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David Webb

@djphysicswebb.bsky.social
211 followers 588 following 66 posts

Thinks a lot about teaching and learning. Retired physicist. Hunts for demographic inequity within the system. #EduSky 🍎 #Science 🧪

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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We continue to point out issues suggesting that college courses are an active part of bias against marginalized demographic groups. 🎢 #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd #AcadmicSky
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Cassandra Paul @cassandrapaul.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
@djphysicswebb.bsky.social, Mary Chessey and I have a newly accepted paper on uncollected test item responses on open-ended physics exam questions! Blank responses on exams are missing data, not measurements of physics knowledge or skills. Read on for details... Preprint: arxiv.org/abs/2606.05473
arxiv.org
Missing Data on Physics Exams: Demographic Patterns, Course-Level Predictions, and Implications for Equity
In a previous quantitative retrospective study we showed that different demographic groups of students leave different numbers of problems blank on physics exams, leading to inequities in course outco...
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
@cassandrapaul.bsky.social and I show that employing undergraduate Learning Assistants in introductory courses may help smooth many students' paths through the university and increase STEM graduation rates. arxiv.org/pdf/2607.27006 🎢 #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd #AcadmicSky
arxiv.org
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JayIsPainting 🍁 @jayispainting.earthskyart.ca · 17/07/2026
Firstly, our family business was running one of the largest GF & allergy friendly bakeries in the world. We had about 160 employees & 150,000 ft² of production. 4 - 130ft tunnel ovens. Real deal stuff
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Greg Pak @gregpak.net · 25/01/2026
BTW when I say abolish ICE, I mean abolish it entirely and replace it with exactly nothing. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. That's it.
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Title @clevertitle.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
Check him out, he does a little bit everything, I especially love his movie reviews ;-)
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
@cassandrapaul.bsky.social Issues we might want to think through and deal with sometime.
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Cassandra Paul @cassandrapaul.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Our new research indicates that the gender gap in intro physics is an artifact correlated with the “stakes” associated with physics exams and is therefore NOT due to differences in preparation or understanding. 🧪🧵 #acadmicsky #HigherEd #EduSky #STEMed link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/...
link.aps.org
High-stakes exams inflate a gender gap and contribute to systematic grading errors in one introductory physics series
A study in introductory physics suggests high-stakes exams are causing a gender gap, rather than measuring it.
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Research suggesting how an exam gender gap can be inflated from zero up to roughly 1/3 of a grade point simply by increasing the stakes of your exams. Can't help thinking of gaps on a different high stakes exam, the SAT, when I see results like these. #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Research suggesting how an exam gender gap can be inflated from zero up to roughly 1/3 of a grade point simply by increasing the stakes of your exams. Can't help thinking of gaps on a different high stakes exam, the SAT, when I see results like these. #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd
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nora "the tea kobold" rude (they/them ze/hir) @nora.zone · 11/10/2025
cry havoc and let slip the frogs of war
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
Higher ed should be essentially free. #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
Huh, @cassandrapaul.bsky.social‬ and my paper that showed that demographic biases in physics classes can be removed was referenced by a Sociology professor in an article that showed up in at least 39 different publications yesterday. #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #Physics ⚛️ #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd
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Fr. Robert Ballecer, SJ @padresj.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Corgis have an extremely low center of gravity and the density of a dead star. PERFECT for skateboarding! 😇
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
bsky.app/profile/djph...
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 05/05/2025
Yay, science!
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BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
any excuse to repost the greatest Tetris story ever, when a reporter went to cover early e-gaming championships and discovered that his wife was unknowingly *the world's greatest Tetris player* by a huge margin archive.boston.com/news/globe/m...
archive.boston.com
'Bizarro World' - The Boston Globe
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Re-posting and including picture showing no gender gap on low stakes in-term exams and significant negative gender gap on medium stakes in-term exams. Gender gap on the high stakes final exam is 50% larger than on the medium stakes exams. #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #Physics ⚛️ #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd
As explained in the text, each in-term exam was z-scored on a class-by-class basis and the gender gap for each group of classes was determined with HLM while controlling for each student's incoming GPA. This in-term exam score gender gap is plotted as a function of time through the 10-week term at the times the exams and retakes were taken. On the right, after the end of the term, are the overall averages for those first-attempt exams and for the recorded scores after retakes were completed. One sees that the female students generally had higher exam scores (i.e. a positive gender gap) after the first attempt and that, overall, retakes favored the male students. For reference the (clearly negative) gender gaps for 179 non-retake classes are also shown on a week-by-week basis through their terms.
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Everyone is weird. Being weird is what makes us human. We are the apes who stopped, thought and embraced weirdness. Find someone who accepts that you are weird, without judgement.
Whatsapp convo with my wife where i excitedly send her a photo of a train and she pretends to care.
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
