Musings of a STEM Education Warrior and Renaissance Man on the theme of STEMlightenment: the importance of STEM education and how to improve it, scientific literacy and sceptical thinking, and applying STEM techniques to the optimisation of life in general – all with a dash of philosophy and personal development
Check out the latest posts below!
The Fire Still Needs a Master
There’s a school in Texas selling a viral promise: “two hours a day, no teachers”. Look closely, though, and it makes the case for the human subject teacher better than I ever could – by way of evolutionary psychology, a swamp on Dagobah, and a caped crusader.
The STEM Warrior Faces the Fork
The silence I owe you an explanation. The last post on this blog was published in May 2022. Nearly four years ago. In internet terms, that’s roughly the Cretaceous period. In AI terms, it might as well be pre-Big Bang. I could give you the usual excuses — busy teaching…
Mathematics Education rebooted for the 21st Century
I love a good argument about mathematics education. Whether it be in a staff meeting or at a dinner table conversation, when somebody makes a sarcastic remark about the usefulness of what they learnt in high school maths, I can’t resist biting. “Well actually”, I begin, “I think a basic…
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The STEM Warrior Rises
You might notice there’s a bit of a Batman Dark Knight trilogy theme going on in this STEM Warrior post series, and you’d be right. I’ve always drawn inspiration from “hero survives against all odds” tropes such as “Just One Man”, the Training Montage and the Lock-and-Load Montage. As a…
The STEM Warrior Awakens
Paro Taktsang, the monastery in Bhutan where Batman received his Ninja training and the inspiration for this post (from peregrineadventures.com) Surviving the Ya’an earthquake and soul searching in the foothills of the Tibetan Plateau It began as a low rumble in the distance. I was trying to make the most of the…
On the art of bodging, the 80/20 rule, and production efficiency
I’ve been thinking a lot about the 80/20 rule lately, and how it informs our decisions about whether or not to employ “bodging” (fixing or making something in a less than optimal but still functional manner) as a solution to a problem. To understand the 80/20 rule properly, though, we…
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Optimising the Happiness Curve
(A shout out to Claudio Tereso for hammering out some of the ideas below with me over a beer somewhere near Marinha Grande, Portugal in summer 2018) A quick Google search will reveal that the Happiness Curve is “a thing”, and it’s roughly U-shaped, like this: From https://smartliving360.com/the-little-known-happiness-curve/ You can triangulate this with…
Technological Leapfrogging – eBikes and temples in Myanmar
There’s an app for everything now, but are we making progress where it really matters? Bagan, Myanmar I was stoked to discover this week that I could call a tuk-tuk on my phone in Mandalay through the same Grab app that I use in my day to day life in Vietnam. I…
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