tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63329906497731542612011-11-25T08:00:43.022-05:00Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-39400202387162905442011-11-23T14:31:00.002-05:002011-11-23T14:36:59.669-05:00

Yes, that's right. Two blogs in one day. It's also true that I went to two conferences in a row in Ottawa. One of my co-panellists attended both, and we're of the opinion that we deserve some sort of award for enduring 5 consecutive days of conferencing, including giving presentations. Here's my thoughts about the 2011 Canadian Science and Technology Historical Association's meeting. I won't

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-60494543811988774342011-11-23T10:47:00.001-05:002011-11-23T11:03:53.584-05:00

Last week, in fact, one week ago today, I attended CSPC 2011 (Canadian Science Policy Conference). Before I forget everything that happened, I figure that I should write a short review of the conference - both its networking opportunities and the content. First, earlier in the week I'd had reservations about going. I had a talk to prepare, revisions to make on an article and of course

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-19590927006632639832011-10-21T14:17:00.000-04:002011-10-21T14:17:41.569-04:00

Today's Globe and Mail includes an article by Jeffrey Simpson about the problems with universities these days. Simpson rehashes three common complaints about the university experience and then uses selective quotations from Robert Campbell, the president of the well-known research-intensive Mt A, and Harvey Weingarten to claim that universities are finally admitting to the problem. Simpson's

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-46453767158492303302011-04-26T14:38:00.000-04:002011-04-26T14:38:23.647-04:00

Why should you vote? I'm not here to tell you for whom to vote. I don't care. Vote for someone. Anyone. Just vote. I'm not going to tell you things you've already heard a thousand times before (people have died, or are dying, all around the world for the right to vote; since you will probably pay taxes or use services at some point in your life, you have a right to decide how much you should be

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-54040961131068678562011-03-21T09:51:00.000-04:002011-03-21T09:51:50.913-04:00

Given the slow news day on Friday, it might be time for a return of the Teaching Tip. For those who missed it, a York University Teaching Assistant was caught making disparaging remarks about students on Facebook and then apologized. Various people were sought for comment, or perhaps merely invented, since there is the standard union line (TAs are overworked), the standard entitled undergraduate

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-4839530693150181782010-12-07T16:15:00.000-05:002010-12-07T16:15:03.000-05:00

Finished! Okay, well, finished the first rough draft of the full thesis. I found fourth gear in November that got me through Chapter 4. Then I found fifth gear. I wrote Chapter 5 (55 pages) in nine days, and two of those days were spent wrestling with the outline without really productively typing.  I wrote Chapter 6 (15 pages) in two days. Here's the statistics (Page = double-spaced, Times New

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-5291656881633603022010-11-27T06:55:00.000-05:002010-11-27T06:55:55.631-05:00

I finished a chapter during the week, finally. I zoomed past my intended page count at least a week before that, but it turns out that I couldn't say everything I needed to say about the International Geophysical Year, Diefenbaker, the Glassco Commission, Pearson, the 1964 White Paper on Defence, the Mackenzie Report, the Science Secretariat, the Science Council, Integration/Unification, the

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-12960955733953102742010-10-05T16:44:00.000-04:002010-10-05T16:44:08.310-04:00

Every so often I meet with my supervisor to discuss my progress (or lack thereof) and then we brainstorm ways to get this dissertation done sooner than later. At the end of the summer we met. His suggestion was to take a week off to refresh the batteries and then get back at it. My desire was to rediscover my love of writing and continue working on the dissertation. The compromise was a temporary

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-87530651032553266802010-10-04T16:14:00.001-04:002010-10-04T16:23:52.849-04:00

My contribution to The Bubble Chamber this month is this week's debatable: What control should the state have over its science? I end with these questions, to which I would love to see responses in the comments section at The Bubble Chamber (or here), by follow-up blog posts or by email: Is the original Munro/Dallimore episode (and the ensuing months long wait for Access to Information)

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-78404496519542261722010-09-27T16:28:00.000-04:002010-09-27T16:28:21.707-04:00

Once people learn that I am a graduate student they usually follow up with three questions. What do you study? Which comes with a subliminal request, "please keep the answer short and comprehensible; if I'm actually interested and understand your short answer, then I will ask for more details." When are you going to be done? What do you think you'll do when you're done? I've often compared the

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-89306470028811225572010-09-24T17:08:00.001-04:002010-09-24T17:08:34.140-04:00

I've got a lot of links to pass along, so I'll try not to say too much. Blogerable mentions: My four most loyal readers have completed my survey, which I'll leave open for a while longer so that the rest of you get a chance to voice your opinions. Other posts from this week: Lesson Plan Black Brant and Alouette The Bubble Chamber this week: GMO Morality Disneyfication Links An interesting

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-84400487664611011322010-09-23T21:30:00.001-04:002010-09-23T21:51:00.514-04:00

