CESE

CESE extends our sincere condolences to Dr. Timothy Moy's family, and to his many colleagues and friends. Prof. Moy, who was an associate professor of History at the University of New Mexico, drowned on July 22nd while assisting his son in the waters off Kailua, in Hawaii. In addition to his many duties at UNM, Tim was a longtime member of CESE (the Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education), and served as president of CESE from 2001-2002. He was an articulate explainer of history and scientific thought, a strong promoter of increasing appreciation of science, and a passionate advocate of the importance of scientific integrity. He will be missed very much.

-Dave Thomas

Walter Murfin

School fractions proficient in mathematics and reading are negatively correlated with school fractions of minority and economically disadvantaged students. For elementary schools that tested at least 40 students in school year 2005-2006, the correlation of math proficiency with school minority fractions was r = -0.700, p<<0.01. The correlation with school “Free or Reduced Price Lunch” ( FRPL) fraction was r = -0.650, p<<0.01 (“r” is the Pearson correlation coefficient and “p” is the significance level.) The correlations for reading proficiency were similarly large, significant, and negative. It is tempting to attribute a simple linear relation between economic status and performance. How realistic is a simple explanation for school performance?

Creationists consistently attribute the cause of the practice of eugenics to the acceptance of evolutionary science and have blamed such things as Hitler's "racial cleansing" on Charles Darwin. Well, the real story lies elsewhere. In fact, this article by Rebecca Reis of CESE sets the record straight. The old saw "Those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" applies. In fact, scientists and creationists play considerably different roles than one might think if listening to only the creationists. Read on for some good research and a much better picture of what the real story is.

By
Dr. Rebecca Reiss
Associate Professor of Biology
New Mexico Tech

http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/letters/564911opinion05-23-07.htm

PERHAPS ONLY a few of you have been following the KNME/PBS series, "Secret Files of the Inquisition." That's unfortunate.

It seems to me that one major reason that the "heretics," Jews, and other so-called "subhumans" (their interpretation included homosexuals, free-thinkers, some scientists, physicians, and book readers) were not totally annihilated during the Inquisition was the lack of the appropriate technology for mass murder.

(Please do not let the math at the beginning stop you from reading the important conclusions in the full article!)

By Walt Murfin

"Canonical Correlation" or "Canonical Regression" is a method for finding the relation of a number of simultaneous inputs to a number of simultaneous outputs. That is, how are input variables t, u, v, . . ., taken all together, related to output variables x, y, z, . . . ., taken all together? At first glance, this seems almost too much to ask. However, there is a method. First, consider ordinary multiple regression. Let the input be an N×P matrix X, and the output is an N×1 vector Y. We are trying to find the constants "a" for the equation Z=a₀ +a₁*x₁ +a₂*x₂ +a₃*x₃+. . . +a_P*x_P. We find the a’s such that Z will have the maximum correlation with the actual output Y. We can guarantee that no other combination of the x’s will give a higher correlation.