Mass killings, police shootings, protests, refugees, racial and religious discrimination, and all the other heavy stuff going on this Summer makes me uneasy. Smartphones, through viral videos, tweets and the hyper-sharing of news articles and comments by populist pundits, bring this stuff into the hands and the heads of students at all levels. What ever Read More
A colleague of mine, a biologist, (let’s call him Ken) teaches an upper-level college course on genetics. Course requirements include the usual—class participation, quizzes, exams, and …a scientific paper. Each semester, when Ken mentions the paper the classroom erupts in shrieks and murmurs. Immediately after the noise dies down, hands shoot into the air and Read More