28
Feb
Friday recommended reads #19
1. Here is a cool natural history story about blindsnake associations with owls, which was news to me.
2. Do
1 min read
Latest
26
Feb
Public thesis defenses are illegal in the USA
In the United States, PhD students defend their thesis with a public presentation. After this presentation (or sometimes, on another
2 min read
25
Feb
Academic House Cleaning
Around our house, the weekend usually means catching up. There is catching up on sleep, downtime and relaxing, exercise and
3 min read
24
Feb
Avoiding bad teaching evaluations: Tricks of the trade
Student evaluations are the main method used to evaluate our teaching. These evaluations are, at best, an imperfect measuring tool.
6 min read
21
Feb
Friday recommended reads #18
* Have you always wanted to trash (or praise) a paper publicly? Check out PubPeer, “the online journal club.” All of
1 min read
19
Feb
What do our grades measure? Academic savvy or actual learning?
Grades are a necessary evil. I record grades because it’s a required part of my job, even though the
3 min read
17
Feb
All faculty need academic freedom to protect their students
Sometimes I hear questions like, “Why is academic freedom so important? Why should university professors should have total control over
4 min read
14
Feb
Friday recommended reads # 17
What do journal impact factors really mean? For starters, impact factor predicts retraction rates better than long-term citation rates.
Who
2 min read
12
Feb
Structural privilege in the world’s premier science fair
Three years ago, the “world’s largest pre-college science fair” was passing through town. I was asked to volunteer as
9 min read
11
Feb
Putting faces to names: meeting fellow academics
I just got back from a tour of North America, including a stop to visit my family in Nova Scotia
4 min read