K-12 Science Education (STEM)

In the second of what appears to be a series of commentary on the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math hearings being held by the US House subcommittee for Science, I’d like to draw your attention to a few points in “Reform in K-12 STEM Education”.

First the funny bits, brought to you today by Dr. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University:

• “Mathematics is very intimidating.  Every time I go and visit with our Math department … I take Valium before I go over … they scare the hell out of me.” (1:18:43)  … So remember kids, if your PI asks why you’re dropping X before group meeting, tell ’em Dr. Gee said it was cool.  Honestly, I think most group meetings would be improved by a little X.
• “If you can’t be a lawyer, if you can’t be a doctor … you can always be a teacher.” (1:10:06)  I kid, I kid.

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A Chemistry Fraud Roundup

For reasons I don’t entirely understand, this post is trending high on Google searches for ‘chemistry fraud’.  I’d actually like to do a follow up on some of these cases, so if you’re interested in seeing that, have other cases you’d like listed, or know any of the participants, please contact me in the comments or at: chemistrystatistics AT gmail DOT com
– verpa , 10/20/2010

After reading about the IUCr scandal with some 70 structures invalidated followed by another one this month for another set, it got me thinking about the chemistry scandals that have come to light in the past few years.  It seems as though the number of massive frauds is increasing … or are they just getting becoming more public?  A quick review of some of the biggies ( only chemistry, mind you ):

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Two Chemistry Related Stories

Gov. Committee on Improving STEM Education

If you’re like me, you saw saw STEM and thought ‘My god, a committee on Microscopy!  Is there one on NMR?’  But no, STEM means ‘Science, Technology, Engineering and Math’.  For all the acronym love in the hearing, the witnesses had some very interesting things to say.  It’s a bit long and, as a witnesses who thought his mic was off said, ‘I think things went better once we stopped reading from our statements.’

First the less serious bits:

• The committee chair, IL Rep. Daniel Lipinski, opened with some adorable stories about REU.  He then followed up with a comment about the ‘Grey Tsunami’ of the Sputnik era of American scientists retiring.
• Much later in (1:09:40) SC Rep. Bob Inglis commented that we apparently need more ‘blond knockout’ scientists to motivate interest in science …  I guess he forgot to add ‘with killer racks’.  As an unattractive scientist, I was mildly offended.

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