@cassandrapaul.bsky.social and my new preprint describes how high stakes exams in introductory physics can make it seem like there is a gender gap in learning/understanding physics when, in reality, there is none. arxiv.org/pdf/2504.09418 #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #Physics ⚛️ #EduSky 🍎 #academia #HigherEd
arxiv.org
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Bee Quammie @beequammie.blacksky.app · 17/04/2025
Shelly-Ann racing in her kid's Parents Day race at the school is the funniest thing I've seen all week LMAO
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Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
It always boggles my mind that I, a journalist, am expressly forbidden from trading stocks, but members of Congress, with vastly greater knowledge of market-moving news, are allowed to profit by front-running markets, and so may profit by in essence stealing from the public they represent.
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Steve Vladeck @stevevladeck.bsky.social · 30/03/2025
As of Friday, there have been 46 cases in which federal judges have blocked Trump policies. The rulings in those cases have come from 39 different judges appointed by 5 different presidents (of both parties) to 11 different district courts across 7 different circuits. Maybe it's not the judges?
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Cri 🕊🐝🐜📝🎭⚽😷 @crawlieswithcri.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Titled this "Super cute adorable Oak Titmouse" in my folder. I was not wrong. Also - TAKE THAT, All About Birds who describe them, "Nondescript save for its crest, the Oak Titmouse might not wow many bird watchers at first sight." Nondescript my tail feathers! #birds #becurious
photo of an oak titmouse perched on a bare oak branch. they are facing the camera and floofed out so they have a triangle shape overall. It's adorable.
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
As computing capabilities increase, the number of digits we'll be able to calculate will also increase. I think what's so poetic about this: It's a process that began with the first civilizations and is a thread that weaves through the whole of human history. It's our story as a species.
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Cassandra Paul @cassandrapaul.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
We wrote this open letter to our students reaffirming our educational commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion and access (DEIA). Faculty friends, if this resonates with you, and you feel comfortable doing so, please consider signing this letter, and sharing it widely. medium.com/@dearstudent...
medium.com
Open Letter to Our College Students
(Add your name to the letter by completing this form.)
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
At some point the opposition needs to say what is happening here: Donald Trump is a tyrant in the full sense of the term, an American fascist dictator who believes the law flows directly from his command. And he is also a deeply unwell, unfit, and criminal man with nonsensical whims
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Dustin Moskovitz @moskov.goodventures.org · 28/02/2025
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦
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Rick Caruso’s Private Fire Crew @amandasmith.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Not just deserve. Weather monitoring, disease management, and food safety are services we pay for from the government that are being stolen from us.
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Cara Giovanetti @idontevencara.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Lately I've noticed that when I discuss with profs about how active learning (AL) dramatically improves student outcomes, folks will respond that their students don't seem to really like active learning. I'm perusing some literature on the subject and thought I'd share out. #iTeachPhysics 🧪⚛️ 1/5
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Great call to action!
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Dr. Rebecca Calisi-Rodríguez @rebeccacalisi.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
I emailed university faculty/staff/administrators a roadmap to support DEI through legal challenges, collective resistance, and institutional protections for faculty. The question isn’t whether institutions will comply—it’s who will fight back, and how! greencarelab.ucdavis.edu/how-universi...
greencarelab.ucdavis.edu
This Is Not a Drill: How Universities Can Save DEI
By now, many of us have read the headlines: the U.S. Department of Education has ruled that race-based scholarships, cultural centers, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs violate...
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Sarah Hörst @planetdr.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
This is why they want to destroy us. Our superpower is explaining complicated things in a way that everyone can understand. They are going to try to destroy us whether we do it or not. I’m not going down without a fight.
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Radical Graffiti @radicalgraffiti.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
"When you ride TESLA, you ride with Hitler. Join Public Transportation Today!" Reworked WW2 poster spotted in Oakland
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Endless Screaming @infinitescream.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
i know people are coming here for catharsis and that's fine but when you are done screaming please pick something you can do that will help people and do it. you don't accomplish anything by rolling around in the fear all day
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
#science #physics #iteachphysics
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Alej Garcia @alejgarcia.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...
nextgov.com
168 employees fired at National Science Foundation
“Panch has been conveniently absent throughout this whole time,” said an internal email an NSF worker sent to fellow colleagues, referring to Sethuraman Panchanathan, NSF’s director.
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watertigernyc @watertigernyc.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
😆 Seen in Baltimore. Artist unknown.
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Stephen King @stephenking.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Don’t buy stuff on February 28. Money’s the only thing these dicks understand. #resist
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Katie Wilkinson @drkwilkinson.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
Today's San Jose Mercury News has my Letter to the Editor about the disastrous proposed cuts to NIH. The ramifications are hard to summarize in <150 words, but here's my attempt. www.mercurynews.com/2025/02/14/l... 🧪 #NeuroSky
NIH funding cut could kill medical research
Re: “Judge temporarily blocks Trump move to cut NIH funding” (Page A1, Feb. 11).

