Mailman 3 December 2004 - Edu-sig

Thoughts?
by Marilyn Davis Dec. 4, 2004

Dec. 4, 2004

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=742&e=1&u=/usatoday/200412… struggling academically Fri Dec 3, 6:17 AM ET Op/Ed - USATODAY.com Girls are taking the nation's colleges by storm. They're streaming to campuses in greater numbers, earning better grades and graduating more often. The same phenomenal success shows in high schools, where girls dominate honor rolls, hold more student government spots and rake in most of the academic awards. So says a just-released report from the U.S. Department of Education (news - web sites). Impressive. But the real news is tucked into the deeper, darker corners of the report. Boys are doing miserably, and nobody knows quite why. On measures ranging from writing ability to the likelihood of needing special education, boys are flat-lining - or worse. The phenomenon is most serious in inner cities, but it's evident in even the wealthiest school districts. And it's not confined to the United States. The same trend is turning up throughout the industrialized world. The impact could hardly be overstated. College-educated people earn twice as much as high school graduates. If boys can't get to the good-jobs starting line, which these days is a bachelor's degree, they won't get a chance to use their natural competitive skills in the marketplace. And when fewer men earn college degrees there are fewer partners whom educated women find desirable to marry. That's a debilitating social phenomenon African-American women have struggled with for years. The problem has already grown so severe that three out of every four private colleges (an informal estimate from admissions directors) quietly practice affirmative action for boys, favoring them over girls in admissions to get near balance. Yet for most educators - from kindergarten on up - the problem is invisible. Any teacher looking for national research that might define classroom solutions won't find any. They don't exist. The small group of experts who research the problem only now is beginning to trace its outlines. It isn't so much that schools have changed in ways that hurt boys. It's that society has changed in ways that help girls. Increasingly, success requires verbal skills, which everyone agrees come more naturally to girls. Industrial-age jobs that required minimal verbal skills are disappearing, replaced by information-age jobs that range from filing insurance claims to law. Even in technical fields, verbal skills are at a premium. An auto mechanic or TV repairman now needs to master complex technical manuals. School reformers eventually spotted the need and reacted strongly, setting standards and writing tests that demand verbal skills. The SAT and ACT required for college applicants, for instance, now have an essay component. This puts boys at a huge handicap, and schools haven't begun to adapt. One hint of the inadequacy can be found in research done by Michael Gurian, author of Boys and Girls Learn Differently. He surveyed the course offerings of schools of education throughout the country. His discovery: 99% of universities and teacher colleges do not offer a course on the biological differences between how girls and boys learn. So teachers enter classrooms unprepared to turn boys into successful readers. Other factors also come quickly into play, setting off a downward spiral that looks something like this: At home, dads read to their daughters and throw footballs to their sons. In elementary school overwhelmingly female teaching staffs naturally teach in ways that connect better with girls. Fidgety boys are quickly defined as suffering from reading disabilities. In middle school, teachers - still unattuned to the boys' disadvantages - take no action to correct swelling reading gaps. That brings boys to the pivotal ninth grade, the first year when they run up against the heavily verbal, college-track curriculum that school reforms demand of most schools. And the boys flounder. The trend holds through the remaining school years: Girls shine; boys fade. Some responses suggested by researchers appear easy. Assign boys books that they find more appealing, for example. And bring them along gradually, so they don't quit. But in the end, the problem runs much deeper. It surely won't be fixed until educators first come to see that it exists.

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math fiction
by John Miller Dec. 3, 2004

Dec. 3, 2004

I received this from the current issue of the Scout Report: http://scout.wisc.edu/Reports/ScoutReport/2004/scout-041203.php I know that there are a number of subscribers who are interested in using Python to teach Math, and I thought that this site might suggest an interdisciplinary approach. Perhaps these snippets could pique students' interest in math topics being presented. Anyway, it looks interesting... John Miller > 9. Mathematical Fiction > http://math.cofc.edu/faculty/kasman/MATHFICT/default.html > > Alex Kasman, Associate Professor in the College of Charleston > Department of > Mathematics, has compiled this list of Mathematical Fiction. The books > and > stories listed here may be of interest to teachers or anyone wanting > to read > about mathematics from a literary perspective. The collection is > organized > so that visitors can browse by medium (which includes 22 entries that > are > categorized as "Available Free Online"), genre, motif, or topic. Some > motifs > include Evil Mathematicians, Female Mathematicians, Insanity, Math as > Beautiful/Exciting/Useful, and Math as Cold/Dry/Useless. Some examples > of > topics listed include Algebra/Arithmetic/Number Theory, Mathematical > Physics, and Probability/Statistics. The category with by far the most > entries is Science Fiction with Not Science-Fiction, Fantasy or Horror > coming in at a close second. Visitors can also search the entire > database, > view entries by Title or Author or Year, or check out the 30 most > recently > added or modified entries. Each entry is followed by a sentence or two > describing the article or book and some include a website link to the > article or to Amazon.com for ordering information. Proceeds from sales > made > through the website go to the College of Charleston Department of > Mathematics. [VF] This site is also reviewed in the December 3, > 2004_NSDL > MET Report_. [VF]

