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Tag Archives: Richard Dawkins
Thoughts on easy and hard test questions for undergraduate students.
No this is not going to be a post on Bloom’s taxonomy of questions memorized or conceptual, useful as that is. Here I’m talking about the kinds of material students struggle with. If ever there was a clear book surely … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching, Undergraduates
Tagged Bloom's taxonomy, exams, hard ideas, numbers, Richard Dawkins, students, tests
4 Comments
Build your argument slowly
Perhaps the biggest beginner’s mistake in writing is to assume your audience knows a lot. You may feel like the least experienced person in your lab group, so anything you know, everyone knows. If you just mention an idea, others … Continue reading
Posted in Writing
Tagged communication, Paragraph, Richard Dawkins, science writing, Topic sentence, writing
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Easy tips for effective writing
Why is it so hard to write clearly? Is it because we don’t know what to say? Is it because we jettison all common sense when we write and try to adhere to some fancy form we imagine is sophisticated? … Continue reading
Posted in Tenure, Writing
Tagged communication, Jerry Coyne, Richard Dawkins, science writing, Scientific writing, Writers Resources, writing
8 Comments
You will be judged; your large team research grant will be reviewed
Once I was involved in deciding who would get an important mentoring prize. One of the candidates was from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. He had many students supporting his nomination. They pointed out how empathetic he … Continue reading
Posted in Grants, Group leadership
Tagged Attention, evaluation, evolutionary biology, Finnland, Finns, graduate students, international programs, Michigan State University, postdocs, Research, Rice University, Richard Dawkins, science, Shepherd School of Music, Social Sciences, United States
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What is behavioral ecology and why should I take this course?
Answers to this main question comes in the form of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), a powerful way of communicating and something I’ve covered before here. What is behavioral ecology? It is the study of why organisms behave as they do … Continue reading
The value of study questions – a set on The Selfish Gene
How do you know what is important? Have you ever read a chapter carefully, even taking the three times, once quickly, second time carefully, third time to confirm, and then still done poorly on the test? You took notes, right? … Continue reading
Posted in The joy of teaching
Tagged critical thinking, Richard Dawkins, study questions, The Selfish Gene, undergraduate
7 Comments
Sociobiology 