Thankfully courts have paused, for now, the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) attempt to immediately slash the amount of money given to research institutions to support research. If allowed to proceed, the loss of money to pay research support staff and support research facilities will be a death knell for biomedical research in the United States.

At San Jose State, my lab is currently funded by NIH to test out a treatment to prevent a devastating side effect of cancer chemotherapy drugs. Odds are if you know cancer survivors, you know someone still struggling with chronic pain or other issues caused by chemotherapy. If NIH cuts research support funds, I doubt that SJSU will be able to find the funds to make up the shortfall, meaning that I will have to fire talented scientists and stop our research.

Researching cures to improve America’s health is not wasteful spending.

Katherine Wilkinson
Professor of Biological Sciences, SJSU
San Jose
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Black Intellect Media @blackintellect.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
NAACP lists companies that dump DEI in its tactical spending guide for Black Americans
buff.ly
NAACP lists companies that dump DEI in its tactical spending guide for Black Americans
The NAACP wants Black Americans to take their purchasing power, which some studies value at over a trillion dollars, to businesses that align with the civil rights group's values.
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Cassandra Paul @cassandrapaul.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
One of my grants is also on the list of “woke” grants. The project studies the partnerships undergraduate Learning Assistants have with faculty and how they both support active learning in STEM classrooms.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 15/02/2025
the single most un-american and anti-constitutional statement ever uttered by an american president
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
Over and over again we find that changing the way college courses are organized (without changing the intellectual level of the material) can make them more equitable at the same time that we improve instruction generally. #academia #HigherEd #EduSky #iTeachPhysics
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 31/01/2025
In light of this deeply illegal activity at NSF and the ongoing attack on American science, I'm posting the slides from my 2017 talk at the American Physical Society about the Nazi take over of German physics/why German is no longer science's lingua franca 🧪 🧵 1/26 drive.google.com/file/d/1_MCm...
nazi germany & physics
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, PhD
Department of  Physics,University of Washington, Seattle
APS April Meeting, January 2017
Dismantling the (Nazi) German Nuclear Reactor (Pile) at Haigerloch, 50 km SW of Stuttgart, in April 1945
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Karen Attiah @karenattiah.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Amazing to see Reddit become a forum of solidarity and resistance among federal workers today. If you need a dose of hope, read all the comments of federal employees vowing to hold the line and their oath to serve the American people. www.reddit.com/r/fednews/co...
reddit.com
From the fednews community on Reddit: Hold the line! We made an oath to protect the constitution from threats, both foreign and domestic.
Explore this post and more from the fednews community
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
Trying to post this with correct feeds #iTeachPhysics 🎢 #Physics ⚛️ #EduSky 🍎
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David Webb @djphysicswebb.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Cassandra Paul and I continue to identify modified course structures that are more equitable without changing the intellectual level of the topics discussed in introductory physics courses. journals.aps.org/prper/abstra... #physics #edusky #science
journals.aps.org
Examining equity and graduation rates at two institutions using a course deficit model and the collaborative learning through active sense-making in physics curriculum
In an implementation of the Collaborative Learning through Active Sense-Making in Physics (CLASP) course at a different institution preserved prior findings and the results are interpreted through an ...
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