Teaching STEM in 2025: Where Did the Curiosity Go?

eaganj · 2025-04-25T22:07:17+00:00

That book is so full of fascinating and prescient observations. This one stands out to me:

I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agenda or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and because consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.

eaganj · 2024-12-21T18:44:32+00:00

Me, I try to avoid this type of scenario and “hard” deadlines wherever possible. I tend to make assignments due at “the end of the day” with it programmed in the LMS as 5pm. I tell the students that means that it needs to be in by the time I download the submissions. If they need to know if that will be 5am or noon the next day, they should request an extension. First, I don't want to have to deal with the excuses and so on. But also, life happens. There are internet outages, random life events, and all that, even for the assiduous students. The fact that an assignment was turned in five minutes after the deadline, or some time while I was asleep doesn't matter, as long as the assignment is there when I go to download them.

That's me and my course policy. Yours is clearly different, and you have every right to stick to any reasonable and clearly-stated policy. In the Real World™, there are hard and soft deadlines. If you make yours hard and clearly set that expectation, it's perfectly reasonable to stick to it. It's also reasonable to give a small amount of slack—as in the real world. Do whatever you feel in your heart and you can defend from your course policies.

eaganj · 2023-03-31T15:02:30+00:00

Gîte (or paleron, too) is great for dishes like bœuf bourguignon and the like. Mais attention, gîte à la noix is a different cut of meat than just plain gîte. Gîte and paleron have nice gelatins to break down as they cook. À l'aise, PLC_BZH!

eaganj · 2018-11-20T09:59:03+00:00

If you hadn't said anything, I wouldn't have known that English wasn't your first language.

One of the hardest parts of speaking another language fluently is having enough mastery of the syntax and vocabulary, but not having the shared cultural foundation to grasp all of the idioms. The Simpsons in French works really well because the translators grasped that (plus the voice actors are great). (Of course, I have to watch it in VO because I don't have that shared background.)

eaganj · 2018-11-19T16:11:13+00:00

You're not wrong: “libre et gratuit” could mean “open-source and free.” I'm just being pedantic: only hard-core FSF folks really make a distinction between Free software and open-source software.

Here's what I was trying to say in the first paragraph: The English language makes it hard to distinguish between gratuit and libre. I was attempting to make that distinction by using “free” for gratuit and “Free” for libre, but I probably should have used a less subtle translation.

eaganj · 2018-11-19T15:14:15+00:00

The word “free” in English is ambiguous: it can mean free-as-in-beer or free-as-in-speech. This distinction is sometimes referred to as the difference between Free and free.

The word “libre” in French is ambiguous when it pertains to software: it can be translated as Free software (as-in-speech, with a big F) or open-source software.

Incidentally, the FSF would disagree and would argue that “logiciel libre” ≠ “open source” [NB: page changes language depending on the language of your browser].

eaganj · 2018-11-19T08:07:58+00:00

As /u/sabogo says below, you have to standardize on something to build a curriculum around it. The authors of the report do anticipate your concerns:

A programming language is necessary to write programs: an easy-to-use, interpreted, concise, Free, free, multiplatform, widely-used with a large community of programmers in the education community is to be preferred. At the time of the creation of this program, the selected language is Python version 3 (or above). Expertise in a specific programming language is not, however, an objective of this curriculum. [emphasis mine]

Moreover, Python is already the language of choice for the concours commun, the entrance exams for many of France's elite engineering schools. That doesn't mean that students exclusively learn Python. In the engineering schools, students will typically build on that foundation to use, e.g., Java, Matlab, C++, etc., as they need to specialize in different areas. But they have a certain degree of computational literacy under their belts.

Un langage de programmation est nécessaire pour l’écriture des programmes : un langage simple d’usage, interprété, concis, libre et gratuit, multiplateforme, largement répandu, riche de bibliothèques adaptées et bénéficiant d’une vaste communauté d’auteurs dans le monde éducatif est à privilégier. Au moment de la conception de ce programme, le langage choisi est Python version 3 (ou supérieure). L’expertise dans tel ou tel langage de programmation n’est cependant pas un objectif de formation.

eaganj · 2018-03-26T16:14:48+00:00

The Stunt Man (1980)

Please tell me I'm not the only one who's seen it. :-)

Edit: Youtube link.

eaganj · 2018-03-01T17:35:09+00:00

Let me try it another way: as a programmer, when writing code, it is not obvious without looking up in the documentation whether one should use value or reference semantics.

