July 2009
17 posts
“One of the key things that every scientist keeps in mind, is you should never fall in love with your theory. So it’s an idea, it’s a hypothesis, it fits all the known facts. But it has not yet been proven, and we must be willing to give it up and modify it if it is not proven. But we will learn something in doing so.”
—Michael Mumma
“And one of the things that I’ve committed to doing as President is making sure that math and science are cool again, and that we once again keep the goal by 2020 of having the highest college graduation rates of any country on Earth, especially in the maths and science fields.”
—40th Anniversary of the Man’s First Steps on the Moon
“This is where teacher turns serious and asks the Big Question: What is education, anyway? What are we doing in this school? You can say you’re trying to graduate so you can go to college and prepare for a career. But, fellow students, it’s more than that. I’ve had to ask myself what the hell I’m doing in the classroom. I’ve worked out an equation for myself. On the left side of the blackboard I print a capital F, on the right side another capital F. I draw an arrow from left to right, from FEAR to FREEDOM. I don’t think anyone achieves complete freedom, but what I am trying to do with you is drive fear into a corner.”
—Teacher Man: a memoir by By Frank McCourt
“If students are led to focus on ‘how well’ they’re doing more than on ‘what’ they’re doing, they may do whatever they think is necessary to make it look as though they’re succeeding.”
—Who’s Cheating Whom? by Alfie Kohn (Phi Delta Kappan)
Bill Gates Puts Classic Feynman Lectures Online →
microsoft.com
The Messenger Lectures include seven videos of Dr. Richard Feynman speaking on physics at Cornell University in 1964.
www.wechoosethemoon.org →
wechoosethemoon.org
Real-time recap of the Apollo 11 mission
