and try to narrowly exercise power in terms
of those motivations. What I think makes this show interesting is that the
usual dramatic focus on Jung and Freud takes back seat to Alder and Nietzsche. The
underlying emotional motivations are all over the place in the cast of
characters making them unique and interesting, but the common thread uniting
them is the obsession with remaking society based on each individual character’s
damaged psyche. Given that our technology’s main effect is expanding our
interactions it makes perfect sense that how much we can influence others and
controlling how others perceive us become the top priority. The troubled psychosis
of Eliot trying to control himself could be interpreted as symbolically paralleling
our society’s struggles with learning to control the new powers that we have
seized with computer technology. The main observation and warning from the show
is that we have collectively been driven insane by this technology. Let’s hope
that it is only temporary!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is also a lesson here for those of us caught in the
cross fire of power seekers. The show very directly and neatly connects how a leader’s
action is driven by their value system. Thus it provides a road map to
understand both the risks of differently motivated leaders and how a leader’s action
can reveal their motivations and deeper personal struggles. We only need to
watch the actions of our leaders to understand what motivates them and with
that knowledge what they might try to do next. Unfortunately, a subset of the mentally
ill seem to be the most desperate for control, so tend to be the ones to most
aggressively use and abuse their power. Thus, when we spot such a disturbed
leader we should act to remove them to minimize the damage that they will
inevitably do.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-87192674098754200302019-08-08T14:23:00.001+00:002019-08-19T19:37:59.282+00:00Teaching labs by mistake<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="583" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMLvyh9kbsGasiPIdjEwszqy01Fb8kxZd_fO_6419HOGWA91JQx6fSs9yinjpr-hzZTRY7cz5o_grRBUn6-ULRrvaKQvfgeSxBaH1kSWDlG_Ed4BiPN-7BIXQwOgi86CluAO90IZ2xGyc/s320/tandem+running+ants.png" width="320" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Teaching in ants with corrective behavior (<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Temnothorax_albipennis_workers_performing_a_tandem_run.jpg">Tao208, Wikicommon</a>s)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Teaching is not just about transferring information,
it’s about making mistakes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is about making mistakes, repeatedly. It is very
easy to think that simply telling someone something and them being able to
understand and act on it is the best teaching. In fact, that is just
transferring information. Part of the definition of teaching in <a href="https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2015/OctNov/Animals/Animal-Teaching">animal
behavior</a> includes corrective behavior. Correction by definition requires a mistaken</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">act</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">to be corrected. So how can any animal or human for that matter teach if the
student's first attempt is either correct or not assessed? How can simply telling someone a fact be teaching? Is there a
meaningful difference between telling and teaching? It seems to me that the key
element that defines teaching is that the student must first unsuccessfully attempt to do something (at least initially) otherwise it is just a transfer of information to be memorized. This distinction is most important in the science lab class where doing is added to the book work of the lecture material.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Science lab instructors should think about this. The counter-intuitive
implication of the corrective element of teaching is that if your students are
not failing then you cannot possibly be teaching. A perfectly run laboratory session where every
protocol works is not teaching, at best it is transferring information. This
perfect lab session can only provide your students with almost the same level
of instruction that they would have gotten from a YouTube video. Teaching requires
failed experiments, struggle, and effort to figure out what went wrong and how
to fix it. The real challenge when designing a laboratory section of a science
course is to build in opportunities for failure and recovery, and to teach your
students to interpret failure as a necessary step on their path to learning.</span>jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-23383732649730519572019-07-30T12:59:00.000+00:002019-07-30T13:03:23.522+00:00Social Media Policy for this Academic<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I am in the process of putting
together my opening slides for Genetics this coming semester. One of the key
pieces of information for students is the agreed upon lines of communication. I
always prefer the school email because everyone has searchable access and it is
a great way to lay down a documentation trail to avoid misunderstandings.
However, there are exceptions and social media out there that can create
confusion that could be clarified. For example, sometimes I need to give out my
cell number to small groups of students working in the lab when I am elsewhere
in the building (pushing flies, nothing dangerous) or if we are on a trip. I
also get requests on social media occasionally. This can be fine for Twitter or
LinkedIn, but not so fine for Facebook or when they attempt to contact me on my
private email. We all have our own preferences and level of comfort
regarding how close to get with our students online so here is a table to
clarify where I stand.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs8BAw_bZO9Y79QPhSnQ03qMip4cy2F1lxiQ2Swkpctz-stcnfzM9lgZZUd-IuctIm5R4MkqYitHcYbnge9wWOkDRwc2a7b85IsiTC9zhaVYcFjs8HWTiD6s6CYbzjkqXdNaY8lf-xNHI/s1600/social+media+policy+image.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="418" data-original-width="811" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs8BAw_bZO9Y79QPhSnQ03qMip4cy2F1lxiQ2Swkpctz-stcnfzM9lgZZUd-IuctIm5R4MkqYitHcYbnge9wWOkDRwc2a7b85IsiTC9zhaVYcFjs8HWTiD6s6CYbzjkqXdNaY8lf-xNHI/s640/social+media+policy+image.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-11584125700868307522017-11-21T19:37:00.000+00:002019-07-30T13:01:08.769+00:00A simple 10 step method to write an expository paper for school<div class="MsoNormal">
1) Think about and research what you need to say.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2) Create a logical sequential bullet point outline of what
you want to say, with citations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3) Go back and turn each bullet point into a crystal clear, grammatically
correct, SIMPLE declarative sentence.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4) Go back and connect the sentences. You can do this in three ways:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
a) Modify each sentence so that
each follows from the previous. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
b) Combine two adjacent sentences into a compound sentence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
b) Add transitional sentences.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5) Go back and connect the paragraphs, last sentence of
previous paragraph to first sentence of the following paragraph usually works.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6) Double check that you have it correct by making sure that
no paragraphs or sentences can be reversed in order without screwing up the
flow of ideas. Remember that interchangable sentences or paragraphs almost
always mean something is wrong.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
7) Run your spell/grammar checker and fix your mistakes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
8) Have a friend or colleague proof read it for you and make
a change for every problem they notice.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
9) <o:p></o:p>Run your spell/grammar checker and fix your mistakes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
10) Either go back to number 8 or declare it finished.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-45909164856437033222017-11-06T21:03:00.000+00:002017-11-06T21:06:24.733+00:00Just a thought on how class privilege in science led to the research grant systemSometimes it is easy to forget that science started out with only the idle rich could having the time and the money to explore natural phenomena. Perhaps the only notable great exception was De Vinci who rose from poverty on his talents but was still completely dependent on the patronage of the wealthy and defense money to pay for his artistic and scientific endeavors. Today, this academic legacy is most evident in the domination of white males and the middle and upper class members of academia. One of the over looked vestiges that allows this privileged barrier to STEM is the grant system.<br />
<br />
Ask yourself this, would a plumber or a builder or any other laboring be expected to come to your house with their own funding to do their jobs? This is exactly what is asked in any STEM job advertisement requiring an “externally funded research program”. It is the same old model of an academic community of the privileged classes who can enter only if they can bring their own money and equipment to the society meeting. More recently in the 20th century, the state has stepped in providing self-funding through NSF or NIH grants, but the academic model for hiring a new assistant professor is still based on the idea that an academic should be professionally wealthy enough to bring their own money and help support the university rather than working for the university. A university STEM job advertisement is not so much an offer of employment as it is a request for at least 7 years of charity work. The job benefits only come later with tenure and then that is not even certain.<br />
<br />
The result is that the established funded community who dole out the money has then become the new wealthy social class that is determining who is in and who is out. Indeed, networking, belonging to certain lab groups with the correct linage, speaking the correct language with the accepted ideas are critical parts of belonging the any scientific community. These are the same communities that set the standards and determine who gets the grants. I sometimes wonder if STEM academia has not just replicated a Victorian gentlemen’s academic club, but with women admitted as well. Thus, the research university system is still a system of science that at its core remains designed for competition among members of the moneyed classes.<br />
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jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-43057288250376250262017-06-08T18:33:00.000+00:002017-06-08T18:33:08.790+00:00How I effectively stopped plagiarism in my classes<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Last year, a significant proportion
(about 20%) of the my third year genetics class submitted final lab reports that were
plagiarized to different degrees (mostly cut and pasted sentences with and without citations) This past semester I employed
several techniques to bring that proportion down to <b><u>ZERO</u></b> cases. I did it by first thinking about why my
students plagiarized then implementing policies to directly address those
reasons.</div>
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I think that students plagiarize because they
either do not understand what plagiarism is or they see the risk as being worth
the potential reward. The answer then must be to 1) educate them about plagiarism, and 2) shift the risk/reward calculation against deciding to plagiarize. Here
are my specific actions and policies targeting these two factors that seemed to work:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->I took the time to teach the definition of plagiarism and
assessed the students on their understanding of plagiarism. I made a concise
clear handout that we went over in the labs followed by a quiz that students
had to pass before I would accept any written work (handout and quiz below). I talked one-on-one<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> to students who had
any wrong answers and walked </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">them through
to the right answer. The most important concept that they had misconceptions about
was the general idea that plagiarism is passing off someone else’s work or
ideas as your own. Many students thought only in terms of specific acts (i.e. copying
and pasting text, putting their name on another person’s paper, copying from a
classmate etc.) instead of the general definition which covers all of the
different variants.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">I also found it
helpful to approach it from the perspective of giving credit where credit is due. This more positive
approach seemed to create empathy with the person who is not getting credit for
their ideas.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->I kept a copy of the quizzes and told the students
these would be used in academic dishonesty judicial proceedings if necessary.
