Category: Science
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Failure is not an option
When I taught my first class as a graduate assistant at UCLA, one of the students asked whether my Western Civilization section was a “Mickey Mouse” course. What he meant was, “Is this a course with a guaranteed A if I show up and do the minimal work assigned, or will I run the risk…
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Making Sense and Finding Meaning
My intermediate and advanced Greek and Latin classes are largely translation-based. There’s a lot of discussion among Latin teachers about whether that’s a good approach, but much of the dispute is, I think, mired in terminological ambiguity, and at least some of the objections to translation classes don’t entirely apply to what we’re doing. What…
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The Right Answer
I start Natural Science I each year with the question “What is science?” The result is generally a lively debate in which students start by giving me one-sentence answers. “Science is the study of nature”, Joe says. “What do you mean by ‘nature’?” I ask. There is consternation, silence, and eventually another attempt. “Nature…