The life of Richard Feynman has many interesting events. However, his life generally represents in my opinion, the direction many young male students with significant interest and experience in mathematical studies are invited to participate in. What I am speaking of is Physicists who work within the government; and who eventually end up working on top-secret projects in atomic-physics for national defense. Based on the information presented in the early part of his book, Mr. Feynman describes events, which lead me to believe in advance that he would eventually end up working with intelligence. The fact that he mentions working on specific government projects, which require a top secret security clearance was in my opinion, a clear indication of my previous expectations of the book.

The most important thing I came away with as a result of reading this book; is the journey one takes in obtaining knowledge. Mr. Feynman from as a young child consistently was in search of knowledge with a strong desire to learn more and solve complex problems. As the well-known musician and trumpet player Freddy Hubbert once said, “Embrace the journey.” Feynman as a young man began to embrace the journey of life, seeking knowledge of many things. I was also compelled to reflect on the Ontological Argument of Descartes, and the Fifth Meditation of Descartes, which I feel represents the development of knowledge through exploration of philosophical principles of learning. How we know what we know is a journey of trial and error of social development. The ethical issue Feynman speaks of at the end of his book is an idealistic view, which is generally non-existent or locked in the chains of our communications and involvement with others; particularly in employment. People most of the time will trade the truth, which lives in their hearts rather than run the risk of rejection.

Group Members: Melanie, Ralph, Muhammad

I had a lot of fun on the hunt, it has been a while since I walked the area.  I have worked in the area inspecting soil borings and foundations.  One of the things I love most about being an engineer is being able to walk around and point out projects that I’ve worked on, it gives me a sense of accomplishment.  I love maps and my sense of direction so this exercise was great for me! – Melanie

I did not know that we had show much to see within our neighborhood!!!! -Muhammad

After more than four years at City Tech, I finally got to see parts of Brooklyn Heights!!! Thank you Living Lab……….Thanks you Muhammad and Melanie.

Underground RR/Religious Inst

Old Building

Hotel

Monument

Wayfinding System

National Advertising Campaign

Brooklyn Law School

Historic Landmark

Restaurant

Engineering Marvel/Water

Living Animals

Determined, Damp and Delivered: a walking odyssey  through downtown Brooklyn

Group- Eric, Johannah, Urmi & Elaine

I believe there is a value to rote learning especially in the earling years.

The Times tables shoulb be memorized, for example. I do not mean to devalue that type of learning- in fact in I think students should learn to spell correctly in grade school. Both types help prepare our brains. In higher education we need different strageties. And in some fields they need to think on ‘thier feet” so to speak but it is true other countries have surpassed us in Science and Math!

I would like to say THANK YOU to whoever chose to give us Surely You are Joking to read over winter break.  It was a perfect selection.  Feynman’s joy in teaching (and life) was inspirational.

You asked us to discuss his writing about research in particular.  The obvious chapter on research was Cargo Cult Science, which was adapted from Feynman’s commencement address at Caltech in 1974.  In it, he spoke of the need for scientific integrity in research and why it is so important to be utterly honest in reporting even data that questions a researcher’s conclusions.

Law and Paralegal Studies students are not required to do research in labs (ala the physics and psychology experiments that Feynman describes) but we do require them to do many hours of research in law libraries.  One of the most important concepts that we  constantly reinforce is that you never look only for the law that supports your case but also for the law your opponent will likely cite.  We teach our students to anticipate the research that will weaken their conclusions, similar to Feynman’s insistence on publishing all research findings “not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another”.

Until I read “Surely”, I only knew of Feynman in relation to his testimony to the Rogers Commission about the cause of the Challenger explosion in 1986.  There is a famous photo of Feynman  freezing an o-ring in a glass of ice water.  My friend had it made into a t-shirt back in the day…

I was particularly struck by the section in the Feynman book entitled “A Map of a Cat?” in which he discusses his transition to and his time at Princeton.  This chapter seemed particularly relevant to us in a gen ed seminar and possibly to our students at City Tech.  First of all, I found his depiction of his visit to the philosophy seminar really funny.  It is, I think, objectively funny, though I’m sure it made me laugh because of my own involvement in the discourse of philosophy and in the study of philosophy.  But the gist of what is being discussed in that short passage recurs in the chapter as a whole.  For instance, when he first arrives at Princeton and is asked if he would like tea with lemon or cream, and he replies, “both,” as well as at the library when he asks the reference librarian for “a map of a cat,” and the reference librarian really has no idea what he is talking about.  The chapter as a whole seems to be about disciplinary boundaries and terminology/cultural terminology, and how important these things are to being seen as an insider or outsider.

I really liked that Feynman was so willing and eager to actually participate in seminars outside of his discipline and to ask questions that in some cases were not relevant, but in some cases very relevant, and, for the most part, be taken seriously.  To me, this chapter is really about how important it is to invite questioning from disciplines other than your own and to take it seriously, even though the terminology/linguistic etiquette is not perfect.  My own research has to do with what allows people to have the authority to ask questions and I find often at City Tech, as many other faculty members do, that our students have very good questions to ask but often do not feel authorized to ask them because of their perceived or actual distance/sense of exclusion from institutions/processes of cultural authorization.

On a separate note, though still on the subject of interdisciplinary coincidences, I was reading an article by David Olson over the break on the subject of literacy history and sociology, and he actually quotes Feynman in his article.  The quote is not from _Surely, You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman_, but elsewhere.  Nevertheless, I found the quote very interesting.  Olson writes, “Revision is ‘work on paper’ in the sense that it is interacting with the written form somewhat independently of the intentions of the writer. Clark (2008) cites an exchange between Nobel- prize winning physicist Richard Feynman and the historian of science Charles Weiner. Weiner had come upon some of Feynman’s original notes that he characterized as Feynman’s ‘record of day-to-day work’. Feynman contested the description saying ‘I actually did the work on the paper … It’s not a record, not really. It’s working. You have to work on paper and this is the paper. Okay?’ (Gleick, 1993, p. 409).”

Welcome! This is the blog for the Second Year Faculty Fellows participating in the General Education Seminar, part of the City Tech Title V grant-funded initiative A Living Laboratory.

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