Workshop

Tools for Peer Instruction — a workshop, at Congreso Internacional de Innovación Educativa Tecnológico de Monterrey (Monterrey, Mexico), Monday, December 16, 2019:

 It has been suggested the lack of interaction in large lecture courses is to blame for the many problems facing these courses: declining enrollments, low attendance, poor evaluations, and disappointing retention. We offer a way of redesigning the classroom so interaction is introduced in many aspects of the course. This approach has shown to be effective by many instructors in a broad variety of environments. I will demonstrate some of the tools we have developed to foster this interaction.

Zero-index nanophotonics, nonlinear optics, and quantum entanglement, at Nano-optics: Principles enabling basic research and applications, Centro Ettore Majorana (Erice), Saturday, July 22, 2017
In these interactive lectures we explore how light can be manipulated at the nanoscale. We begin by describing optical propagation in ordinary materials and then show how materials can be engineered to achieve a refractive index of zero. These zero-index materials have remarkable properties and can be integrated in photonic circuits. We also give an introduction to nonlinear optics and discuss how zero-index materials can be used to accomplish phase matching in nonlinear optics and to obtain longer coherence times and lengths among entangled emitters or qubits.

Outline

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Innovating Education to Educate Innovators, at 2017 National STEM Cell Foundation Scholars Program, Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY), Thursday, June 8, 2017
The teaching of physics to engineering students has remained stagnant for close to a century. In this novel team-based, project-based approach, we break the mold by giving students ownership of their learning. This new course has no standard lectures or exams, yet students’ conceptual gains are significantly greater than those obtained in traditional courses. The course blends six best practices to deliver a learning experience that helps students develop important skills, including communication, estimation, problem solving, and team skills, in addition to a solid conceptual understanding... Read more about Innovating Education to Educate Innovators
Assessment Part 2: Designing Good Questions, at North Dakota State University (Fargo, ND), Wednesday, April 5, 2017
In this workshop we will analyze the components of effective ConcepTest implementation and design. Participants will begin to design their own ConcepTests. At the end the workshop we will pilot a selected set of the newly designed ConcepTests with the participants.
Assessment: Part 1 -- The silent killer of learning, at North Dakota State University (Fargo, ND), Wednesday, April 5, 2017
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 approach to... Read more about Assessment: Part 1 -- The silent killer of learning

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