5 ms·

i'm sorry, but technology is making access to science easy enough that "my high school can't afford to offer that bio class" excuse just doesn't work anymore.

i'm sorry, but technology is making access to science easy enough that "my high school can't afford to offer that bio class" excuse just doesn't work anymore. hell, even news aggs like google offer a science section every day.

psychometry 10y ago
I'm sorry, but you've clearly never taken an actual lab science course if you think it can be replaced by Google News.
- lintiness 10y ago
  i'm pretty sure that's exactly what i said.
  - rspeer 10y ago
    Then you were exceptionally unclear about it. What does Google News's science section have to do with anything? A newspaper's "science" section has little to do with real science.
    - lintiness 10y ago
      the argument the article made was that financial barriers made science inaccessible. ubiquitous exposure (google news) makes the argument nonsensical. if you think you can't master high school science today (the argument) without bunsen burners, some hcl, and an egregiously over paid teacher, i can't help you.
      - rspeer 10y ago
        Oh good, there's no financial barrier to being the kind of person who believes what unqualified journalists say about science, goes on fad diets, and says "I Fucking Love Science". That has shit-all to do with doing science.
      - psychometry 10y ago
        And teachers are now somehow overpaid. Delightful...
lkbm 10y ago
I find mathematics interesting, and I'll watch educational videos about it on YouTube and occasionally read some stuff, and I COULD take various free online courses and/or tutorials, and yet despite all this, I'm don't seem to be advancing as much as I did in college when I had to spend three hours a week in a lecture and several times that working problems. Because having the option to take a course teaches me nothing in itself, and the occasional interesting, non-intensive video doesn't begin to compete with semi-mandatory hours of instruction and practice every week. A few people will learn a lot without taking a class, but far fewer people have the motivation and drive to do that than have the intelligence and drive to benefit greatly from a class.
- yummyfajitas 10y ago
  Realistically, if you don't have the motivation and drive to study science all by yourself, you don't have the motivation and drive to be a scientist. A scientist doesn't learn everything they need in classes and then stop. They need to continually improve their knowledge; when I had an academic career I spent perhaps 4 hours/day going through papers and keeping up with the literature. Nowadays that's probably dropped to 2 hours/day, since I'm in a space where old school techniques (operations research FTW!) are generally pretty effective.

psychometry 10y ago

I'm sorry, but you've clearly never taken an actual lab science course if you think it can be replaced by Google News.

lintiness 10y ago
i'm pretty sure that's exactly what i said.
- rspeer 10y ago
  Then you were exceptionally unclear about it. What does Google News's science section have to do with anything? A newspaper's "science" section has little to do with real science.
  - lintiness 10y ago
    the argument the article made was that financial barriers made science inaccessible. ubiquitous exposure (google news) makes the argument nonsensical. if you think you can't master high school science today (the argument) without bunsen burners, some hcl, and an egregiously over paid teacher, i can't help you.
    - rspeer 10y ago
      Oh good, there's no financial barrier to being the kind of person who believes what unqualified journalists say about science, goes on fad diets, and says "I Fucking Love Science". That has shit-all to do with doing science.
    - psychometry 10y ago
      And teachers are now somehow overpaid. Delightful...

lkbm 10y ago

I find mathematics interesting, and I'll watch educational videos about it on YouTube and occasionally read some stuff, and I COULD take various free online courses and/or tutorials, and yet despite all this, I'm don't seem to be advancing as much as I did in college when I had to spend three hours a week in a lecture and several times that working problems. Because having the option to take a course teaches me nothing in itself, and the occasional interesting, non-intensive video doesn't begin to compete with semi-mandatory hours of instruction and practice every week. A few people will learn a lot without taking a class, but far fewer people have the motivation and drive to do that than have the intelligence and drive to benefit greatly from a class.

yummyfajitas 10y ago
Realistically, if you don't have the motivation and drive to study science all by yourself, you don't have the motivation and drive to be a scientist. A scientist doesn't learn everything they need in classes and then stop. They need to continually improve their knowledge; when I had an academic career I spent perhaps 4 hours/day going through papers and keeping up with the literature. Nowadays that's probably dropped to 2 hours/day, since I'm in a space where old school techniques (operations research FTW!) are generally pretty effective.