This removes the “I didn’t know” defense, increasing the risk of consequences
if caught.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->3)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->I assigned a lower point presubmission of the most
plagiarized section of the assignment. This was a presubmission of the introduction
where students have to synthesize existing literature. The motivation to take a
chance plagiarizing is lower for assignments worth fewer points resulting in no plagiarism. By doing a low
point presubmission the students had a plagiarism free rough draft as a starting point for the high
value final submission. This takes the pressure off in terms of points for the
first submission and reduces the time pressure for the final submission.<o:p></o:p></div>
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</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->4)<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->I told them I report all cases of plagiarism
where I impose any penalties to the university. <u>This is the number one most
important key policy</u>! Negotiating
penalties within your course reinforces the behavior by validating the students
risk/benefit calculation. Such negotiations results in plagiarism becoming just
another part of the academic game of manipulating the instructor to get the
best grade possible. I am convinced that
serial plagiarizers depend upon and factor into their decision the opportunity
to negotiate their way out of serious sanctions when caught. Any teacher who
deals with plagiarism cases privately within their own class is harming their
students and perpetuating a culture of sweeping the problem under the rug. The
penalty that really has an effect is having it go on their record outside of
your particular class (usually temporarily, at least in my institution). Your
students may cry and sometimes fight it in whatever judicial review you have at
your university, but this level of sanction alone is the only way to increase the
risk to unacceptable in many students' minds. If every instructor did this from
year one I am convinced that plagiarism would cease to be a problem by the
junior year.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
So
if you want to stop plagiarism in your classroom, this is what worked for me. Number four takes some courage and willingness to
follow through, but that threat with the other mitigating actions should prevent
most students from making the wrong decision. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Handout:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Plagiarism
Policy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It is my
policy to routinely report all cases of plagiarism where I have to enforce a
penalty to the Dean of Students. If you decide to plagiarize then it is your
decision and my responsibility to report you. You will have only yourself to
blame for the consequences. There may be a negotiation on the grade penalty to
ensure the advantage you gained is fairly negated relative to students that did
not plagiarize, <u>but whether or not to report the case to the university is
non-negotiable</u>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Definition of
Plagiarism: passing off someone else’s work and ideas as your own. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">1)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Direct
copying<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">a.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Turning
in someone else’s work as your own. (from another student, bought essay, copied
off the internet)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level3 lfo2; mso-text-indent-alt: -9.0pt; text-indent: -1.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span>i.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Blatant and deliberate academic
misconduct. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">b.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A
good indicator: If you are using the “cut and paste” function to put something
into your writing you are plagiarizing unless it is a direct quote with a
proper citation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">c.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Easiest
to catch with software and a bit of Googling. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">2)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><!--[endif]--><b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Rewriting
someone else’s work<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">a.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Rewriting
someone else’s work is plagiarism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level3 lfo2; mso-text-indent-alt: -9.0pt; text-indent: -1.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span>i.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">No amount of rewording someone else’s
sentences or paragraphs is acceptable!!!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Actual case: a student once showed me
an original sentence from a published paper and his extensive modifications and
asked me if it was changed enough from the original to pass!! Someone else’s sentence can never be changed
enough to not be plagiarized if you are trying to reword someone else’s work to
make it pass as yours.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Also see </span></i><a href="http://sociobiology.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/plagiarism-is-more-common-than-i-thought/"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">http://sociobiology.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/plagiarism-is-more-common-than-i-thought/</span></i></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> for a good explanation with a concrete
example.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level3 lfo2; mso-text-indent-alt: -9.0pt; text-indent: -1.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span>ii.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The only way to avoid this is to do it
yourself from scratch, with your own outline, then put in the citations later
where you refer to or use other’s ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">3)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Referencing is not enough</span></u></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;">a.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">You
cannot take someone else’s writing or Powerpoints or any other work and pass it
off as your own by just adding a citation. Otherwise you are just stating from
where you plagiarized the material. This is called “cut and paste plagiarism
with references” and it will not be tolerated<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level3 lfo2; mso-text-indent-alt: -9.0pt; text-indent: -1.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span>i.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The criteria is simple: Have you made it crystal clear to the reader
what parts are your work and ideas, and what are the other person’s work and
ideas</span></u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level3 lfo2; mso-text-indent-alt: -9.0pt; text-indent: -1.5in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span>ii.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">You cannot in anyway imply, directly,
indirectly, or by omission that someone else’s work or ideas are yours.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The quiz (answers, 1a, 2e, 3a-e):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Name______________________ Date_________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Plagiarism Quiz, You must get 100%
before I grade your written work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">1) I read and understand the
plagiarism statement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">a) Yes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">b) No<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">2) What is the best definition of
plagiarism (pick ONE)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">a) Putting your name on someone else’s work and turning
it in as your own work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">b) Copy and pasting material without citing the source<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">c) Copy and pasting material without direct quotes, but
citing the source<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">d) Rewriting a sentence from a source until it passes a
plagiarism checker with or without citation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">e) Directly or indirectly implying that someone else’s work
and/or ideas are your own<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">3) Which of the actions below will get
you reported for plagiarism? (Mark all that apply).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">a) Putting your name on someone else’s work and turning
it in as your own work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">b) Copy and pasting material without citing the source<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">c) Copy and pasting material without direct quotes but
citing the source<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">d) Rewriting a sentence from a source until it passes a
plagiarism checker with or without citation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 45.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">e) Directly or indirectly implying that someone else’s
work and/or ideas are your own<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-90957819908073016222017-01-28T14:07:00.000+00:002017-01-29T12:24:23.977+00:00Why I am against the tenure system in academia.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I am going out on a limb here as a tenured academic
and argue that “tenure” as we know it should be abolished. There is a
misperception that tenure means a job for life when in practical terms it
actually just means a post-probationary full time job in a very stable and
secure organization. Tenured faculty can still be fired for any number of
offenses from misconduct, bringing "disrepute" to the university (yes this is in my
contract), financial emergencies (frequently open to interpretation), and if
you actually read the contract, not doing the job. These are EXACTLY the same
reasons anyone outside the ivory towers in a permanent salaried job can be
fired. Most people do not consider that universities tend to be more stable
than private companies over the long run giving the false impression that it is
tenure and not the stability of the institution that results in job security. The
fact is that a full time banker, accountant or construction worker is effectively no less tenured </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">than a university professor </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">after they pass
probation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One of the most significant differences between tenured academic positions and the
real world is the extended probationary period where young faculty are at the
mercy of tenured faculty. In how many other jobs does five to six year probation
end with a private vote of your full time colleagues on whether you stay or go?
A new hire lives with a sword over their head trying not to offend or in any
way cross the senior faculty who can fire them for effectively no real reason
at the end of the trial period. Junior faculty cannot say no to any favor asked
and must be constantly biting their tongues holding back from expressing
controversial positions in order to navigate the internal often factionalized
politics of the department. In many places, young faculty are expected to
publish, get grants, work much harder and be more productive than those with
tenure. Junior faculty depend upon a strong chair and hopefully a wise
department that will defend and not abuse them. This pre-tenure probationary
period is one the most stressful and uncertain times in any academics career,
and it usually lasts five to six years with an uncertain outcome at the end.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Any unfair protection from tenure comes from the good
ol’boy self-governing university system with senior tenured people colluding to back off to a more humane and reasonable
workload after earning tenure. Many back off too enthusiastically practically
stopping work thus hurting the university and undermining the original purpose
of tenure which was to protect academic freedom. This aptly named deadwood is a
drain on departments and is often cited as one of the strongest arguments
against tenure. In reality, it is a problem with complicit management that
lacks the will to go against tradition and enforce contractual obligations.
