Resources and Events

A great visual resource on learning goals

January 30, 2012

I wish I could embed this visual tool here so that you’d see how awesome it is and jump up and down in your seat like I did when I first saw it (at least, if you’re an edu-geek like me). But no, I can only provide you with a link and say go here. [...]

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Phylm: Make a film about physics!

January 8, 2012

Phylm /’film/ n. [physics + film] The fifth annual Phylm Prize is now open! Until May 13, anyone can enter a film — though students are especially encouraged — about physics. Year three’s winners were a set of students with the Special Relativity Rap. The second year was Science Made Fun about black holes (which [...]

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Handouts for January 4th Webinar: Make Clickers Work for You

January 4, 2012

I’m giving a webinar today to what is shaping up to be a huge group (over 400 registrants, a record for me!)  This is my introduction to clickers and peer instruction talk, “Make Clickers Work for You“.  I also do workshops on writing clicker questions and effective facilitation techniques, but this webinar is my quick [...]

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Free webinar on effective use of clickers

December 26, 2011

I’m giving another free webinar that I’m giving on effective use of clickers in the college classroom (though most is applicable to K12).  This webinar is an introductory look at best practices in clicker use, based on research, including peer instruction.  Please share this widely — these webinars have been very popular.  Make Clickers Work [...]

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A summary of the research on how to study

December 19, 2011

To follow up on the last post on the videos pitched to students on how to study, I want to direct your attention to a wonderful resource I just found out about: Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning. It was published by IES, the Institute for Educational Sciences, which is the scientific arm [...]

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Learn about research-based teaching: The PER User’s Guide

December 8, 2011

There are a ton of research-based techniques for teaching, and we hear about them in bits and pieces.  There are great websites on modeling, for example, or our CU-Boulder  materials for using clickers and peer instruction.  But where can we go to find everything all in one place? I’m pleased to help spread the word [...]

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The Flipped Classroom: Using class time for learning, not presentation

December 5, 2011

I write a lot about teachniques (just coined that phrase, how do you like it?) to get students more interactive and engaged in your courses.  But a lot of teachers aren’t sure how to take the time to do those activities given how much content there is to cover.  As you might be aware, one [...]

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Where can I get good clicker questions?

November 7, 2011

I give a lot of workshops on the use of clickers and peer instruction to improve student engagement and deep learning.  I just found out about one more useful place to get good question items. Quick background information — I promote the use of clickers to help facilitate getting students to discuss and argue through [...]

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Learning Assistant Liveblogging: Pedagogy course

November 3, 2011

Once again, liveblogging from the national Learning Assistant Workshop in Boulder. When we started out the conference this afternoon, and participants shared their primary area of interest in learning more about effectively running an LA program, I’d say about half of the crowd Steve Iona talked to us about what that pedagogy course entails, and [...]

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Education Emergency First Responders: Learning Assistant workshop liveblog

November 2, 2011

I’m currently at the national Learning Assistant Workshop in Boulder.  Since I’m right here, I thought it would be useful for me to learn more about LA programs that are being created at various institutions.  I’ll liveblog from the conference a little bit.  One thing that I’ll say up-front though — if you’re interested in [...]

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Adopt a Physicist is open!

October 21, 2011

Haven’t you always wanted a fuzzy little physicist of your very own?   Or, are you a lonely physicist who just needs some gentle care and feeding? Adopt a Physicist is a fun little program that pairs up physicist “ambassadors” with classrooms so that students can ask questions and interact with (gasp!) a Real Live Physicist.  [...]

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Teaching faculty about effective use of clickers #clickers

September 13, 2011

I’ve been working for the past several years to figure out the best ways to teach faculty about how to use clickers effectively; to engage students, ask questions that get students thinking, and to use peer discussion to help students work together to learn from the questions.  It’s not always easy.  Recent research has shown [...]

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Online collaboration tools (#AAPTsm11)

July 31, 2011

I’m at the AAPT meeting and will be posting a few liveblog posts during the week, as I have useful snippets.  Now I’m in the Free Physics Webtools session with Cathy Ezrailson. One good use of the web is to collaborate with others in a shared space.  Obviously wikis and blogs are one way to [...]

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Cool online tool for making rubrics (#AAPTsm11)

July 31, 2011

I’m at the AAPT meeting in sweaty Omaha (woo hoo!), and will be posting a few liveblog posts during the week, as I have useful snippets.  Now I’m in the Free Physics Webtools session with Cathy Ezrailson. One useful tool that we just saw is for making rubrics — for grading anything from posters to [...]

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A smarter search engine for education?

July 18, 2011

Out of all places, I was at an art opening for sustainable technology for the world’s poor, when I ended up geeking out about education with a new acquaintance. He told me about his new project, still in alpha, which I thought was a nifty concept.  Called Instagrok, it’s intended to be a better search [...]

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Free online textbooks (and prisoner education)

June 27, 2011

I get a surprising number of comments and emails about my post regarding a college education for inmates.  I take this as a sad indication of just how few resources there are out there for education for incarcerated persons. I used to volunteer at the Prison University Project at San Quentin — the only program [...]

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A few great physics education links

June 23, 2011

It’s time for shameless filler — good links that I’ve run across.  I always feel like it’s a cop-out to post these, but people tell me they really like them, so I guess I’ll stop feeling like a loser when I point to other peoples’ useful content. 21 Influential Females Every Science Student Should Know. [...]

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A new site for identifying misconceptions

June 9, 2011

When teaching, it’s crucial to know what your students tend to have difficulty with, so you can target your instruction to those topics. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) just released a really nicely designed website called Science Assessment for identifying these common student difficulties with content in life science, physical science, [...]

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Cat bowling: YouTube physics for the classroom!

May 26, 2011

I was just shown this wonderful little video, thanks to local high school teacher Michael Fuchs.  What does a cat and a laser pointer have to do with inertia and friction?  Check it out.  What a great way to start a class on inertia…  

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Young Voices on Climate Change

April 11, 2011

Here’s a really cool project, getting young people involved in community action.  I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while.  Lynne Cherry (a well known children’s book author, has produced a series of short films about young people who are taking action about climate change.  Each story is a little different — a [...]

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