HOME / PRESENTATIONS /

Eric Mazur

The surprising world where optical properties approach zero, at Bertman Lecture, Wesleyan University, Tuesday, May 2, 2023:
bertman_lecture_wesleyan.pdf
Nanotechnology has enabled the development of nanostructured composite materials (metamaterials) with exotic optical properties not found in nature. In the most extreme case, we can create materials which support light waves that propagate with infinite phase velocity, corresponding to a refractive index of zero. We have developed a variety of in-plane metamaterial designs that permit obtaining a refractive index of zero in the optical regime. We will report on some of the exotic physics of zero-index metamaterials, including strong enhancement of nonlinear optical phenomena. We can also... Read more about The surprising world where optical properties approach zero
Setting Learning Free: Lessons From Online Teaching, at OLC Innovate 2023, Nashville, TN, Wednesday, April 19, 2023:
setting_learning_free_10_mins.pdf

The rapid transition to online teaching necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic has been a good opportunity to rethink our approach to teaching in any modality. Moving to an online format suggests that many activities that have traditionally been synchronous and instructor-paced, can be improved by making them asynchronous and self-paced. What may have seemed like a challenge at first, turned out to be a great opportunity to improve the quality of education.

Assessment and grading, at Professional Development Day, Episcopal Academy, Newtown Square, PA, Friday, March 24, 2023:
1._assessment.pdf

Why is it that stellar students sometimes fail in the workplace while dropouts succeed? One reason is that most, if not all, of our current assessment practices are inauthentic. Just as the lecture focuses on the delivery of information to students, so does assessment often focus on having students regurgitate that same information back to the instructor. Consequently, assessment fails to focus on the skills that are relevant in life in the 21st century. Assessment has been called the "hidden curriculum" as it is an important driver of students' study habits. Unless we rethink our...

Read more about Assessment and grading
Classroom demonstrations, at Professional Development Day, Episcopal Academy, Newtown Square, PA, Friday, March 24, 2023:
2._classroom_demonstrations.pdf

Classroom demonstrations have two important purposes: to increase student understanding of the concepts demonstrated, and to increase student enjoyment of class. Previous studies have cast doubt on whether traditional demonstrations accomplish the first, finding that passive observation of demonstrations does not significantly improve student understanding of the associated concepts. Indeed, many students alter their memory of demonstrations to match their ideas about the underlying physics. Data show that having students predict the outcome of a demonstration and discuss their...

Read more about Classroom demonstrations
Peer Instruction Demo, at Professional Development Day, Episcopal Academy, Newtown Square, PA, Friday, March 24, 2023:
3._pi_demo.pdf
A brains-on demonstration of Peer Instruction and a discussion of the cognitive benefits of having students engage in active learning.
Thinking about assessment, at Teaching Excellence Program Workshop with Master Teachers, Wednesday, February 22, 2023:
2._melbourne_rethinking_assessment.pdf

Why is it that stellar students sometimes fail in the workplace while dropouts succeed? One reason is that most, if not all, of our current assessment practices are inauthentic. Just as the lecture focuses on the delivery of information to students, so does assessment often focus on having students regurgitate that same information back to the instructor. Consequently, assessment fails to focus on the skills that are relevant in life in the 21st century. Assessment has been called the "hidden curriculum" as it is an important driver of students' study habits. Unless we rethink our...

Read more about Thinking about assessment
Advancing the quality of teaching, at Opening Keynote, Teaching Excellence Program Conference 2023, Melbourne Australia, Tuesday, February 21, 2023:
tep_2023.pdf
To improve learning — and therefore teaching — we need to pay attention to the human, social, cognitive, and aspirational sides of education.  A first, key step in the process of improving learning is to shift from teaching by telling to teaching by questioning. I wilI interactively demonstrate an easy-to-implement way of shifting the focus from the teacher to the learner and create a level of engagement that is difficult to accomplish in the more passive, traditional approach to education. 

Pages