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willyb.bsky.social
Ben Wildeboer
@willyb.bsky.social
770 followers 200 following 780 posts
I teach science and I like it.
9th grade Physics and AP Physics 1.
@WillyB in the bird app.
#modphys #iteachphysics
Posts Replies Media Videos
willyb.bsky.social
Stayed up too late but satisfyingly finished a new graph analysis handout as a follow up to our Circular Motion Lab.

I think it'll be good practice for Ss in determining the meaning of the slope & using slope to make measurements experimentally.
#iTeachPhysics

docs.google.com/document/d/1...
A screenshot of a handout for the PostLab Graph Analysis of a Circular Motion Lab.
November 18, 2025 at 5:27 AM
willyb.bsky.social
What perfect album came out the year you turned 16?

To be fair, I'm not sure 16 yr old me was aware GZA existed, or had even heard of any of the Wu-Tang Clan. (Look, it was very very rural)
GZA - Liquid Swords
November 17, 2025 at 4:53 AM
Reposted by Ben Wildeboer
benjaminjriley.bsky.social
What happens when you interview 700 teenagers about how they actually navigate their online and offline worlds? You learn so, so much about the reality of their lived experiences. This report is riveting from start to finish, and whether you live in England or not.

demos.co.uk/wp-content/u...
demos.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 2:24 PM
willyb.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 12:55 AM
willyb.bsky.social
And to celebrate the beautiful auroae- a tasty beverage in a brand new glass.
An upclose Pic of a tumbler filled with a dark beer. The tumbler says "Funkatorium" and has a jaunty golden mushroom design.
November 12, 2025 at 5:43 AM
willyb.bsky.social
Definitely the brightest aurora I've ever seen!
A night view of some very red outbursts of Aurora Borealis. A night view of some very red outbursts of Aurora Borealis.
November 12, 2025 at 5:20 AM
willyb.bsky.social
The White House cuts the Dept of Ed and then does the most teacher-makes-big-sign-for-their-room thing ever?

Hope they used Rasterbator for this "no, you aren't allowed to use the large format printer" effort.

Tho I'm def not allowed to use the gold printer ink at my school...
paulandstorm.bsky.social Paul and Storm @paulandstorm.bsky.social · 13d
[P] Found a higher-quality photo; IT *IS* TAPED UP SHEETS OF PAPER!
photo of a sign outside the door of the Oval Office, reading "The Oval Office" in gold bullshit script, made out of three sheets of paper Close-up image of the same sign
November 6, 2025 at 6:11 AM
willyb.bsky.social
#iTeachPhysics is so valuable often in a illustrated in this here comic.

So often I'll have done a lab for YEARS and one of you will post, "Hey, you know that tricky bit, I changed this one thing and it's way better!" And it IS way better!

I *love love love* these small tweaks!

xkcd.com/3163
HEY ALL! DOES YOUR E-2I HUMIDIFIER MAKE AN ANNOYING CLICKING NOISE? MINE DID, BUT I FINALLY FIGURED OUT THAT THERE'S AN EASY FIX, SO I MADE THIS VIDEO IN CASE ANYONE ELSE... OH MY GOD. YES. YES. CLICK CLICK I KNOW THERE'S MORE IMPORTANT WORK IN THE WORLD, BUT I FEEL LIKE THESE PEOPLE DESERVE, AT MINIMUM, A STATUE.
November 4, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by Ben Wildeboer
physgal.bsky.social
Dear Physicists and Physics fans,

I would like to encourage you to celebrate #WomenInPhysics Day this Friday, November 7th.

Why November 7th? Because it is the birthday of two of the most impactful women physicists of the 1900's: Marie Curie and Lise Meitner. 🎢 ⚛️ 🧪 👩‍🔬
WOMEN IN PHYSICS DAY! In honor of the pioneering women in physics who broke down barriers to do what they love, we celebrate Women in Physics Day on November 7th, the birthdate of both Marie Curie and Lise Meitner. Marie Skrodowska-Curie (1867-1934) Radioactivity pioneer, two-time Nobel laureate A giant of science, Marie Sktodowska-Curie conducted pioneering research on radioactivity, a term she coined. She discovered two elements, founded two medical research centres, won two Nobels, and invented mobile X-ray units (dubbed petites Curies), saving countless lives in World War Lise Meitner (1878-1968) Nuclear physicist When Lise Meitner was a teen, Austria restricted female higher education. She pursued physics anyway, and 25 years later became the first woman in Germany to hold a professorship in physics. She helped discover nuclear fission, but was contentiously not awarded the 1944 Nobel alongside collaborator Otto Hahn. NOVEMBER 7TH
November 3, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by Ben Wildeboer
afreeparticle.com
This year's edition of Rings of Fire!

Students are given initial height and velocity of the launched marble. Each group has to calculate the height of their ring at their assigned horizontal distance.

