Dr. Doug Green » News that matters

Bad News for the Bull Semen Biz

Douglas Green — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:59:36 +0000

In an effort to deal with a $1 billion budget shortfall, Gov. Bill Ritner (Democrat) of Colorado is proposing a $260 million cut to education. He is also proposing eliminating tax breaks to producers of bull semen and other agricultural products. In addition, he proposes that State colleges be given the power to increase tuition 9 percent. An additional $132 million of income will come from charging sales tax on candy and soft drinks as well as online sales. Now it is up to the Democrat controlled legislature to write the budget for the next fiscal year, which starts in July. Look to this blog for how other states deal with budget issues as they apply to education as they are announced.

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Can exercise make you smarter?

Douglas Green — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:55:53 +0000

A recent article in the NY Times by Gretchen Reynolds discusses how aerobic exercise that causes the heart to work hard can promote the growth of new brain cells. The dramatic change in blood flow that occurs when you run, cycle, or swim can promote new connections and help create new neurons.
Click here to go to the article in the New York Times from 9/16/2009.

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DARPA Network Challenge – Very Cool!

Douglas Green — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:54:32 +0000

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency invented the Internet. Their recent Network Challenge tested how social networks can solve problems. DARPA placed ten 8-foot balloons around the United States. It was up to self-generated teams to find them. Facebook helped expand teams and Twitter proved to be a fast and dynamic data source. Noise in Tweet data streams, however, made it difficult to extract information. It showed that distrust of one’s purpose makes individuals less likely to join and recruit their friends. Watch for more cool experiments and beware of bad guys using this type of crowd-sourcing. The 17-page project report is readable and interesting.

Click here for the report.

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Good men are hard to find.

Douglas Green — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:12:43 +0000

Women have been outperforming men in school for some time. Now the numbers are in and their better performance in schools is paying off in the work place. In terms of pay and employment, women have made big gains at the expense of men. According to an article by M. P. McQueen in the February 12, 2010 “Wall Street Journal”, by 2007, women were earning 35% more bachelor’s degrees and 66% more associate’s degrees than men. While women still make less than men, they are catching up as their pay increased 5.3% last year compared to 3.4% for men. These numbers are even more unbalanced for blacks where women earn 92% more bachelor’s degrees and have a 13.3% unemployment rate compared to 17.6% for black men.
Steady increases among women with college degrees over the past two decades seems to be paying off in the current economy as women for the first time surpassed the number of men holding payroll jobs. “Men have traditionally needed less education, because guys could get good jobs in construction without a master’s in Education and women couldn’t, so education substitutes for that,” said Claudia Goldin, a Harvard University economist.
Women started catching up by the 1960s, and by the 1980s they were earning more bachelor’s degrees than men, and a growing share of graduate and professional degrees. Woman earn more college degrees in all fields except the physical sciences, math, engineering, business and economics. I think the message here is that males can either work harder in school or work harder to find a good woman who can bring home the bacon.

Click here for the McQueen article.

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Great Video by Yong Zhao

Douglas Green — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:01:22 +0000

Youg is the author of a recent book, Catching-Up or Leading the Way, that takes NCLB to task for its emphasis on standardized testing that has been a problem for China for the last 1,400 years. Thanks to the people at The NewLearning Institute, you can now watch a ten minute video in which Yong explains the essence of his vision regarding education and standardized tests. If you want to get a group of educators or parents talking, just show this at a meeting. You should also consider purchasing Yong’s book.

Click here for Yong Zhao’s 10 minute video.
Click here for my summary of Yong’s Book.

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