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Re: A better way?
by Jeff Sandys Dec. 3, 2004

Dec. 3, 2004

I showed this thread at the SeaPIG meeting and we talked about handling attributes. I pointed out that the dot is an operator and that you can have a space between the dot, and the group didn't believe me until they tried it. >>> s = "my string" >>> s . split() ['my', 'string'] I think by showing the students that dot is an operator helps them understand what is going on and they might not be so concerned about making the long variable and method dotted chains. Thanks, Jeff Sandys ________________________________________________________________ Juno Platinum $9.95. Juno SpeedBand $14.95. Sign up for Juno Today at http://www.juno.com! Look for special offers at Best Buy stores.

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teaching Python
by Darren Payne Dec. 2, 2004

Dec. 2, 2004

Sorry all - this post will probly stir up a commotion. I have been keen on Python for quite a while. I have tried using it ti teach programming in a high school situation and would have liked to extend into PyGame. Sadly, though I feel I DO understand object oriented concepts, I DO NOT have any idea of determining what objects to create. Similarly, as there is SO MUCH to learn before one becomes capable of completing even simple tasks like a blackjack cardgame (with gui too) ... I am finding students get turned off before they even get a chance to see what can be done. I know ... it must be just me and the way I teach it. However, I have recently revisited Gamemaker. I saw it a few years ago and could not make much sense of it. But now it is up to version 6, there are loads of fantastic tutorials to follow along with. I have introduced it to classes from Yr7 - 10 and they love it whereas only 2 - 3 of the really "nerdy", "geeky" kids appreciated Python! My feeling is that Python will never be widely used (in schools) unless we can get a PyGamemaker package. Even girls have a ball with gamemaker! regards Darren ===== ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- regards Darren Payne Hurlstone Agricultural High School Ph: 9829 9222 Fax: 98292026 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! http://my.yahoo.com

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(no subject)
by Jeff Sandys Dec. 2, 2004

Dec. 2, 2004

Andrew Carle wrote: ... The class also uses a specialized language for text adventure games (TADS2), ... Have you looked at PAWS, Python Adventure Writing System? The adventure is written in Python. The adventure author imports PAWS then makes instances of rooms, things, paths and some overhead objects (where to start). Then the PAWS interpreter imports the python game and runs the text interface. The only drawback is the code hasn't been updated in two years, but the sample games make great 'go-bys'. http://members.nuvox.net/~zt.wolf/PAWS.htm Thanks, Jeff Sandys __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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re: Leo - python killer app?
by Arthur Dec. 1, 2004

Dec. 1, 2004

Bill writes - >Just wondering if those on this list are familiar with the unique Leo >outliner. I am just an avid user of it.... but I think it may be a >instructional "killer app" for Python. :) Leo has gotten enough generally good press that your recommendation pushed me over the top, and I spent an hour or so with Leo. >The best features are probably not what are discussed when introducing >it ... so you might have overlooked it. As a teaching tool I think it >would be terrific. You are right, I think, that one can get a false impression of it's intent. I had understood its primary focus to be as a collaboration tool for larger development projects, and with a steep learning curve. And if the kind of folks involved with large development projects were to be warned of its learning curve, it was - I thought - not something I would want to undertake. Yet, it seemed manageable. And I can understand where your thinking is leading. DrScheme has a mechanism for loading lesson plans. I can see how *.leo files could be used to serve a similar purpose. Nicely. Perhaps very nicely. I like that it "makes do" with Tkinter. It plays to my sense of minimalism. I like keeping my python tree clean and simple. And it seems to suggest there is more to Tkinter than people tend to think. I *didn't* like that my source files ended up with Leo encodings/directives. So that my source - read outside of Leo - was less humanly readable after its encounter with Leo than it was before. Though I don't know what button I pushed to make this happen, what functionality it adds to Leo in working with the source, and to what extent it might be avoidable. Kirby is right that Jason had touted it before. "Killer app" I'll take a look at. I tend to shy away from "new paradigm"s. But in fairness to Jason I kidded him a bit about the "new paradigm" appellation he attached to Leo, and he admitted to perhaps some hyperbolic wording. I do think the idea of an executable textbook via Leo makes sense, though of course its all in the execution of the executable. Art

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