#EduSky #iTeachPhysics
November 3, 2025 at 11:00 PM
willyb.bsky.social
Would've rather the Blue Jays pulled it out, but this Series was very very fun!
November 3, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Reposted by Ben Wildeboer
ilanahorn.bsky.social
what is lost:

opportunities to connect through play, express themselves spontaneously, and learn to self-regulate.

by insisting children behave in developmentally inappropriate ways, we impede the things that help them develop.
November 3, 2025 at 1:03 AM
Reposted by Ben Wildeboer
ilanahorn.bsky.social
Same study: the value educators ascribed to skills, such as “sitting still” and “not being disruptive,” rose by 16% and 10%, respectively, post NCLB. 😥
November 3, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by Ben Wildeboer
ilanahorn.bsky.social
sometimes, a data point speaks volumes:

"after NCLB, there was 14% drop in child-selected activities in kindergarten, but a 15% and 10% increase in math worksheets and textbook use, respectively"

source: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

#EduSky
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
November 3, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Reposted by Ben Wildeboer
mclean.bsky.social
Just got this action alert, I think from @betterstreetschicago.org

Sign a witness slip immediately for the transit funding bill. Info in alt text

mbl.ms/mKgZnW7m-BQ
🚨 Transit funding bill SB2111 has been assigned to committee and we need folks to file witness slips as PROPONENT immediately! How to submit a witness slip: 1. Follow the link and fill out your contact information 3. Under "firm/business" put "self" (or your workplace if authorized) 4. Under "representation" put "self" again 5. Under "position" choose subject matter "SB2111" and "proponent" 6. Under "testimony" choose "record of appearance only" 7. Then agree to the terms and click "Submit" https://mbl.ms/mKgZnW7m-BQ
October 30, 2025 at 10:39 PM
willyb.bsky.social
Big Director Krennic energy.
The character Director Orson Krennic as played by Ben Mendelsohn in Andor. He's standing facing the camera with his hands clasped in front dressed in Imperial regalia, flanked by two Shock Troopers. (I think?)
October 29, 2025 at 4:44 AM
Reposted by Ben Wildeboer
fpoodry.bsky.social
Very thorough reporting here.
October 28, 2025 at 7:07 PM
willyb.bsky.social
Look, Freddie is a Very Good Player, but Shohei hit two doubles and two HRs, and was intentionally walked FOUR TIMES because the Jays (correctly) wanted no part of his bat. Oh, and he's the starting pitcher tonight...
stephennelson.bsky.social Stephen Nelson @stephennelson.bsky.social · 21d
Frederick. Charles. Freeman. “Mr. World Series”. Views from the Dodgers audio booth as Freddie ended the Game 3 marathon in the 18th inning with his second walk-off home run in as many Fall Classics. #ITFDB #WorldSeries #BoothViews
October 28, 2025 at 11:19 PM
willyb.bsky.social
Now do it for *sunset* times...
(Sunsets before 5pm hurt my brain more than late sunrises)
savestandard.bsky.social Save Standard Time @savestandard.bsky.social · 26d
PENNSYLVANIA State Rep Joe McAndrew files HR 349 for permanent Daylight Saving Time. Would put sunrise past 8am for 3 months, to nearly 9am. Tell your PA state reps NO on HR 349—and yes instead on HB 119 for permanent Standard Time! 🔗👇
Maps and photos of winter sunrise times in Pennsylvania. Permanent Standard Time keeps sunrise before 8am. Permanent DST keeps it dark long past 8am.
October 24, 2025 at 5:10 AM
willyb.bsky.social
Bookmarked this awhile ago - finally got around to reading all the way through - a very thorough case against the adoption of AI in academia.
olivia.science Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · Sep 6
Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia:
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity.
1/n
Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece, we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to relevant work to further inform our colleagues. Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI (black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf. Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al. 2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA). Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe. Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles
October 21, 2025 at 8:29 PM
willyb.bsky.social
Because I'm unknowledgable on these things - are the smaller "bespoke" service providers besides AWS, Google, and Microsoft that could be used?
October 20, 2025 at 3:55 PM
willyb.bsky.social
Several online services are down for our school causing disruptions to our plans and processes.

Not for nothing, we didn't have these issues in 2002. 🤪
October 20, 2025 at 3:52 PM
willyb.bsky.social
Dude's going to have a weird Spotify Wrapped at the end of the year. 😂
paleofuture.bsky.social Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · Oct 18
I’ve seen just one counter-protester at No Kings San Diego. He’s got a Trump 2024 flag and this guy has been following him around for probably an hour playing Benny Hill and circus music.
October 19, 2025 at 12:54 AM
Reposted by Ben Wildeboer
eva.computer
white house has joined bluesky
click here to block all official us government accounts instantly

bsky.app/profile/did:...
October 17, 2025 at 10:08 PM
willyb.bsky.social
Feels wrong to say a ball hitting 6 inches under the top of the wall is "grounded," but since this situation happens once every 150 years or so we can deal.
mikepetriello.bsky.social Mike Petriello @mikepetriello.bsky.social · Oct 14
I will never stop looking at this. A 404 foot GIDP. (This is correct, it is not a data error.)
October 14, 2025 at 1:56 AM