2001

Education: Transferring information or engaging the mind?, at HKUST Teaching and Learning Symposium, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Hong Kong), Wednesday, December 12, 2001:
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. Students get frustrated because they are unable to grasp simple concepts. Instructors get... Read more about Education: Transferring information or engaging the mind?
Classroom Demonstrations: More Than Just Entertainment?, at Physics Colloquium, Worcestert Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, MA), Monday, November 19, 2001
Classroom demonstrations in science courses are intended to serve two important purposes: to increase students’ interest in the material being covered and to improve students’ understanding of the underlying scientific concepts. Student end-of-semester evaluations typically praise demonstrations as one of the most interesting parts of a course, suggesting that demonstrations accomplish the first objective. What about the second? Do demonstrations effectively help students learn the underlying concepts? We examined whether the manner of presentation of demonstrations affects their... Read more about Classroom Demonstrations: More Than Just Entertainment?
Black silicon: Microstructuring silicon with femtosecond lasers, at Physics Colloquium, University of Massachusetts-Lowell (Lowell, MA), Wednesday, November 14, 2001:
Our research group has produced a novel form of microstructured silicon ("black silicon") with many surprising properties: near unity absorption, even below the band gap; production of photoelectrons in the visible and infrared; visible luminescence; and a strong field emission current. This talk will describe these properties and what is understood so far about their structural and chemical origin.
Laser-assisted microstructuring of silicon surfaces for novel detector, sensing, and display technologies, at Physics and Advanced Technologies Seminar, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, CA), Tuesday, October 16, 2001:
Arrays of sharp, conical microstructures are obtained by texturing the surface of a silicon wafer using femtosecond laser-assisted chemical etching. The one step, maskless texturing process drastically changes the optical, material and electronic properties of the original silicon wafer. These properties make the textured silicon viable for use in a wide range of commercial devices. First, near-unity absorption of light, from visible to infrared wavelengths, offer opportunities for use in optically active devices such as solar cells and detectors. Significant enhancement of below-band-gap... Read more about Laser-assisted microstructuring of silicon surfaces for novel detector, sensing, and display technologies
Classroom Demonstrations: More Than Just Entertainment?, at Physics Colloquium, Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI), Thursday, September 27, 2001
Classroom demonstrations in science courses are intended to serve two important purposes: to increase students’ interest in the material being covered and to improve students’ understanding of the underlying scientific concepts. Student end-of-semester evaluations typically praise demonstrations as one of the most interesting parts of a course, suggesting that demonstrations accomplish the first objective. What about the second? Do demonstrations effectively help students learn the underlying concepts? We examined whether the manner of presentation of demonstrations affects their... Read more about Classroom Demonstrations: More Than Just Entertainment?
Classroom Demonstrations: More Than Just Entertainment?, at Physics colloquium, Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI), Thursday, September 27, 2001:
Classroom demonstrations in science courses are intended to serve two important purposes: to increase students’ interest in the material being covered and to improve students’ understanding of the underlying scientific concepts. Student end-of-semester evaluations typically praise demonstrations as one of the most interesting parts of a course, suggesting that demonstrations accomplish the first objective. What about the second? Do demonstrations effectively help students learn the underlying concepts? We examined whether the manner of presentation of demonstrations affects their... Read more about Classroom Demonstrations: More Than Just Entertainment?

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