I have just been helping my 5th grade daughter with her science homework which has been an extremely painful process to both of us. Though it would be easier to blame the lack of interest on her (most children her age are inherently lazy and disinterested, etc...) this would be all too easy. In reality the problem should be apparent - let me demonstrate;
Suppose you wanted to learn about the way parachutes work? How would you begin? You might read a book about parachutes or you might investigate on your own. An investigation is a procedure that is carried out to gather data about an object or an event. An investigation can be as simple as measuring an object or observing a response to a stimulus.
This is an excerpt directly from the text. Now to the eye of an adult not sitting with an actual 5th grade kid - might see this as a fine statement. Closer inspection through the eyes of a 10 year kid - has now likened reading this material to having their teeth pulled. The only long term affect this has had is to further distance my daughter from science. With the assistance of a 5th grader - let me rewrite;
What is an investigation? Lets start with gathering data, something we all do without even thinking about it. Have you ever watched a baby given a new toy? They will turn it around in their hands, they will look at it, they will put it in their mouth, they will sit on it. In short they are investigating the new toy - their little minds are gathering data about the object.
Do you gather data? Well - has your mother or father ever tried to feed you a new food. Do you blindly eat the food or do you sniff it, take a little taste and then make a judgment to whether the food is edible. You are gathering data about the food.
How else can we gather data? It helps to understand the concept of a stimulus. The smell of the food is a good example of a stimulus. Whether you wrinkle your nose and say gross, or smile and say yum - would be a response. You react to stimuli (the word for more than one stimulus) all the time. Heat, cold, tastes, smells, pokes, prods, and tickles - they are all stimuli.
If you watch how something (or somebody) reacts to a stimulus - you are conducting an investigation.
We took this new language and actually conducted an experiment, determining that our 4th grade daughter will resist a tickling stimulus 100% of the time, giggle 75% of the time, and be silent 25% of the time.
Science is all around us - and is not as boring and dull as we make it. What really needs to be done is science texts need to be written with scientists AND people who understand children (like a child psychologist). The effectiveness of the book needs to be tested on actual children (our school system spends a lot of money on these texts - how hard is itto demand good ones?). For those who read this who do not have children (but plan to) - you will all soon feel my pain. For those of you who have felt my pain - this is a shared pain, not only children feel it - but also the parents who work through this with their kids. I also applaud all those wonderful science teachers out their who breathe life into science - had it not been for them my life might have gone much differently. And special thanks to my 9th grade physics teacher at Spartanburg High School who opened class the first day by driving a nail through a board with his hand - and then showed all of us how the principles of momentum make this quite easy to do - and also fostered a small group of future scientists.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Academic or academic
(1) Academic: academician, an educator who works at a college or university.
(2) Academic: hypothetical or theoretical and not expected to produce an immediate or practical result.
These are 2 of the definitions of academic. I have through most of my life aspired to the first of these 2 definitions having been influenced by teachers in my life and my parents. In my association with academia I have come to realize why both definitions have very close meaning, and I have always tried to stay away from the second of these definitions.
The experiences I have had in my research work have been extremely varied, having started my Ph.D career as an environmental engineer. It did not take much time for me to push the limits of where I wished to go in that field – so I turned my attention towards the broader field of software engineering for which I had a strong “knack”
As I expanded my work and research and took on varying projects I developed a strong desire to work on project that had a real meaning and impact. The first project of this type was Drugnet which was an FDLE project, but that led to more project in public safety. The current FINDER project has been a direct result of that early desire to do something with a strong positive impact – and any deep look into that project will reveal the incredible impact that it has had. Not to say it has been without its critics, I’ve learned that even doing the right thing will put you in the line of fire nearly every time.
One other project that I took on – which really was an incredible interest of mine was SCINET, which was championed by a number of strong visionary people in Seminole County government. The entire idea was to look at government operations with a holistic and unbiased approach and to do what was necessary to increase the efficiency of government. With SCINET we had a willing government participant with a strong champion within the government organization. When I took the project on – a colleague of mine who I know and respect warned me that the nature and culture of government was designed to breed inefficiency and mediocrity and that the project was doomed at the start. I took this as more of a challenge than anything else.
