As previously noted, I’m planning to do more active-learning stuff in my intro mechanics courses this fall (starting next Tuesday), and as a result have been reading/ watching a lot of material on this (which, by the way, includes far too many slickly produced sales videos and not nearly enough “here’s an example video of… Continue reading Poor Man’s Clickers, or Re-Inventing the Flat Tire?
Category: Course Reports
New Paper Dance: “Investigating Systematic Uncertainty and Experimental Design with Projectile Launchers”
The week before last, I finished writing up a pedagogical paper I’ve been meaning to write for some time, and sent it off to The Physics Teacher. A couple of days ago, it occurred to me that I could probably post that to the arxiv. So I did, just before I left town for an… Continue reading New Paper Dance: “Investigating Systematic Uncertainty and Experimental Design with Projectile Launchers”
Resources for Physics Teaching
I continue to be distracted from the paper-writing that I really ought to be doing by thinking about my classes this fall, and Joss Ives isn’t helping. By being very helpful– he posted a nice list of resources for active teaching. His blog has a bunch of other interesting stuff, too. For the specific Matter… Continue reading Resources for Physics Teaching
A Risky Educational Experiment
It’s that time of year again, when I start thinking about my fall term classes. I would really prefer to put it off for another couple of weeks, and I will put off spending much time on class prep in favor of finishing up some paper-writing and other things, but when the calendar turns to… Continue reading A Risky Educational Experiment
The Test(ing) of Time 2: Freezing Time
A month and a half ago, I reported on a simple experiment to measure the performance of a timer from the teaching labs. I started the timer running at a particualr time, and over the next couple of weeks checked in regularly with the Official US Time display at the NIST website, recording the delay… Continue reading The Test(ing) of Time 2: Freezing Time
Practice Matters: “The effect of curriculum on Force Concept Inventory performance: A five thousand student study”
A few years ago, we switched to the Matter & Interactions curriculum for our introductory classes. This has not been without its hiccups, among them the fact that there has been a small decline in the conceptual learning gains measured by the Force Concept Inventory, the oldest and most widely used of the conceptual tests… Continue reading Practice Matters: “The effect of curriculum on Force Concept Inventory performance: A five thousand student study”
The Test(ing) of Time: Measuring the Performance of a Stopwatch
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m schedule to teach a class on “A Brief History of Timekeeping” next winter term as part of the Scholars Research Seminar program. Even though I have a hundred other things to do, I continue to think about this a lot. One of the goals of the course is to introduce… Continue reading The Test(ing) of Time: Measuring the Performance of a Stopwatch
Lessons in Applied Data Archaeology
I’m teaching our upper-level lab course this term, where I do a two-part experiment on laser spectroscopy. The first part is to calibrate the free spectral range of a homemade Fabry-Perot interferometer, and the second part is to use that Fabry-Perot as a frequency marker to calibrate a diode laser scan across the rubidium hyperfine… Continue reading Lessons in Applied Data Archaeology
Physics Takes Practice
Doug Natelson talks about a recent presentation on education: I recently heard a talk where a well reputed science educator (not naming names) argued that those of us teaching undergraduates need to adapt to the learning habits of “millennials”. That is, these are a group of people who have literally grown up with google (a… Continue reading Physics Takes Practice
Notes Toward “A Brief History of Timekeeping”: Kooks and Sticks
Barring a major disaster, I am scheduled to teach one of our Scholars Research Seminar classes next winter. I’ve been kicking the idea for this around for a while, with the semi-clever title “A Brief History of Timekeeping.” The idea is to talk about the different technologies people have used to mark the passage of… Continue reading Notes Toward “A Brief History of Timekeeping”: Kooks and Sticks