The current chapter that I'm working on covers the period from 1956 to 1967. It's the tenure of the second chairman of the Defence Research Board, a man by the name of Hartley Zimmerman (full name Adam Hartley Zimmerman, father of Noranda CEO and Member of the Order of Canada Adam Hartley Zimmerman). So far in this chapter I've covered the election of John Diefenbaker and the Progressive

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-59502955139617571002010-09-22T20:01:00.000-04:002010-09-22T20:01:41.007-04:00

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-48465851622697458242010-09-21T15:46:00.001-04:002010-09-21T15:47:44.611-04:00

Before I get to any further examples of lesson plans, I'm going to pass along a tip about structuring a class that I probably should have made the second Teaching Tip. I like to structure my sessions the same each week, so that there is a comfortable routine for everyone. I have four main components that I find work for me. Attendance and announcements [1-3 minutes] Questions generated by the

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-55325118049138610512010-09-20T16:36:00.001-04:002010-09-20T16:45:54.028-04:00

The fact that Quick Notes was delayed from Friday to Monday means that I have even more links to pass along. The theme of the day is education. A MetaFilter posting on a McKinsey report about the success of education systems that hire from the top third. There are two problems that come to mind. First, just being in the top third does not mean that someone can teach (or run a business). Second,

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-33895873677497258432010-09-14T15:32:00.000-04:002010-09-14T15:32:06.295-04:00

Last week Will Thomas of Ether Wave Propaganda identified the Toronto Blog Collective and included The Bubble Chamber, Jai, Aaron and me. The attention is, of course, flattering if not slightly unnerving, and the advice is timely, if not ominous. I wanted to point out that there is in fact a lot more to the Toronto Blog Collective than the four blogs mentioned, but Isaac already beat me to it.

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-37291189438214624872010-09-13T22:24:00.001-04:002010-09-14T13:58:00.976-04:00

Here is the long-awaited second Teaching Tip. Hopefully it is not too late in the term to create your own lesson plan around this tip. There are two complaints that cross the lips of university educators more often than others. The first is that students are unprepared for class each week. The second is that students are unprepared for university when they leave high school. I think the two are

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-29493198972569793752010-09-10T16:52:00.001-04:002010-09-14T13:57:05.536-04:00

A couple of quick thoughts for Friday. The launch of The Bubble Chamber has been spectacular. We have to keep building the momentum in terms of posting and spreading the word. My next task is to start brainstorming my second blog for it, which I hope to post in early October. I have a few ideas stockpiled on my white board, but I'm willing to put those off for a timely and topical post about

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-67707547691137921542010-09-09T12:07:00.000-04:002010-09-09T12:07:45.697-04:00

Jai is looking for opinions on blogging in the history of science community (direct link to survey). I encourage everyone to check this out and express their opinions.

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-14185139153228270142010-09-09T11:21:00.003-04:002010-09-09T11:43:47.891-04:00

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging much lately is that we have been getting a new group endeavour ready for launch.Today we started up The Bubble Chamber. This is a very exciting project. It continues meetings that we've been having over the past couple of years where we've discussed a wide variety of examples of politicized science in society. The Bubble Chamber blog is a chance for us

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-39426647809513220352010-08-27T13:23:00.002-04:002010-08-27T14:14:22.166-04:00

A few quick and jumbled thoughts for Friday.I'm glad to see the excellent reception and feedback for the first Teaching Tip. Thanks Jai! After my most recent experience running six tutorial sessions in a single day, I definitely agree with Delia that recipe or index cards are the way to go (and can serve multiple purposes).Speaking of my most recent experience, for some reason one of the sections

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-86786095183407049602010-08-25T10:29:00.004-04:002010-08-25T11:35:52.998-04:00

So the start of the school year is nearly upon us, which means that it would be a good time to start posting some teaching tips. I'll start at the beginning, with the very first day of class.The teaching tactic I will describe is particularly suited to frosh/soph tutorials, but it could easily be adapted to a junior/senior seminar setting, and for the exceptionally brave it would not be hard to

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-89106728882502779852010-08-24T14:30:00.006-04:002010-08-25T10:28:23.815-04:00

What academic work are you willing to publish online? Books? Articles? Blogs?What is your opinion of posting your research papers for graduate and/or undergraduate courses online? How does this fit with your ideas about open access, academia, knowledge transfer, open dialogue, plagiarism, the environment and the future?Are you more or less inclined to post your papers if you have no publications

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6332990649773154261.post-39767481796050586502010-08-22T16:17:00.002-04:002010-08-23T10:19:59.485-04:00

What are Boffins and Cold Warriors and why would you pick that as a name for your blog?'Boffins' is British slang for scientists and engineers. When it was coined in the 30's or 40's it was a term that denoted a degree of respect for those working on radar (RDF in British nomenclature). After the Second World War, especially after the Battle of Britain, Boffins earned a place as heroes for saving

Jonathan Turnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12415175598660731706noreply@blogger.com0