Over the years the project had solid successes. We analyzed the government processes, we made changes, and we built software to support these changes and new processes. The software had a leveling effect of bringing accountability to government workers – for once, everyone could see true productivity. The project was not without its challenges and often played out like a video game. Each time we would vanquish one challenge – usually in the form of people, another more powerful foe would take its place. I did, however, have my team and we marched forward. How much was saved by Seminole County as this project moved forward, - I do not want to steal the thunder of my graduate students who have quantified this savings and are publishing it as a result of their thesis and dissertations – but we’ll go with “quite a bit”
Now I face more challenges in the project, and as a direct result of shying away from the second of the two definitions. The software and analysis produced has real monetary value. If you even want to see the true color and motivations of people you have to confront them with the temptation of money. I have faced this same situation with the FINDER project, and now get to see it with this project too. It seems to be human nature that is compounded in a government setting – that when the possibility of one person doing something of distinction presents itself, others will ensure that they are pulled back down into the masses. This should be an interesting period of time – we hopefully will find a way to work out the IP here, I always hold the optimistic hope that “cooler heads will prevail”. We’ll see how it goes on this one – stay tuned and hope for me as I stay with definition 1.
(2) Academic: hypothetical or theoretical and not expected to produce an immediate or practical result.
These are 2 of the definitions of academic. I have through most of my life aspired to the first of these 2 definitions having been influenced by teachers in my life and my parents. In my association with academia I have come to realize why both definitions have very close meaning, and I have always tried to stay away from the second of these definitions.
The experiences I have had in my research work have been extremely varied, having started my Ph.D career as an environmental engineer. It did not take much time for me to push the limits of where I wished to go in that field – so I turned my attention towards the broader field of software engineering for which I had a strong “knack”
As I expanded my work and research and took on varying projects I developed a strong desire to work on project that had a real meaning and impact. The first project of this type was Drugnet which was an FDLE project, but that led to more project in public safety. The current FINDER project has been a direct result of that early desire to do something with a strong positive impact – and any deep look into that project will reveal the incredible impact that it has had. Not to say it has been without its critics, I’ve learned that even doing the right thing will put you in the line of fire nearly every time.
One other project that I took on – which really was an incredible interest of mine was SCINET, which was championed by a number of strong visionary people in Seminole County government. The entire idea was to look at government operations with a holistic and unbiased approach and to do what was necessary to increase the efficiency of government. With SCINET we had a willing government participant with a strong champion within the government organization. When I took the project on – a colleague of mine who I know and respect warned me that the nature and culture of government was designed to breed inefficiency and mediocrity and that the project was doomed at the start. I took this as more of a challenge than anything else.
Over the years the project had solid successes. We analyzed the government processes, we made changes, and we built software to support these changes and new processes. The software had a leveling effect of bringing accountability to government workers – for once, everyone could see true productivity. The project was not without its challenges and often played out like a video game. Each time we would vanquish one challenge – usually in the form of people, another more powerful foe would take its place. I did, however, have my team and we marched forward. How much was saved by Seminole County as this project moved forward, - I do not want to steal the thunder of my graduate students who have quantified this savings and are publishing it as a result of their thesis and dissertations – but we’ll go with “quite a bit”
Now I face more challenges in the project, and as a direct result of shying away from the second of the two definitions. The software and analysis produced has real monetary value. If you even want to see the true color and motivations of people you have to confront them with the temptation of money. I have faced this same situation with the FINDER project, and now get to see it with this project too. It seems to be human nature that is compounded in a government setting – that when the possibility of one person doing something of distinction presents itself, others will ensure that they are pulled back down into the masses. This should be an interesting period of time – we hopefully will find a way to work out the IP here, I always hold the optimistic hope that “cooler heads will prevail”. We’ll see how it goes on this one – stay tuned and hope for me as I stay with definition 1.
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