Before anyone says it’s the union’s fault, I will argue that any manager who
uses the union as an excuse is weak and lazy. No union contract ever requires
you keep on someone who is able and refuses to work. Competent managers will
document the offense and enforce the contract, not hide behind it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We need to abolish traditional tenure by replacing it
with stronger rules protecting academic freedom at all levels. The free
expression and evaluation of ideas in academia sometimes requires the ability
to publicly both criticize and undermine our pay masters at the university and
at the state level. This often includes ideas that many members of the public
will find untenable from their moral and religious points of view. Hence, there
should be an explicit policy that faculty cannot be sanctioned or fired for
bringing political or media pressure on a university for any statements or
expression allowed under the 1<sup>st</sup> amendment. What I mean here is that
any expression not outlawed at the federal level is fair game. That represents
a huge expansion of free speech rights over what most people working in private
companies are allowed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Faculty also must be protected from sanctions or
firing for any threatened or incomplete litigation from students. Only after a
court rules should any punitive action be allowed by the university. Policies
need to be in place ensuring that the university has the faculty’s backs. Some
might argue that this would limit a university’s ability to respond to
harassment, but these incidents should not be quietly covered up in the first
place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I propose that we replace the current tenure track
with policy that all academics, from the day they are hired, be given safe
haven as described above for free-expression and academic freedom. This is effectively granting the protection of "tenure" to new hires as well. The probationary period needs
to have very clear written unambiguous objective
criteria of what must be done in that period </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">(number of papers, grant amount, minimum teaching scores for example)</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> to remove
subjective personal biases. Passing probation should be a simple, independently verifiable box
ticking exercise not up for a vote by department members but rather doable by someone outside the department. Only this way can a new hire freely contribute ideas
to the department and university. </span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After
probation, we should be required to actually do the job we are paid to do
throughout our careers. Publicly presenting peer reviewed scholarly work of the specified kind at the specified rate, teaching the required hours, and midrange student feedback scores should be all
that is necessary and sufficient for continued employment. As in any other profession, not hitting these criteria should have paycheck ramifications with the possibility of termination in extreme cases. Finally,we really need to either start calling
every permanent job tenured or drop the word entirely given the negative
connotations it has acquired by its abuse in academia.</span></div>
jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-53299213145350823842017-01-20T20:54:00.002+00:002017-01-20T20:54:38.549+00:00My Guest Blog for Wiki Edu<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5z8i5BA3QtAnRes871N9_hJ2iNGWuS52R0n47QuEpW1gBShEtAPf-5uQ1U8E0cFdh6DGBNW0_BXwyJNh1t-hKHZ0Ym-JfErPWJsW9AbutujaX_CSzYxZ4a53xjq1ueYwEllx1JWsESyY/s1600/wikiedutitle+pic.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5z8i5BA3QtAnRes871N9_hJ2iNGWuS52R0n47QuEpW1gBShEtAPf-5uQ1U8E0cFdh6DGBNW0_BXwyJNh1t-hKHZ0Ym-JfErPWJsW9AbutujaX_CSzYxZ4a53xjq1ueYwEllx1JWsESyY/s320/wikiedutitle+pic.tiff" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br />I don’t usually do guest blogs for the simple reason that I have too much trouble trying to post regularly here but sometime the invitation is too important. I recently did a presentation on my experience implementing writing for Wikipedia in my fourth year Cell Biology Class. It is available here (<a href="http://digitalcommons.plattsburgh.edu/feinberg_events/1/">http://digitalcommons.plattsburgh.edu/feinberg_events/1/</a>). Wiki Edu really liked it and invited me to write a blog entry for them, so I did. The focus is on the first part of my talk and is really as much about higher education finding it’s purpose as it is about how a </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wikipedia writing assignment works towards that goal. The Wiki Ed blog post is here</span>: <a href="https://wikiedu.org/blog/2017/01/20/rediscovering-the-higher-in-higher-education-with-a-wikipedia-writing-assignment/">https://wikiedu.org/blog/2017/01/20/rediscovering-the-higher-in-higher-education-with-a-wikipedia-writing-assignment/</a></span><br />
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jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-11562994502315933582017-01-01T15:00:00.000+00:002017-01-01T15:00:16.939+00:00New Year's resolution: schedule writing and no email until after 9am<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s a new year and my number one New Year’s resolution is
to write more and more regularly. The trouble is how to steal back the time to
do it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have tried scheduling writing,
and journal reading, but something always comes up. I seem to lack
the backbone or selfish heart to tell students and fellow faculty with urgent problems to go
away and leave me alone during my reading and writing times. So here is my
solution that I hope does not get me into too much trouble. I am going to write
first thing in the morning at home, or at school with my office door firmly shut
first thing every morning, and not read any email until after 9am in the
morning. That last part has me a bit worried as I have a 9am genetics lecture
this semester so I will essentially not be contactable until after 10am
MWF.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> This is also going to require some discipline to make sure I don't have any other anticipated urgent business to do before lecture. </span>Unfortunately I see no way around
this. The morning is my best time intellectually and I have noticed that the
only things I can be 100% certain of doing happen before I open my email in the morning. So
let’s see how it goes and maybe I can revive this blog in the process!</span><o:p></o:p></div>
jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-54521748124366273362016-11-25T15:54:00.000+00:002016-12-02T13:54:16.147+00:00Some Advice on Teaching Group Assignments.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Working in groups, and leadership in particular, are always in the top two skills that employers are looking for. To help my students get that experience requires making group assignments. Recently, I feel like I have finally figured out how to do this right. Here is what works for me and my students.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1) Explain to the students why group work is important and unavoidable. I point out that if you run into someone in dark alley it is much less scary if you have five of your biggest and best friends with you. In life, numbers matter. A working group will ALWAYS beat an individual and there are some tasks only groups are capable of accomplishing. They will be working in groups for the rest of their lives so they need to learn how to do it. From a teaching perspective this means one of the worse mistakes one can make is to turn an individual assignment into a group assignment. The task must genuinely need to be done by a group. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2) Teach your students how to work in a group. Many teachers seem to think they can just turn students loose on a group project and they will magically figure out how to make it work. The number one lesson of group work is what we evolutionary biologists call division of labor. That means people doing different tasks, ideally with each person doing the task that they are best at. The point is for the group to be better than the sum of the parts. You have to explain that they need to meet, pick a leader, set ground rules and expectations, get to know each other’s talents and abilities, and most importantly figure out how to allocate tasks so that each task is done by the best person for that task. With debate teams for example, I tell them to allocate the most argumentative and forceful personality to cross examination and the clever but shy people to library work and prepping arguments, and the arty types to make the slides. Competitive team debates may be the best type of assignment to teach group behavior because it unifies groups to be challenged by outsiders and provides a great example of how important working together is because going it alone against a team would be futile.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3) Rationally design the groups for maximum diversity. Never, ever, ever, ever (can I emphasize this anymore?) let students self-sort or you will end up with a superstar group and many struggling groups that are total disasters. On top of this they will inevitably end up racially segregated. I use every bit of knowledge I can glean ahead of time including consultation with TA’s to construct groups. We first separate the top performing students to date to designate each group. Next, we allocate diverse talents and types to make groups that should be as functional as possible. Sometimes we have to resort to random allocations but that is still better than letting the students pick their own groups. Finally, we allocate the problem students, essentially handicapping the groups as evenly as possible. This measure will save a tremendous amount of time and energy later once you learn how to do this. It also means putting off group projects as late in the semester as possible to get to know the students. If the students balk at not being able to pick their groups and partners, I remind them that they cannot chose their coworkers or families so just get on with it. Never let them argue their way into being grouped with their first choices. In fact, I deliberately avoid pairings that students ask for ahead of time. We also have to avoid problematic combinations. There will be racists, misogynists and other people who for whatever reason should not be paired with other races or sexes or individuals who they have bad histories with. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4) No opting out! I have sat kids down on presentation day when they showed up with slides in hand the night before expecting to just add them to whatever the group did without interacting with their group. Tell them this upfront from the beginning that there is no opting out of working with their group. You need to make it crystal clear that going it alone is not an option. There are two ways to do this. First, as said before, make the assignment too big for one person to do. Second, assess how the individual preforms in a group with peer review of group members. I always make it clear from the beginning that their group members will be solicited to comment on each individual’s contribution and that no one will be allowed to do the assignment alone, period.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5) Keep an eye on the groups and respond to problems immediately. After the project is done is not the time to discover that Robert was AWOL the whole time. Usually about a third of the way along a group assignment I email or ask the class how it is going and if they are satisfied with everyone’s participation. If they are not question the task allocation then talk to the offending member. Don’t jump to conclusions here. Nontraditional students can have family obligations that 18 year olds have no concept of. The only option for the worse type of slacker may be giving them a zero and freeing the group of having to deal with them. Next talk to the one who complained because turning on group member is poor group work behavior. Groups need to have each other’s backs. The proper response for dealing with a poor group member is to help them so that they can contribute as much as possible, and to cover for their weakness so the group does not suffer. Turning on the weak link only serves to bring the whole group down with them. Tell your students this after you ask for the member feedback the first time. I have also had occasion to move a group member because of irresolvable differences. Again this is always fluid and dependent on specific student interactions. The rule is that there is no rule except to make an effort to keep on top of group problems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6) I grade them as a group. They need to know that it is all for one and one for all like in real life. This can be hard for the over achiever students who gravitate to the leader role. I point out that getting the best out of others is part of the assignment and if they failed at that then their grade should reflect it. If someone thinks one student pulled down the group ask why they did not support and help that student. Why didn’t they allocate or reallocate the workload more appropriately? This is the whole point of the exercise and what defines good teamwork and good leadership, hence their grade needs to reflect that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope this helps as I have found following these guidelines to yield very good results with happy students and high levels of accomplishment.</span></div>
jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-48929509745270442832016-09-06T16:40:00.002+00:002016-09-06T16:40:33.669+00:00When should a moderator call out lies in a formal debate?The recent <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/debate-moderators-falsehoods_us_57cd8844e4b078581f138ec0">controversy in the news</a> about whether or not debate moderators should point out lies struck a nerve with me after my classroom debates last semester. I have been doing organized and competitive team debates at the end of my third year Genetics and my third year Biology of Aging classes. These debates are on controversial social topics and have proven very popular. I would have to count it as one of my most effective assignments as it does seem to get students thinking and fired up like very few other activities. The team element also has proven an excellent way to teach group work by emphasizing the need to divide the labor based on individual student strengths. The problem I ran into head on last year was a very charismatic and persuasive student who cleverly argued a falsehood from a very weak internet source. The student is clearly a very talented debater so I want to be clear that I am not criticizing him at all. In fact it was a great performance on his part in that he could take such a weak piece of evidence and convince the room that it was true. Kudos to him for pulling it off! The problem is how to handle this in a teaching situation where the need to teach the truth may conflict with it being the other team’s responsibility to shoot down and point out the weaknesses in the argument.<br />
<br />
This same issue is raising its head in the presidential debates where journalists whose job should be informing the public on the facts are being picked to moderate debates which need to be fair competitions. This puts the journalist moderators in a very similar type of conflict of interest. Should they be fair and not be expected to do the other side’s work for them or should they stick to their moral duty as journalists? The solution in this case is simple, we need to stop asking journalists to mediate these debates and instead ask retired judges or some other neutral party schooled in debating. It should also be explicitly stated in the rules that it is never the moderator’s role to identify the facts or misrepresentations.<br />
<br />
In the class situation above I simply could not let the falsehood go so I did tell the class about the one off experiment, the online shenanigans and that the point was wrong, but only after the debate was over and the outcome decided. I also asked the class to consider the rhetorical techniques that our super debater skillfully employed to persuade them. Unfortunately I was still taken to task by one student in the end of semester surveys for “calling out” the star debater to the class. I don't know what else I could have done. Sometimes you just can’t win.<br />
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jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-38232600821394743232014-12-10T18:11:00.000+00:002014-12-10T18:16:06.549+00:00The Cesspool of Online PlagiarismWhile running a plagiarism check I entered two sentences into Google resulting in what appears to be a dozen cases of cut and past plagiarism. I can not even discern where the original came from. The first two from major universities are identical throughout and I would assume from a Nature Publishing press release with Nature's permission. Is it plagiarism to use material this way implying it is from the posting institution without citation if the original author says it is okay? To me, that seems to be exactly the definition of plagiarism, taking credit for someone else's work. At least Sciencedaily says "based on" at the bottom and implies that that means copied from.<br />
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It is very difficult to teach undergrads to not plagiarize with such bad examples out there. The reuse of the material by the two universities with permission is probably legal in the real world and neither are likely to go after Sciencedaily for republishing it, but this would be classified and prosecuted as plagiarism if a student did it because of the implied authorship.<br />
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Science writers of all types really need to be better attributing their sources. And Kudos to cytoplan.co.uk for putting it in quotes as it should be. As for others who copied . . .<br />
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To see for yourself, copy and paste into Google:
“While a child’s genes are inherited directly from their parents, how these genes are expressed is controlled through ‘epigenetic’ modifications to the DNA. One such modification involves tagging gene regions with chemical compounds called methyl groups and results in silencing the genes. The addition of these compounds requires key nutrients including folate, vitamins B2, B6 and B12, choline and methionine.”
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJcaRB10Pgjwrota2w6A5TO9upXgGHqs8sRgQennQfuhf0fB5_D4kUO7A3w97kMa4pGrgYlfSHOK1CKGK9RAyeGW5fFo8x5JuL4Yz1pwo_bWrablAqAA_zafRqV3-2W5CopTp0AfF1dxg/s1600/dec10_1014a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJcaRB10Pgjwrota2w6A5TO9upXgGHqs8sRgQennQfuhf0fB5_D4kUO7A3w97kMa4pGrgYlfSHOK1CKGK9RAyeGW5fFo8x5JuL4Yz1pwo_bWrablAqAA_zafRqV3-2W5CopTp0AfF1dxg/s1600/dec10_1014a.jpg" height="640" width="628" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGPteaWP5rZMlgu8x77lumwZSGYhoQHTxp4Doy0ssJ2y84OWEsHDk60owXvw5uUifb0mCTM_jhsFqnmMchXSCmQXVM8alGXGBHsJzeNFyDLmsd9FL9PujylunaRGoyduiW5Psrv-dTfVI/s1600/dec10_1014c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGPteaWP5rZMlgu8x77lumwZSGYhoQHTxp4Doy0ssJ2y84OWEsHDk60owXvw5uUifb0mCTM_jhsFqnmMchXSCmQXVM8alGXGBHsJzeNFyDLmsd9FL9PujylunaRGoyduiW5Psrv-dTfVI/s1600/dec10_1014c.jpg" height="169" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmgxG1YIsh4cXL0q4UkbFzxBuX6zjHz5TPt3O9Nptg5vGSr2hHkgZ3q_k_anxx9dNEQGSFTsd0CzyPQDRfbbM8k14TeiH3yRCd8Llcpvwc4HJnzkiMc7OnTFG-VbPm1KYgRzFOA_LgR_g/s1600/dec10_1014e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmgxG1YIsh4cXL0q4UkbFzxBuX6zjHz5TPt3O9Nptg5vGSr2hHkgZ3q_k_anxx9dNEQGSFTsd0CzyPQDRfbbM8k14TeiH3yRCd8Llcpvwc4HJnzkiMc7OnTFG-VbPm1KYgRzFOA_LgR_g/s1600/dec10_1014e.jpg" height="163" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3nE5TCPpzlZ7aJm_yHDkFwQu7z1ukgbWhbGn8H6M4bdDvHrz4A4sRmjbbQkBttUOuL-XTqAVzVPMQ6SExRUhL9gej2pHrrNYeBOPuy_pUl8FPAJxAjCIB7u1xwFILiUT_RFy9YxWJJsk/s1600/dec10_1014b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3nE5TCPpzlZ7aJm_yHDkFwQu7z1ukgbWhbGn8H6M4bdDvHrz4A4sRmjbbQkBttUOuL-XTqAVzVPMQ6SExRUhL9gej2pHrrNYeBOPuy_pUl8FPAJxAjCIB7u1xwFILiUT_RFy9YxWJJsk/s1600/dec10_1014b.jpg" height="640" width="462" /></a></div>
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The above screen shots were taken December 10, 2014.</div>
jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-5765776692036929112014-09-29T21:48:00.001+00:002014-09-29T21:48:18.671+00:00Safety and the Law<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There was a time whenever I had to deal with
anything labeled Health and Safety at work that I would want to jump up and
down and scream at the complete irrationality of it all. It took a single
epiphany to make me understand how to cope with this frustrating topic even though
I still want to scream a bit. The key insight was that occupational health and
safety is actually the combination of two unrelated topics, preventing
accidents and preventing lawsuits. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I used to naively believe these two were somehow
related since you can’t have a lawsuit without something bad happening. That is
certainly true, but there are two other truths that breakdown the correlation
of lawsuit prevention and safety, 1) accidents will happen no matter what (the
shit happens principle) and 2) what prevents lawsuits (documentation, blind
unthinking adherence to “safety” procedures, ticking off paperwork and overly
general safety training) usually does not prevent accidents but can actually
create more dangerous ways of working. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Separating the law aspect from the safety aspect of
lab work can really help to understand how to make a better and safer
workplace. First and foremost, if we ignore the legal for a minute, safety
always comes down to how well each worker is trained in good habits and how
well they understand what they are doing and what the real risks are. That
means, knowing that big bottles of common acids, bases and organics are much
more dangerous than minute amounts of potential mutagens and radioactivity, it
means knowing what to do when you inevitably spill something, it means knowing
that anything sealed and frozen or under pressure could explode in your
face. Most importantly, in science it
means understanding what you are doing, what your lab mates are doing, and
having a true realistic assessment of the risks with your SPECIFIC experiments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On the other hand time wasting chemical safety
classes on transport and disposal regulations that no one but safety officers need
can cause workers to focus on the wrong issues and miss-evaluate their true
risks. In my opinion, some rules for handling and concentrating mildly
dangerous chemicals can actually increase the risk of spills making for a more
unsafe work environment. A classic example was a class that suggested handling
small containers of the radio-isotope P32 with forceps. This is insane as it
greatly increases the probability of dropping the container when there is as negligible
risk from the small amount of radioactivity that this procedure was being
recommended for. Such measures come from the nuclear industry where much larger
amounts of radioactivity are being handled. We frequently encounter the same over-kill
rules with hazardous material rules written for handling large drums of
chemicals instead of small vials containing minute amounts of material. Another example is risking burns and wasting
time and money autoclaving material that could be safely thrown in the trash at
home. I will go so far as to say that in
decades of working at university labs I have never had a single safety training
course worth the time spent in it with one exception: an outdoor first aid
class for a field course. This was useful because of the real life role playing
exercises focusing on real life scenarios. I should say that is not the fault
of university administrators, but of federal and state regulators with the
hopeless mandate to come up with uniform safety procedures and policies that
can be applied across all types of organizations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Real lab safety training only comes from your direct
supervisors’ and lab coworkers’ one-on-one instruction in the lab. The most
important and indispensable piece of safety equipment in the lab is your brain.
