David Webb

@djphysicswebb.bsky.social

Thinks a lot about teaching and learning. Retired physicist. Hunts for demographic inequity within the system. #EduSky 🍎 #Science 🧪

We continue to point out issues suggesting that college courses are an active part of bias against marginalized demographic groups. 🎢 #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd #AcadmicSky

Cassandra Paul@cassandrapaul.bsky.social · last mo.

@djphysicswebb.bsky.social, Mary Chessey and I have a newly accepted paper on uncollected test item responses on open-ended physics exam questions! Blank responses on exams are missing data, not measurements of physics knowledge or skills. Read on for details... Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2606.05473

BTW when I say abolish ICE, I mean abolish it entirely and replace it with exactly nothing. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. That's it.

Research suggesting how an exam gender gap can be inflated from zero up to roughly 1/3 of a grade point simply by increasing the stakes of your exams. Can't help thinking of gaps on a different high stakes exam, the SAT, when I see results like these. #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd

Cassandra Paul@cassandrapaul.bsky.social · last yr.

Proud of the work I published with @djphysicswebb.bsky.social . Gender Gap in intro physics is eliminated when employing retake exams because women do better on the FIRST try - suggesting exam STAKES (not differences in preparation/understanding) explain gender gap. 🧪 link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/...

Research suggesting how an exam gender gap can be inflated from zero up to roughly 1/3 of a grade point simply by increasing the stakes of your exams. Can't help thinking of gaps on a different high stakes exam, the SAT, when I see results like these. #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd

Cassandra Paul@cassandrapaul.bsky.social · last yr.

Proud of the work I published with @djphysicswebb.bsky.social . Gender Gap in intro physics is eliminated when employing retake exams because women do better on the FIRST try - suggesting exam STAKES (not differences in preparation/understanding) explain gender gap. 🧪 link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/...

Huh, @cassandrapaul.bsky.social‬ and my paper that showed that demographic biases in physics classes can be removed was referenced by a Sociology professor in an article that showed up in at least 39 different publications yesterday. #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #Physics ⚛️ #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd

@anthonypaik.bsky.social · last yr.

The costs and benefits of DEI by sociologist Rodney Coates. Beyond the backlash: What evidence shows about the economic impact of DEI theconversation.com/beyond-the-b...

Re-posting and including picture showing no gender gap on low stakes in-term exams and significant negative gender gap on medium stakes in-term exams. Gender gap on the high stakes final exam is 50% larger than on the medium stakes exams. #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #Physics ⚛️ #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd

As explained in the text, each in-term exam was z-scored on a class-by-class basis and the gender gap for each group of classes was determined with HLM while controlling for each student's incoming GPA. This in-term exam score gender gap is plotted as a function of time through the 10-week term at the times the exams and retakes were taken. On the right, after the end of the term, are the overall averages for those first-attempt exams and for the recorded scores after retakes were completed. One sees that the female students generally had higher exam scores (i.e. a positive gender gap) after the first attempt and that, overall, retakes favored the male students. For reference the (clearly negative) gender gaps for 179 non-retake classes are also shown on a week-by-week basis through their terms.
David Webb@djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 2y ago

@cassandrapaul.bsky.social and my new preprint describes how high stakes exams in introductory physics can make it seem like there is a gender gap in learning/understanding physics when, in reality, there is none. arxiv.org/pdf/2504.09418 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #Physics ⚛️ #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd

Everyone is weird. Being weird is what makes us human. We are the apes who stopped, thought and embraced weirdness. Find someone who accepts that you are weird, without judgement.

Whatsapp convo with my wife where i excitedly send her a photo of a train and she pretends to care.

It always boggles my mind that I, a journalist, am expressly forbidden from trading stocks, but members of Congress, with vastly greater knowledge of market-moving news, are allowed to profit by front-running markets, and so may profit by in essence stealing from the public they represent.

As of Friday, there have been 46 cases in which federal judges have blocked Trump policies. The rulings in those cases have come from 39 different judges appointed by 5 different presidents (of both parties) to 11 different district courts across 7 different circuits. Maybe it's not the judges?

As computing capabilities increase, the number of digits we'll be able to calculate will also increase. I think what's so poetic about this: It's a process that began with the first civilizations and is a thread that weaves through the whole of human history. It's our story as a species.

c0nc0rdance@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 3y ago

Happy #PiDay 2024! Let's talk about the history of pi (π) and the methods used to approximate it! We start with the Babylonians (~2000 BCE), who used π = 3 for architectural projects, or in at least one instance, π = 25⁄8 = 3.128, which is within 0.5% of the actual value.

The Ishtar gate of Babylon, a blue brick structure decorated with cartoon animals.

At some point the opposition needs to say what is happening here: Donald Trump is a tyrant in the full sense of the term, an American fascist dictator who believes the law flows directly from his command. And he is also a deeply unwell, unfit, and criminal man with nonsensical whims

Bild