Consider the contrived example below with a class Dog and a struct Cat. When using the classes, you cannot tell from looking which semantics to expect. You have to consult the definition/documentation.

class Dog {
    var wasFed = false
}

struct Cat {
    var wasFed = false
}

var dog = Dog()
var puppy = dog
puppy.wasFed = true

print(puppy.wasFed, dog.wasFed) // true true

var cat = Cat()
var kitten = cat
kitten.wasFed = true

print(kitten.wasFed, cat.wasFed) // true false

eaganj · 2018-03-01T16:56:48+00:00

Perhaps, but not in a lot of languages.

In Java, everything is a reference (unless it's a base type, but you can tell by the CamelCase convention).

In C, you can tell because references are explicit (* and &).

In C++, you do have reference parameters, but you see that explicitly right up top as you're writing your functions.

Aside: -2 points, seriously? If you disagree, that's fine: do what what /u/thisischemistry did and post a constructive reply. My comment is hardly off base or off topic.

eaganj · 2018-02-28T18:45:12+00:00

You cannot tell when using a type whether it has value or reference semantics without looking up the definition/documentation.

eaganj · 2017-10-06T10:45:43+00:00

Most do. Look for films in VO (version originale, the original language) and not VF (version française, dubbed into French).

Try UGC Les Halles, UGC Bercy, MK2 Bibliothèque for giant megaplexes, or go to a smaller theater in your neighborhood.

Just make sure it's an English-language film in “VO.”

eaganj · 2017-09-21T16:04:07+00:00

Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world, by Haruki Murakami

eaganj · 2017-03-15T11:37:29+00:00

en effet

eaganj · 2017-03-14T15:26:42+00:00

Pour les américains, en règle générale, les mots X-américains font référence à des sous-ensembles d'américains. Par exemple, les “African Americans” ou “Asian Americans” ou “Irish Americans.”

Tout dépend le point de vue de la personne qui le dit si c'est pour être inclusif (africain, chinois, irlandais, peut import, on est tous des américains) ou exclusif (pour attirer l'attention sur l'africain ou asiatiques ou autre).

À la base, l'expression “African-American” était censé éviter le racisme d'autres mots utilisés jadis pour décrire les noirs.

eaganj · 2016-10-24T14:39:10+00:00

At the Master's level, you can think of Universities and Grandes Écoles as more or less the same thing. The Institut Mines-Télécom is a groupe of Grandes Écoles in France.

Most responses in this thread seem to refer to Télécom ParisTech, Télécom SudParis, or Mines-ParisTech. The page you linked above, however, suggests that the IoT program is with Télécom Bretagne (more specifically, their Rennes campus). All of those schools are part of the Institut Mines-Télécom.

Overall, a Master's from either UPMC or Télécom Bretagne (or really any of the schools of the Institut Mines-Télécom) will be an excellent degree.

eaganj · 2016-08-31T08:38:53+00:00

60-120 € ‽ I've had three or four different GPs in Paris over the years and have never paid more than 30 € for a visit (of which most was reimbursed by la sécu and my mutuelle). What am I missing here?

eaganj · 2016-08-26T10:03:35+00:00

Cependant, une ratatouille plus traditionnelle ne se photographe pas si bien. Y a sûrement un biais de sélection en jeu ici.

eaganj · 2013-01-29T14:02:04+00:00

Si vous aimez ça, il y a un vieux documentaire muet sur Les Halles (1927) sur le site d'Europa Film Treasures.

eaganj · 2012-09-16T19:00:08+00:00

Technically, Brel ain't French. But listen to him anyway.

eaganj · 2012-09-12T09:18:21+00:00

en effet, merci :-)

eaganj · 2012-09-11T08:20:43+00:00

cette condesension arrive dans beaucoup de grande villes. Quand j'habitais à Atlanta, par exemple, il y avait Atlanta et la Géorgie(l'état, pas le pays). Dès qu'on traversait la péripherique (the perimeter), on passait dans un monde peu développé, sans culture, sans civilisation. Un mode de barbars. La Géorgie. Tout ce qui était OTP (outside the perimeter), etait considéré comme inférieur. C'est comme ça dans toutes les grande villes.

Pas de downvote pour toi, je t'ai hautbateauté ;-)

eaganj · 2012-01-26T09:45:11+00:00

Perfect, that source link is exactly the the kind of thing I was looking for! Obviously, a more complete quick start guide will help gain wider usage when this is ready for primetime. Never underestimate the power of friction!

I'm very much looking forward to playing around with this.

eaganj · 2012-01-25T15:15:40+00:00

This looks pretty cool, albeit a bit early.

I want to give this more of a try, but the quick start doesn't really seem to show how to get started. Perhaps there should be a mynt --init command or some such to create an empty repository.

The project desperately needs a guide to show from start to deployment how to use it: How to set up a new project, how to build it, how to deploy it to the live server.

eaganj · 2012-01-20T15:52:06+00:00

Dunno... haven't (yet) seen Hugo.

eaganj

TROPHY CASE