Unfortunately human brains are very bad at assessing risk and will always focus
on risks within their own experience. This is good for the individual worker in
their own lab, if they have the good sense to stay vigilant and to develop good
habits (the fading of attention to risk is the biggest safety problem). However, this also means that someone else’s
outside opinion from another field (“safety officers”) will always be less
correct than your own, or a peer’s assessment. You are responsible for your own
safety and those around you, and as a principle investigator you have to make
sure that that one-on-one training is done and done well. But remember that
accidents will always happen even if you do the right practical training and
work correctly. Without the paperwork, the
useless required training courses, and following the legally required
procedures to cover yourself, you will be the one with legal liability no
matter how poorly or well you train your people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is a very important point, the really annoying
and time wasting safety procedures are almost always about the law and not real
life safety, <u>but that does not mean they can be ignored</u>. There is no use
arguing with these rules and training requirements over whether they actually
improve safety or not because that is not their function. Their function is to shift
liability. The fact is that we PIs are personally responsible and can be held
financially and criminally liable for accidents in our labs. If someone in your
lab gets hurt and files a lawsuit, what do you think you university’s first
move will be, 1) to provide you with legal help or 2) cover their own backsides? All of that paper work and mandatory “safety training”
is basically our way of dodging legal exposure. Remember that the same thing
that works for our administrators is also our only legal strategy so we must
make sure our workers and students are ticking the boxes too or else.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The trick to real occupational health and safety is
to first figure out the legal requirements, then work to come up with practices
complying with the rules and regulations while minimizing the negative effects these
have on safety and productivity. The most dangerous trap is to believe that
just because your organization is ticking all of the legal boxes your
organization has actually done anything to improve safety. In my experience,
blind box ticking degrades safety both directly by misapplying rules and
practices, and indirectly by creating a general anti-safety attitude due the
sheer stupidity and inane paper work that such rules generate. To improve
safety the answer is not about thinking up clever rules or procedures, but
motivating direct supervisors and lab workers towards a safe work culture and
environment. Why not require each PI to put together his or her own lab safety
training session once a year and peer review that training plan with the
department? Even though this would be infinitely more effective, it cannot work
because each lab will leave something different out and as soon as an accident happens
that falls outside the training the lawyers will be called in and demand some
sort of uniform watered down cookie cutter coverage. It is like playing whack a-mole
with a new rule for each odd rare accident until the common sense stuff is lost
in the noise. It seems the best we can do
practically is to remind each other to only do that in the hood, or to put on your
eye protection, or to not leave that out on the bench, or show everyone the correct
way to poor and carry corrosives and so on.
Only this sort of mentorship through habitually demonstrating good
behavior will lower the frequency of accidents. What horrifies me is the real
possibility that one can be free of liability by making sure their workers have
checked the right legal boxes, without actually being sure they know how to
work safely. Imagine the uproar if such box ticking avoidance of responsibility
was applied to preventing sexual assault on campus. Oh, for <a href="http://www.outsidetheclassroom.com/solutions/higher-education/haven/view-the-course.aspx">HAVEN</a>’s
sake did I really accidentally mention that!</span></div>
jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-29675885430924515382014-06-24T16:30:00.000+00:002014-06-26T13:00:23.679+00:00Dealing with Unmotivated Students<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Recently I have run into that classic paradox in <u>Monty
Python’s Life of Brian</u> where Brian shouts to the crowd to “Think for
yourselves” and the crowd responds in unison “Think for ourselves”. There is a
much more subtle and difficult to handle side of this paradox with student
motivation in college. How much responsibility is the teacher's for “motivating”
students to do the various learning activities? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Here is the problem, no matter what class I have
ever taught, there are always a few students who will do the absolute minimum,
and that only when I go to great lengths to make them do it. These students
only work and study under direct or indirect coercion. The knee jerk way we
deal with this problem is to over assess and cook up novel ways to require
attendance and outside preparation. Classic examples of this approach are
over assessment with too many assignments, too many exams, passing mandatory quizzes before
lab sessions, and mandatory attendance. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There are reasons to question this approach of using
assessment or other forms of coercion to make the students do what we want them
to do. Besides the obvious dilution of assessment as a teaching tool, it denies the student the opportunity to learn self discipline.
That second point really hit home recently when I had one of these errant
students show up in my office at the end of the semester concerned about his
grade. He stated that it was my fault that he was not attending lectures
because I had not imposed a penalty on attendance to make sure he showed up. He
was basically saying that I had to force my will on him in place of his own
will to make him attend class. As a
teacher, we can make students do almost anything with the whip and threat of
grades and peer pressure, but are we doing them any favors if we teach them
that all they have to do to succeed in life is to respond to threats made by
others? The difference between trained unthinking employees and independent educated
leaders and entrepreneurs is the ability to self-regulate behavior and to act
on one’s own free will. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I think there are two ways to approach this problem.
