The always fraught question of student course evaluations has come up again on campus. In discussions, the correlation between “expected grade” and “overall evaluation” has once again been noted– that is, students who report expecting a higher grade are more likely to give a good overall score to their professors than students who expect a […]
Category: Polls
Dorky Poll: Favorite Prime Number?
A pretty straightforward question: Which prime number do you like the best? What’s your favorite prime number?online surveys This is a purely classical poll, so you only get to choose one favorite, not a superposition of multiple numbers. Your selection is legally binding, so choose wisely!
Winter Poll: “Bitter” Cold
A seasonally appropriate poll, brought to you by this morning’s frigid dog walk (15F/ -9C), and the memory of a newscast back when I was in Maryland that referred to an overnight low temperature of 22F/-6C as “Bitter, bitter cold”: The maximum (daytime high) temperature I would characterize as “bitter cold” would be:survey software For […]
Academic Poll: Synchronization
The clock in my classroom for this term appears to be set five minutes slow. Which is an improvement over the one in the hall that’s ten minutes slow, but kind of plays hell with starting and ending class on time. It is, however, a great excuse for a poll: Clocks in academic buildings should […]
Dorky Poll: Favorite Newtonian Rule?
It’s the first day of the new term, and the projector bulb that was working on Friday decided to stop working by Sunday. After that bit of excitement this morning, plus my lecture, I’m beat. I always forget how much talking is involved in intro physics lectures. My class for the term is the first […]
Poll: Top Physics Story of 2010?
It’s the last week of the (calendar) year, which means it’s a good time to recap the previous twelve months worth of scientific news. Typically, publications like Physics World will publish a list of top ten physics stories of 2010, but we’re all Web 2.0 these days, so it seems more appropriate to put this […]
Literary Interlude: Bearded Mentor Figures in the Literature of the Fantastic
It’s time now to talk about two of the greatest mentor figures in the literature of the fantastic. You know their stories well, I’m sure, but the parallels between them are eerie: Both are gruff but kindly mentor figures who provide crucial guidance for the young and naive protagonist of the story as he moves […]
Academic Poll: Lesser Evils
Over at Backreaction, Bee runs through the pros and cons of different presentation methods for academic talks. As she quite correctly notes, both PowerPoint presentations and chalk talks have strengths and weaknesses. You can give a good talk with either, and a bad talk with either. This does suggest a topic for a reader poll, […]
Dorky Poll: How Do You Say That Again?
I’m going to be at a media training session for most of the day. I had hoped to have a long and silly post about physics to schedule today, but, well, that didn’t happen. So here’s a silly poll to pass the time. The name of element number 13, chemical symbol Al, is pronounced with […]
Dorky Poll: Gratitude
It’s Thanksgiving here in the US, so blogging will be light to nonexistent. For the sake of those looking for a quick escape from the chaos of a family gathering, or, you know, those poor benighted souls in other countries for whom this is just another Thursday, here’s a thematically appropriate poll about science: What […]