Monthly Archives: May 2012

Nope, not one. Take a look yourself. To determine the STEM ranking, US News looked at the percentages of graduates who had taken and passed AP courses in math and science.

The new normal for incoming college majors in the physical sciences and engineering is to have AP credit in calculus and a full menu of high school science courses. So how many of Florida’s high school students are passing AP … Continue reading →

I’ve recently heard some disturbing stories about the advice math- and science-oriented 8th graders are getting regarding their choices of freshman year science courses. So here is mine – starting from 7th grade.  I will note specifically that AP Environmental … Continue reading →

Until now, Brevard County was one of three elite Florida school districts (the others are Duval and Monroe) that required four science courses for high school graduation. Now there are only two. Florida Today reports that after suspending the four-science-course … Continue reading →

The Washington Post published a ranking of college majors by the number of number of hours students study outside of class, and physics ranked third out of the 29 majors listed (the data were taken from the National Survey of … Continue reading →

The Florida Department of Education began its public relations offensive for FCAT 2.0 this morning after a week of terrible media coverage involving the results of the FCAT Writing exam. The offensive leads with a new web site, titled “Florida’s … Continue reading →

Only a few short years ago, Tallahassee’s Lincoln High School was the best place in Leon County to learn science. Then, science teachers began to flee the changes put in place by the school’s new principal, Allen Burch. Now an … Continue reading →

Last week’s results for 8th graders in science from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were not good news for Florida.  Sixteen states made significant improvements, but Florida was not one of them.  Instead, our state remained stuck below … Continue reading →

From “Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Pathways:  High School Science and Math Coursework and Postsecondary Degree Attainment,” by Tyson, Lee, Borman and Hanson [Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 12(3), 243–270 (2007)]: Our findings reveal the importance … Continue reading →

Several high school physics teachers have recently asked me what physics professors want students to learn in high school physics courses.  I discussed this with my colleagues in the FSU studio physics program, and came up with the answer given … Continue reading →