The first are the classic methods I mentioned above to force students to do
exercises and attend class with threats and grades in the hope that they will
eventually see the benefit and begin to modify their behavior. Clever and
directed graded exercises are the standard tool of education. Even this tool however,
must be moderated to avoid removing the need for student self-discipline and
self-motivation. I really believe that the best teachers will leave room for
students who are not disciplined and unmotivated to fail. This is hard, because
a failing student can be seen as failure as a teacher. It can feel like passively watching a
drowning person flail in the water, but there are many times it is of more long
term benefit to the student to let them go under. Unfortunately there are some
students who will only benefit from failing because only by honestly asking
themselves why they failed will they be able to move forward. I do feel for
their personal pain, but this pain and crisis is sometimes the only way a
student can grow up and find themselves. For some in your class this may be the
first in a long of failures before the student grows up. If they decide to stay in the subject area,
then only by facing the pain of failing can they learn that they have to put in the effort even for those aspects of
the class that are not directly graded. I will go so far as to say, any teacher
who is not failing some students is not doing the job well. This is one of the
aspects of teaching that makes assessing teachers so difficult; student
performance will always be a bell curve with some super stars and some super
failures. Part of the job of a university teacher is to produce both ends of
the curve because that is what does students at both ends the most good. The only possible way to assess teaching is to look at the level and
depth of the material being <i>effectively </i>covered,
and paradoxically, not the overall satisfaction of the students. Hence, one of
the absurdities of applying a business model to higher education is that some student
customers are paying to be failed even though that is the last thing they think they are paying for.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The second
and the highest approach that I use to motivate students is to make the subject
interesting and appealing. This side of teaching is sometimes overlooked
and only shows up in the comments from the top students at the end of year
course evaluations. No one can teach a topic well if they find it boring. If it
is a chore and uninteresting to the teacher then only the best students will have
any chance of discovering the beauty of the subject. Teaching is part seduction
where the beauty and elegance of the subject must be presented in its best
light to spark the interest of the students. This is the highest
motivation that we see with the top students in the class, and what made us go
into academia in the first place. It is also the reason why over emphasis on teaching over academic scholarly activity and research is not good for undergraduate education. Do not under estimate this force of love of
being engaged in the subject, as it is what we all are aiming to inspire in the class room. So remember
to “look on the bright side of life!” and not just the bludgeon of assessment
to motivate your students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-20365863690808754182013-12-18T18:49:00.000+00:002014-01-24T17:49:27.732+00:00Public Student Blogging <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will be handing over my section of
Communicating Biology (Bio 380 at SUNY Plattsburgh) to a newbie next semester
and so would like to take some time to lay out what I think is the best
assignment/learning activity that I experimented with over the last year and a half:
setting up and <a href="http://joelparcoeur.com/Teaching380.html">writing public
blogs on biology</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The basic structure of the assignment is to 1)
set up a blog, then 2) make a series of regular entries where each entry must
consist of at least one well written paragraph in some area of biology. The
paragraph requirement is to prevent micro-blogging or just posting short blurbs
and images. I settled on six entries of one per week with the possibility of
the student redoing and editing each for additional points.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first big question is do you do it in public
or in private, the second is how to maximize the benefits and lower the risk
when you realize that having the students post publically is the best way to
go. </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There are several reasons that public blogs are
the better option. First, and most importantly the level of writing will dramatically
improve as peer pressure and pride will motivate students to do a much better
job. There is nothing like knowing your friends, family and general public are
going to be reading your work to make you pay a bit more attention to spelling
and grammar. The resulting difference from a class assigned piece of work and a
blog can be like night and day. Second, it gives students a more prominent web
presence (if they chose, more on anonymity later). This sampler of their
interests, writing ability, thought process and personality also can stand as
evidence to future employers of a student’s genuine interests and willingness
to go the extra distance. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first part of the assignment is to set up a
blog site. I point the students to Google Blogger and Wordpress. The common set
up problem is the confusion between Google Plus, Google’s version of Facebook, and
Blogger which is the blogging site. They have to have a Google Plus account in order
to set up Blogger and some students think they will be posting on Google Plus which is
not the case here. The more serious issue is accidently revealing private
information due not understanding the settings (i.e. cell phone number, yes it
happened!). It is imperative that the instructor look at the sites as soon as
they are active to make sure that the student has not revealed anything they might
not be comfortable with. I always give them the option of being anonymous (see
the safety lecture a bit a later) so that they can control their own web
presence. Some chose this, most use their real names and even post head shots
as profile pictures. At this stage I look for the simple set up without gadgets
and just want the link to their sites.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the second part, I point them to news sites
and encourage them to do current stories with the benefit of their own insights
and to add something to the story. At first they have to be encouraged to add
hyperlinks and images. I also start asking them and showing them how to add
gadgets. As far as the writing style, they need reminding to use primary
sources and to write in good journalistic style with the main point up front. Most
of the students seem to get the style after four postings but I go six to give
them a chance to really get into it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As part of the introduction to the assignment, I
always give the students a <a href="http://joelparcoeur.com/images/Safety%20slides.pptx">safety lecture</a> covering
what I consider the main risks; 1) saying something inflammatory that hurts or
destroys their career, 2) committing slander, 3) copyright infringement, and 4)
violating hate speech laws and other speech regulations around the world 5) Generally revealing too much about themselves. I
consider this as important as a laboratory health and safety lecture because
the ramifications can be life altering in the worse case. This lecture is
especially important because I have found that our students are completely
ignorant of hate speech restrictions in Europe, the backward slander laws in
the UK (reversal of burden of proof), and that they have to be very careful </span><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_libel_laws"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">criticizing
agricultural products in the US</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> and
any products made by companies with lawyers. So far I have had to remind
students about copyright images (repeatedly . . .), had one case of plagiarism
the student would not take down, and one case where the student may have put
herself at risk of a lawsuit by parroting criticism of a pharmaceutical drug a
bit too directly without supporting evidence. We have yet to get any takedown
notices nor threatening letters from lawyers, but it is the world wide web so
one has to be careful of international sensibilities and laws especially if one
expects to travel abroad at some point in their life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The good
and bad surprises<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The greatest surprise has been how willing most
students are to exceed the minimum assigned paragraph. All of you teachers out
there think about how many times you have assigned a minimum of one paragraph
and routinely <a href="http://achau002.blogspot.com/">get back more than one</a>
from your students? The authenticity and choice seem to make a huge difference
here.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another surprise is how the freedom of topic
choice can bring out student interests. Students tend to find a focus
(fisheries, endangered species, tropical stories, human disease etc.) and in
many cases students find their unique voices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This control and creative expression is priceless and I believe a strong
authentic motivator for student learning.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A less than optimal surprise is how hard it is
to get students to respect copyright laws. I fear that the battle over
copyright images or any other material online has been lost as this generation
simply believes in their hearts that if it is online it is free and morally
okay to use for any purpose. I tell them that whether they personally believe it
is right or wrong, at this time they still need to adhere to the law and that
the best option is to use their own images and media whenever possible.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Another problem that appeared was how prevalent
plagiarism and bad reporting is in the blogopshere. As I checked up on student
work I found cases where they copied someone who copied someone else, who
copied someone else to the point that I could not figure out who the original
author was! The standard of good journalism of checking primary sources for any
story really needs to be emphasized. It should be noted that plagiarism has to be closely monitored because it is committed in full view of the world. I
have to ask students to take plagiarized work down after copying it myself for
the inevitable disciplinary proceedings.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is a real problem with the very few
students who still do not care. Some will do minimal work and and end up with juvenile encyclopedic entries or worse. Even pride does not seem to
matter to some of these students. I have to ask myself it is my responsibility
to prevent these students from embarrassing themselves. The assignment does
seem to have a positive effect on most of these problem students and I have
seen some lost causes turn it around when faced with having to write publicly. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The missing problem has been trolls. I was
bracing myself to having to deal with abusive, sexist, racist
and/or threatening comments. Thankfully, those have not materialized but when
or if they do I am hoping that our students are internet savvy enough to not
let these people get to them. If it ever does become a problem, I may start
asking students to dis-allow comments from the beginning.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, I think it is important to emphasize to
the students that they are now contributing and giving back to the world the
benefits of their biology education to date. The main question I ask the students
when grading these is what have you added to the story? This is their chance to
make an impact on the world and express their own opinions and thought on
current issues in their favorite area of biology. Now if just one of them would
keep it up after the class ends (please <a href="http://bioissexy.blogspot.com/">Bioissexy</a>
we all want you to keep on posting!).</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-69570508280308559352013-11-23T20:17:00.000+00:002013-11-23T20:36:06.056+00:00A change of nameI have decided that the title of my blog was fine when I was mostly talking about the trials and tribulations of being a biologist expat. Now that I feel like I have come home, It is time to scrap that name for my web alias.Yes, this is not the America I left and yes it has changed for the worse in my opinion (too right wing, the Patriot Act etc.) but I no longer feel like I don't belong. This past election cycle my wife and I decided an election with our two votes. As long as that can happen there is still hope that we can turn it around.<br />
<br />
The topics discussed here will be unchanged though less about cultural differences. I am cooking up several teaching postings and am planning on doing some reviews and generally trying to be useful.jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-49856911785300410062013-08-05T01:11:00.001+00:002013-08-05T11:54:49.701+00:00Road Trip!<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRKzMwKQAbC_5gP2WtAlAgWFmPwAV9QdNDcM3w4-T3J7AgG0tKq7l-hYjF2YYwPVpAj5LDZpUR4Pz0_XzHLktIHUqGKhQHazQPCMK1P51zReuhiMpdheGwhtgzclqDvcT8-PZJ3h8fpZU/s1600/2013-08-02+01.21.23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRKzMwKQAbC_5gP2WtAlAgWFmPwAV9QdNDcM3w4-T3J7AgG0tKq7l-hYjF2YYwPVpAj5LDZpUR4Pz0_XzHLktIHUqGKhQHazQPCMK1P51zReuhiMpdheGwhtgzclqDvcT8-PZJ3h8fpZU/s320/2013-08-02+01.21.23.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I finally took a day off on Friday and we decided to
make a run north of the border for the day. Like most of our trips we picked one
thing then went from there. The Dale Chihuly art glass exhibit is
in Montreal and that became our goal. This was the first out of the
country trip since returning and it ended up going pretty much like most of the
other trips to foreign lands. The border crossing is always a bit anxious even
when you know your legal and have the correct documents. There is always the
little scripted game the border agents play with you asking you where you’re
going where you're from while cleverly probing you for details in a disarming
manner. Even when you’re perfectly honest there is always something stressful
about knowing that if you answer the questions wrong they will park you
somewhere for special attention. The first thing I noticed when we did cross
the border was the odd traffic laws. The speed limit suddenly became 100 and
from what I saw it must be illegal to signal before changing lanes in Quebec.
Montreal is much bigger than I thought it would be and we did what we always do
when visiting a city with non-english signs; we promptly got lost. I have said
this before, if you can’t stand getting lost don’t travel to foreign countries.
