Ever since Mike Huckabee said he didn't believe in evolution, I've had my doubts. So, tomorrow, I'm off to the Galapagos Islands, with Darwin's finches, tortoises, boobies, and sea lions!
Some notes from the past month (which about how long it has been since I've blogged).
- Taught the Trenton high-schoolers about the presidential primaries. They were somewhat knowledgeable, but the most interesting part was when they took a "Who should you vote for" quiz. The issues responses these African-American and Latino youngsters uniformly produced John McCain as the best candidate for them! I think the issue with the quiz was the structure: there was serious acquiescence bias among the students -- they often agreed with the statement no matter what it was! And since this produced conflicting ideological answers, "middle-of-the-road" McCain came out on top.
- Speaking of politics, Scalia came and spoke at Princeton! Luckily, Anthony and I got the last two seats before they moved people to the overflow room. Scalia came off as very sharp (of course). The main thrust of his talk was about strict constructionism. But when it came to the Q&A, it was obvious that he would ignore the text of the law/constitution when it suited him! Strict constructionism doesn't work when it's a conviction of convenience.
- On the next trip to Trenton (today), the topic was climate change, and were we (the Princeton teachers) blown away by the in-depth knowledge of these students. They knew everything from which ice would raise the sea levels (Antartica but not the Artic) to why Greenland has "Green" in its name if it's so icy! They could rattle off alternative energy sources, and some of them had seen an Inconvenient Truth! The science of the greenhouse effect was second-nature to them. Al Gore: job well done, sir. Job well done.
- Speaking of teaching, I guest-lectured an undergrad class of about 20 on survey experiments. Not to toot my own horn (well, yes, to do precisely that), I brought my "A-game" and the class went great. The students didn't look bored even though they had their laptops out (I enforce a no-laptop rule in my precepts), and responded to my brainstorming challenges quite well.
- And on a weird-but-kind-of-sad note, I saw the Farnsworth Invention again right before it closed, and the play had several understudies, including the two main characters. The understudy for Philo majorly flubbed one line, and paused in the middle of half-a-dozen others. We felt kind of sorry for the actor, but the rarity of seeing such poor delivery on broadway made it something to blog about.
That's all I can think of. I can't believe I'm taking a vacation during the first round of the NCAAs! My Mom has already called me a hypocrite for such a choice (I complained incessantly when she scheduled family events in March). But here's to a week full of trekking, creatures, and Scuba; and devoid of work, Internet, and this never-ending campaign! (Oy, wait, how am I going to survive? ;)
