chemdrv.bsky.social
They/them. Chemistry teaching faculty at UMBC. LongCOVID. Programming, equity, and non-traditional paths in chemistry education. Centering humans and hope. Opinions very much my own.
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My beef with Harvard can happen at another time. Right now, I'm standing with them because academic freedom matters and it's under attack.
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Interesting that it came out of the comms office.
We're currently running on gossip and I'm trying to decide if it would feel better or worse to have hard numbers.
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It honestly got me thinking in useful ways again about how to grapple with AI in a non-barf-y way.
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Anyways - the wholesale dismantling of the gov't we have seen since Jan - the capricious firing of the woke spreadsheet fillers in the SSA or the woke custodians at Natl Parks - these people do SO much invisible labor that keeps the wheels on this country, and we can't accomplish anything w/o them.
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This is a rupture, there will be a before and an after. There is no reason to believe the after will resemble the before, at all. This is a demarcation in the lives of thousands of researchers and tens of thousands of educators.
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I'm down in Baltimore and the forecast is for haze for days. Good luck getting through it!
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And I like knowing that I'm creating possibility for students by being visible.
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I'm astonished at how many rainbows I've added to my life and cis-straight people still don't see them. I used to feel vulnerable, but my queerness is invisible to so many people, I worry a lot less now.
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As much as the worle is difficult, the way we create the future by parenting never ceases to amaze me
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They want to justify their moves against NSF and NIH. Those moves were wrong. They should wear those moves and their consequences forever.
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You're gathering your thoughts, obvs
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3. While I do enjoy a fated hero with magic sort of storyline, Andor is so good because it's *not* that story, despite being in the Star Wars universe. The characters are just people.
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2. I like the way the characters have to make imperfect decisions with imperfect information. They know they might be making wrong choices, but they have to do something, and they do their best.
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Okay a couple more thoughts about Andor.
1. I love the way we see crowds in it. We see crowds as having a voice made up of many voices. We see crowds as powerful and as dangerous. And we see multiple outcomes of the crowds using the power of their voice.
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Such good writing!
I need to rewatch Rogue One tomorrow.
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Pretty sure this is the best property in the Star Wars franchise
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Also I can tell I'm a plant person because there's a plant detail near the end that about sent me
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Okay the recap was perfect
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+1
When it gets so simplified as to lose meaning, it's time to go
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All joking aside I'm in favor of cutting any 30% of gen chem that the instructor can do without
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*gasp of over-dramatic betrayal* I THOUGHT WE WERE COOL
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I'm happy to help with IDing if you're not sure what you've found.
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They flower as a silver mist in early spring, then berries in May/June, then beautiful fall color.
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If you aren't familiar with serviceberries, now id a great time to learn. They're a popular landscaping tree - just found two by the newest building on campus - so you can often pick a snack while out and about.
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Had to argue with a robin and a cardinal while harvesting this morning, so I think the birds will clean out the tree in the next day or so. Managed about 2 cups after snacking!
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Amidst all the terribleness, I think graduation is beautiful because everyone there recognizes it as a good thing. It’s meaningful and shared and joyful. I wish we could somehow capture the feeling and mail it around the country.
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Overall, this kind of grading really suits my lab courses. It helps me stay away from monster-of-the-week intertia and makes goals so clear to students.
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...If they didn't show comprehensive knowledge, they could try again another day.
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I added in "experimental proficiencies" to get at my ongoing frustrating at lab courses that never directly assess experimental work. Students could pick a topic (laser safety, or using a uv-vis). I'd ask them to do a short task on that skill, verbally quizzing as they worked...
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I also broke up a few things into smaller pieces this year. Ex: last year they had to do an intro+results+discussion. This year the intro+references was it's own assignment, and placed in the column "using the literature" to emphasis that intros are about how your work connects to other work.
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This term I had a whopping three students, so there was a lot of flexibility, but we mostly stuck with the plan.
Separating out assignments and skills like this makes it much easier for students to see where they stand, and to see what my learning goals are.