Anyway, we quickly re-oriented and found a place to park near the museum and
immediately sought out a cafe to calm down. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We found a café where my first effort in French
completely failed. The accent also had Karen completely stumped. We knew we would
not get away with septante, huitante and
nonante, but who would have guessed that pain au chocolat is a chocolatine in Canadian
French? When I did break down and describe it english, it was good enough that
I could have been in Europe! I had forgotten how intellectually stimulating
being immersed in signs and people using a foreign language. There is something
about constantly working at understanding and translating that keeps your brain
more awake. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0jHzrfSWxQcuSo7URCpgCNFOiM1DVO7XcqxOWLmtwcCX9ftali6uJMCS-kXSzLV21HWTh7hziFAjaZn4CBW_786tX-hzXt2R59NF5ckQXwroZTjj3T0EyEsLaZ8fDRIVaNwuA4S2ieSE/s1600/2013-08-01+23.22.13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0jHzrfSWxQcuSo7URCpgCNFOiM1DVO7XcqxOWLmtwcCX9ftali6uJMCS-kXSzLV21HWTh7hziFAjaZn4CBW_786tX-hzXt2R59NF5ckQXwroZTjj3T0EyEsLaZ8fDRIVaNwuA4S2ieSE/s320/2013-08-01+23.22.13.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one needs to be outside.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The exhibit was magnificent and we took A LOT of pictures
(see Karen’s set at </span><a href="http://t.co/TTQCRyUzYb" target="_blank" title="http://tinyurl.com/ora2me5"><span class="js-display-url"><span style="background: whitesmoke; color: #0084b4; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">tinyurl.com/ora2me5</span></span><span class="invisible"><span style="background: whitesmoke; color: #0084b4; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 1.0pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> </span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">,
my 3D’s</span>,<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
are and will be on my Tumblr site at </span><a href="http://jparcoeur.tumblr.com/">http://jparcoeur.tumblr.com/</a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">).
The museum is free but the special exhibit costs $20. It was totally worth it.
We ended standing in line for about 20 minutes. After the exhibit we went to
lunch and then went back to to see the regular exhibits. For lunch we wandered
down the cheap restaurant street (Bishop) completely by accident. We decided on
a funky looking Mexican place that turned out to be vegetarian (Burritoville) after
walkng past a bunch very greasy looking options. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggngVOdAPqv6w6v3G25Po_isVfntCpod0lc14U236Zshq-hFbbQJtg3byDhH4YcWQ9POtMG5rx4kBMsgxQOQqF1OGqzQ30WZy0EAc8lAWxh2SdhJNafVWkHP7HwTFkJTZvUssqqIAfJIw/s1600/2013-08-02+13.10.17-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggngVOdAPqv6w6v3G25Po_isVfntCpod0lc14U236Zshq-hFbbQJtg3byDhH4YcWQ9POtMG5rx4kBMsgxQOQqF1OGqzQ30WZy0EAc8lAWxh2SdhJNafVWkHP7HwTFkJTZvUssqqIAfJIw/s200/2013-08-02+13.10.17-1.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Really good vegi food!!!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We had the best sweet potato
tacos I have ever had! It was very good, inexpensive and I would highly
recommend it. After lunch we walked around the block to get back to the museum
and found the expensive Euro-outdoor style restaurants like you see in
Switzerland and France. Maybe next time we will try one of those if we are
feeling homesick for Europe. We went backing in and saw the free exhibits which
were also interesting and good. The drive back went better without getting
lost. The view going over the Champlain Bridge is amazing and we saw even more
amazing driving again. We were a bit worried about the wait going back into the
US but we only sat around for about twenty minutes. Overall it was a great day
and we are planning to hit the botanical garden next time around.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
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jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-39462749692777679082013-07-22T19:02:00.000+00:002013-07-22T19:02:02.245+00:00Hudson Rocks!<div class="MsoNormal">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_rfTcHAs__cFrX_eR0DwC-4ZegcfIOnX221RyhS89CvpqkTEnsqmy6bp_ZurX40-BSjAN-uKo00v0q-OxNAOvAB5lrT2fCr5NunSADDuxA2k_YsyPJfk_HIqPxg6qUxLvdLP8UTshaI/s1600/hudsonrocks.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9_rfTcHAs__cFrX_eR0DwC-4ZegcfIOnX221RyhS89CvpqkTEnsqmy6bp_ZurX40-BSjAN-uKo00v0q-OxNAOvAB5lrT2fCr5NunSADDuxA2k_YsyPJfk_HIqPxg6qUxLvdLP8UTshaI/s1600/hudsonrocks.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Backside of Hudson Hall</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I may not be in the Geology Department but I did
notice their messing around with our landscaping. The boulders behind Hudson
Hall are actually quite interesting and not so common. The ones that first
caught my attention are three massive black boulders near the back entrance.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A magnetic smile with magnets.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV6Vu7cXlrLrIqunmalU-TLVoUw4NkMthe5bq0AgchYPLVeE9kfCy6WZNShCAcBvo2NrDTX2FqyQ-TwhrVyx90gtu3KgaFetdEqxN77888ZB1ndWa9nhOfnc0rokhWiU2cU4_tx0njTXc/s1600/granitgarnets.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV6Vu7cXlrLrIqunmalU-TLVoUw4NkMthe5bq0AgchYPLVeE9kfCy6WZNShCAcBvo2NrDTX2FqyQ-TwhrVyx90gtu3KgaFetdEqxN77888ZB1ndWa9nhOfnc0rokhWiU2cU4_tx0njTXc/s1600/granitgarnets.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Garnets in Granite</td></tr>
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</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When I looked closer I had a hunch so I went up to my office, pulled some magnets off of my magnetic white board (came with the new office) and they stuck to the rocks! These are obviously HUGE pieces of magnetite. Another very cool set is a local specialility that I have seen in the wild at Point Au Roche. They are granite boulders with garnet inclusions.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">These garnets are not gem quality but have been mined in the
area for use in sand paper (why sandpaper is orange). The other big rocks look sedimentary and boring
to my eye, but I am sure our geologists did not pick them without a reason. Nice
job Geology! Now if I can just figure out a way to introduce some ants . . . </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-7742062606069598912013-05-31T12:32:00.000+00:002013-05-31T12:32:55.857+00:00Stop Assigning Lab Reports!!!<div class="MsoNormal">
The lab reports in most science classes are probably the
most destructive exercises in all of science education. It seems like a good
idea to get the students writing, but it is never good to make them practice doing
things wrong, and the common lab report is almost always full of assigned wrongs.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It has been my experience that students are always confused
when they move between disciplines and between professors about what is
expected on lab reports. Citation
formats, what to include, what to leave out all change with discipline and the specific
class. The problem is that each discipline and each professor has their own
format emphasizing specific learning objectives (LO). The seemingly logical and
irresistible temptation is to assign a report style perfectly tailored to the
exercises specific LO’s. For example, if a lab requires a Bradford protein
assay, do the students include details on how the procedure is done, the data
table and the graph showing the standard curve or do they just report the
protein concentration in the context of the experiment? Pedagogically, if one
is teaching Bradford assays, one might be tempted to make the students include
all of that in the results. However, this teaches students to put material in
the results that is never in a real journal article.<b> </b>If you need to check student proficiency
of these specifics then why not ask the student to put this in a supplemental
section at the end of the report so that the student knows that this is
supplemental and never core to writing up their science? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The result of these sorts of mistakes is that when the
student moves on, the next teacher has to re-educate students on the next
class’s lab report style. Worse still, is that we all get stuck making graduate
students unlearn lab report writing before they can move onto proper manuscript
writing. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why don’t we all agree to always have our science students
use a journal manuscript format for all lab reports? Why not ask students to
write their reports as manuscripts for submission to a relevant journal that we
have pre-selected. I am now giving students a specific journal format to
follow and pointing them to the instruction to authors section for direction
when I assign a lab manuscript. These formats are all on line and freely
available. By looking at model papers in these journals for guidance, they will
find examples of what to include and what not to include in a general and
universal way. If I want them to include something that is not routinely
included I tell them to put it into a supplemental section so that they know it
is extra. Students will also see that
there are different citation formats for different journals and that they need
to adhere to the one for that journal. If
physicists send students to physics journals, chemists to chemistry journals,
ecologists to ecology journals then the approach would be consistent across
disciplines and students would understand why differing citation and other
formats are being assigned in different labs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The one rule I have found with this style of lab reports is
to have a ZERO tolerance for breaking format. The only effective way I have
ever made the majority of students reference properly is to return reports with
ill formatted or bad references with zero credit and telling them to redo it
and resubmit. The same policy is the probably the only way to teach the method
format. The inevitable protest will be “but it is just the references!” or “a zero for not
abbreviating authors names!!?”. If you
do not take it seriously and give allocate a small portion of a grade for
formatting, then the students will not take it seriously either. The answer to these protests is that any
professional editor will make you do it again, so get used to it. Following a
publication format is what one has to do to publish anything anywhere. In other
words, make it authentic. The practical advice for this kind of assignment is
that the policy absolutely requires that manuscripts be submitted with enough
time for resubmissions remaining at the end of the semester (at least two weeks
for first submission date prior to end of term).</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
By writing in real publication style, the students will see
that there are different formats and understand that these formats must be
adhered to in the real world. Most importantly, Writing up lab experiments
would become authentic practice and not create bad habits that we have to
unteach them later.</div>
jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-21777484528334541302013-01-21T05:00:00.000+00:002013-01-21T05:00:00.519+00:00Take credit for your student’s success? then take the blame for the failures.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Nothing makes me
question someone’s teaching ability more than when they brag the achievements of
one of their past top performing students, and then launch into a rant about
how the bottom of the class is wasting everyone’s time because these students
are lazy, unintelligent and/or unmotivated. We all have superstars in class and
they will always perform well. All one has to do to get the superstars onside
is to flatter them a bit while offering some sort of helpful advice. These
students can do wonders for your teaching reputation as they are invariably the
most outspoken and articulate and therefore most likely to tell everyone how
wonderful you are. Hence, catering to the elite end of the class is probably
the easiest and surest way to advance your teaching reputation. However, it
does not make you a good or even passable teacher. The top 10% always takes
care of itself, it is how you deal with the other 90% that separates the great from the descent teachers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you want to have my
respect for your teaching then ask or tell me how you deal with your
worse student. What techniques and methods do you use with the ones who are
struggling? What ideas or approaches are you considering to improve their
performance and yours? I have some ideas, like emphasizing what is beautiful
about the subject and always trying to emphasize and bring out what is the most
astonishing and amazing aspect of whatever topic I cover. I m convinced that only by kindling a genuine interest can one hope to motivate the bored students. In addition, I have found that treating even
the worse students like responsible and reasonable adults who are not stupid,
but perhaps misguided, or who might have problems outside of class can help as well.
