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Keynote or Plenary

The scientific approach to teaching: Research as a basis for course design, at Frontiers in Science Teaching Symposium, Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark), Monday, June 18, 2012:
talk_1918.pdf
Discussions of teaching -- even some publications -- abound with anecdotal evidence. Our intuition often supplants a systematic, scientific approach to finding out what works and what doesn't work. Yet, research is increasingly demonstrating that our gut feelings about teaching are often wrong. In this talk I will discuss some research my group has done on the effectiveness of classroom demonstrations and on active learning from 20 years of implementing just-in-time-teaching and peer instruction in science courses.
Educating the Innovators of the 21st Century, at eTeaching Day, Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA), Wednesday, May 16, 2012:
talk_1907.pdf
Can we teach innovation? Innovation requires whole-brain thinking — left-brain thinking for creativity and imagination, and right-brain thinking for planning and execution. Our current approach to education in science and technology, focuses on the transfer of information, developing mostly right-brain thinking by stressing copying and reproducing existing ideas rather than generating new ones. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to team work and creative thinking greatly improves the learning that takes place in the classroom and promotes independent... Read more about Educating the Innovators of the 21st Century
Memorization or understanding: are we teaching the right thing?, at 3rd International Exhibition and Conference on Higher Education, riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Wednesday, April 18, 2012:
talk_1843.pdf
Education is more than just transfer of information, yet that is what is mostly done in large introductory courses -- instructors present material (even though this material might be readily available in printed form) and for students the main purpose of lectures is to take down as many notes as they can. Few students have the ability, motivation, and discipline to synthesize all the information delivered to them. Yet synthesis is perhaps the most important -- and most elusive -- aspect of education. I will show how shifting the focus in lectures from delivering information to synthesizing... Read more about Memorization or understanding: are we teaching the right thing?
The scientific approach to teaching: Research as a basis for course design, at Chicago Symposium Series on Excellence in Teaching Mathematics and Science, Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), Friday, March 23, 2012:
talk_1841.pdf
Discussions of teaching -- even some publications -- abound with anecdotal evidence. Our intuition often supplants a systematic, scientific approach to finding out what works and what doesn't work. Yet, research is increasingly demonstrating that our gut feelings about teaching are often wrong. In this talk I will discuss some research my group has done on gender issues in science courses and on the effectiveness of classroom demonstrations.
Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery, at 32nd Puerto Rico Interdisciplinary Scientific Meeting, University of Puerto Rico Carolina (Carolina, PR), Saturday, March 10, 2012:
talk_1842.pdf
We use femtosecond laser pulses to manipulate sub-cellular structures inside live and fixed cells. Using only a few nanojoules of laser pulse energy, we are able to selectively disrupt individual mitochondria in live bovine capillary epithelial cells, and cleave single actin fibers in the cell cytoskeleton network of fixed human fibro-blast cells. We have also used the technique to micromanipulate the neural network of C. Elegans, a small nematode. Our laser scalpel can snip individual axons without causing any damage to surrounding tissue, allowing us to study the function of individual... Read more about Subcellular surgery and nanosurgery
Why improve STEM teaching?, at Fulbright WHA Junior Visiting Faculty Development Institute, University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX), Wednesday, January 25, 2012:
talk_1869.pdf
Scientists discover the world that exists; engineers create the world that never was." This quote from Theodore von Kármán reflects the complexity and challenges scientists and engineers face. In their endeavors to discover and create, as educators they face the critical need to better prepare future scientists and engineers to innovate in our increasingly high-technology society. Schools and universities across the globe are working to attract students to STEM programs and to design learning environments that will help ensure student success. Industry requires knowledge experts who possess... Read more about Why improve STEM teaching?
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at Symposium on Teaching Excellence, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD), Friday, January 20, 2012:
talk_1834.pdf
I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly
Interactive Learning: Technology in the Classroom, at The Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools Professional Development Day, Malvern Preparatory School (Malvern, PA), Thursday, January 19, 2012:
talk_1835.pdf
Most -- if not all -- of the important skills in our life are acquired outside the traditional classroom setting. Yet we continue to teach using a lecture, or sage-on-stage, format where students passively take down information. Instead, we should really focus on the assimilation of that information and shift the focus from teaching to helping students learn. Over the past 20 years, instructors world-wide have begun to adopt Peer Instruction to get students to think creatively in class. With the advent of new technology the process can be significantly improved. A new data-analytics driven... Read more about Interactive Learning: Technology in the Classroom
Turning lectures into learning, at Youngstown State University (Youngstown, OH), Thursday, December 15, 2011:
talk_1866.pdf
Almost 20 years ago, Harvard physicist Eric Mazur had an “aha” moment about his teaching practice that forced him to rethink the traditional unidirectional teaching model. He described his early approach to courses as “not how you teach it, but what you cover. [Then] I realized education was not merely a transfer of information. It was about how well students could assimilate information and transfer it to their own experience.” So Dr. Mazur radically changed his approach. He developed a strategy that incorporates “just-in-time” teaching with short lectures punctuated by... Read more about Turning lectures into learning
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at ICTLHE 2011 (Malacca, Malaysia), Tuesday, November 22, 2011:
talk_1829.pdf
I thought I was a good teacher until I discovered my students were just memorizing information rather than learning to understand the material. Who was to blame? The students? The material? I will explain how I came to the agonizing conclusion that the culprit was neither of these. It was my teaching that caused students to fail! I will show how I have adjusted my approach to teaching and how it has improved my students' performance significantly

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