Remember that no matter how much a person screws up, doesn’t attend class, or
misses assignments, no one wants to be a failure. The question you have to ask the student is
why are they behaving that way and what can they do to change that
behavior? So what do you do with your
problem students?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The bottom line is
that you should not take credit for your students’ successes unless you are
also willing to take the blame for their failures. The real measure of your teaching
ability is how much better ALL your students’ are with your help, than they
would have been without it.</span></span>jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-74198825936282320792013-01-07T06:00:00.000+00:002013-01-07T11:36:21.189+00:00Our Tech Savy, But Network Illiterate Students<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This past semester I
had a blast teaching Communicating Biology (Bio 380) at my new university in
Plattsburgh. Since this is a third year class the focus was more on post-graduation
skills than on university survival like the tutorials I used to teach in
Southampton. Hence, there was also an emphasis on writing cover letters,
working on CV’s and on different forms of presentations students might find
themselves asked to do in the real world. Two very important aspects of this are
dealing with the media and managing their web presence. For the media
assignment, I had the students set up and video an interview with each other including
much of what I learned from a valuable career development workshop seminar
giving by the Royal Society on interacting with the media a few years back. To
my great surprise the students needed hardly any equipment (most did interviews
on their own webcams) and did very creative jobs with editing and producing their
programs, albeit with enough copyright infringements that most could not be
posted online. What amazed me was that I only had a couple who asked to borrow
webcams and that all of them managed to put together videos with very little
instruction or school provision of equipment and software.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On the other hand, I
was taken aback at the apparent lack of thought most students have given to
their web presence. They all must think about it with their Facebook sites, but
very few can make the leap to how this can work for and against them in the
grown up world. I must admit that I am equally dismayed at how little thought
most of my peers give to their web presence as well. As competitive as academia,
any edge helps; and the internet is one of the best ways to gain that edge. So
after enlightening my students about how to tame Facebook, use Linkedin and the
importance of taking control of their online presence, I also assigned them to
make their own websites by modifying freely available templates with HTML and
to write blogs which are online (<a href="http://joelparcoeur.com/Teaching380.html" target="_blank">link</a>). I was worried that assigning basic HTML
programming using a text editor was a bit like teaching how to use a slide rule in
an age with computers, but they did well and seemed to appreciate actually
seeing how this thing called the internet works. Interestingly they came up
with websites that were more professional looking than most of our faculty
members off campus sites. The blogs are kind of a mixed bag as you can see, but
several of them found a voice and they actually were communicating biology,
which I what the course was about. What will be telling will be to see how many
of them keep it up.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-39994902799574582762013-01-01T15:21:00.000+00:002013-01-01T15:43:57.773+00:00Twice as much education for double the price?<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the most
striking differences in the American and British university systems is the
amount of class time required for a bachelor degree. The US semester is 50% longer
and the undergraduate degree program is one year longer (3 years in Britain, 4
years in the US). For those who have problems with math, this means American
undergraduates are in class exactly twice as long as the British counter parts.
Of course, The British students only take classes in their major, whereas the
American system includes breadth with liberal arts requirements. The two questions
that I have to ask are 1) Do American students get twice the education as the
British and 2) do the British spend half as much money per student as the
Americans for a Bachelor’s degree? I
realize that I am biased, but my guess would be yes to the first and no to the
second. In the case of double the time, American students get a much broader
experience, more opportunity to change direction as the students mature. We American
instructors get the added freedom and luxury of time with the longer semesters
allowing more time for teaching innovation and time for flexibility in dealing
with difficult topics. The flip side of this can be a lack of focused effort
from the students. This extra time and extra choice leads some to flounder
whereas the focused more intense rationed system of the British system
encourages never straying from the path.
I have no idea about the second question about relative cost between the
two countries. If anyone can point me to
any hard numbers on these issues please do.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7316154618489556315.post-49162652622290210392012-08-01T01:50:00.002+00:002012-08-01T01:53:53.980+00:00My First Trilobites!!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF3e9QuUyUStwYRfKfKKgrqHLrKxOepaRKY20Z2xxFPXNDs0rwHtNBYyIjJJ5DspXddtZ1u3awEEFSqnRKKzu4cGMN7b4HVb5E90qu-Akij2ck7YGIZXa4EuYefcmHpE_ErnWbfmaRqEc/s1600/IMAG0029.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF3e9QuUyUStwYRfKfKKgrqHLrKxOepaRKY20Z2xxFPXNDs0rwHtNBYyIjJJ5DspXddtZ1u3awEEFSqnRKKzu4cGMN7b4HVb5E90qu-Akij2ck7YGIZXa4EuYefcmHpE_ErnWbfmaRqEc/s320/IMAG0029.jpg" width="213" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZXOJeYBZZxUPH77WpVTlxMG12g3OQ38hdULQ2TLiL9fnsKczg5QtFjZA2zNyKgdWdamBqpaZ_07YrCTaetIpHNTVTQLL1uKnb5uOuulyeZn6KoF6EZGIQ5r7UVCLqlPqs1MUN8rSE3M/s1600/IMAG0031.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZXOJeYBZZxUPH77WpVTlxMG12g3OQ38hdULQ2TLiL9fnsKczg5QtFjZA2zNyKgdWdamBqpaZ_07YrCTaetIpHNTVTQLL1uKnb5uOuulyeZn6KoF6EZGIQ5r7UVCLqlPqs1MUN8rSE3M/s320/IMAG0031.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
It looks like I moved from the Jurassic Coast to the Silurian Shore. Here are pictures of my first trilobite fossil finds. Growing up in Oregon, I am used to tripping over fossils all over the place with the exception of the big basaltic lava flows around the Columbia River Gorge. The rocks around Lake Champlain are very different. They are some of the oldest in North America with some dating from the mid Cambrian and most not more recent than around 450 million years old. This means there are very few fossils compared to Oregon, even in what is obviously ocean floor layered sediment. To my eyes the layers of grey rocks look like they are missing something. The Cambrian must have been a very lonely time or composed of some very squishy critters that did not fossilize. Last weekend however we were checking out Point Au Roche and I came across these two impressions along the lake that can only be trilobites. I had never found trilobite fossils before so I am probably more excited than I should be. Theese are not spectacular specimens but they are my first (also added a Scarlet Tanager to my life list on the trail back). Trilobites were fascinating animals that went from being very common and diverse sea creatures to completely extinct. They had some of the fundamental segmentation patterns associated with modern arthropods (insects, crustaceans, spiders, millipedes etc) and the first compound eyes. If The Doctor ever offered me a ride in his blue box I think a trilobite collecting trip would be close to the top of my list of things to do.jparcoeurhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03880353646115669170noreply@blogger.com0