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2011

Confessions of a converted lecturer, at Center for Teaching Excellence Faculty Conference, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), Wednesday, January 19, 2011:
talk_1662.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
Comprensión o Memorización: ¿Estamos haciendo lo correcto?, at Charla-Desayuno, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Facultad de Ingeniería (Santiago, Chile), Friday, January 14, 2011:
talk_1670.pdf
Educación es mucho más que transferencia de información, sin embargo es lo que comúnmente se hace en cursos introductorios de gran tamaño – los profesores presentan material (a pesar de que ese material puede estar disponible en su versión impresa) y para los estudiantes el principal propósito de las clases magistrales es tomar la mayor cantidad de notas que puedan. Pocos estudiantes tienen la habilidad, motivación y disciplina para sintetizar toda la información que se les entrega. Sin embargo la síntesis es quizás el más importante -- y el más eludido – aspecto de la... Read more about Comprensión o Memorización: ¿Estamos haciendo lo correcto?
Peer Instruction, at Universidad Diego Portales (Santiago, Chile), Thursday, January 13, 2011:
talk_1683.pdf
The basic goals of Peer Instruction are to encourage and make use of student interaction during lectures, while focusing students' attention on underlying concepts and techniques. The method has been assessed in many studies using standardized, diagnostic tests and shown to be considerably more effective than the conventional lecture approach to teaching. Peer Instruction is now used in a wide range of science and math courses at the college and secondary level. In this workshop, participants will learn about Peer Instruction, serve as the �class� in which Peer Instruction is demonstrated... Read more about Peer Instruction
Confesiones de un profesor convertido, at Universidad Diego Portales (Santiago, Chile), Thursday, January 13, 2011:
talk_1682.pdf
Pensaba que era un buen profesor hasta que descubrí que mis estudiantes solo estaban memorizando información más que aprender a comprender el material. A quién debía culpar? A los estudiantes? Al material? Explicaré cómo llegué a la agonizante conclusión de que el culpable no era ninguno de estos. Era mi enseñanza la que causaba que los estudiantes fallaran! Mostraré como he ajustado mi método de enseñanza y cómo eso ha mejorado el desempeño de los estudiantes de manera significativa.
Confessions of a converted lecturer, at 10th Workshop on Active Learning in Engineering Education (Santiago, Chile), Tuesday, January 11, 2011:
talk_1500.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
An Evaluation of Effectiveness of Short Physics Workshops for In-service Teachers, at American Association of Physics Teachers Winter Meeting 2011 (Jacksonville, FL), Monday, January 10, 2011
There is compelling evidence that Peer Instruction improves students’ ability to complete both conceptual and traditional computational physics problems. We used Peer Instruction during a four-week long (120 hours) retraining course for in-service teachers of grades 7-12 in Korea. The goal of this study is to investigate if Peer Instruction can be used to improve the participating teachers’ conceptual understanding of introductory physics concepts. To this end we pre- and post-tested the teachers using the Force Concept Inventory and The Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism.... Read more about An Evaluation of Effectiveness of Short Physics Workshops for In-service Teachers
Memorization or understanding: are we teaching the right thing?, at All Faculty Meeting, University of Tulsa (Tulsa, OK), Thursday, January 6, 2011:
talk_1639.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?
Workshop on Peer Instruction, at Annual All-Faculty Meeting, University of Tulsa (Tulsa, OK), Thursday, January 6, 2011:
talk_1661.pdf
The basic goals of Peer Instruction are to encourage and make use of student interaction during lectures, while focusing students' attention on underlying concepts and techniques. The method has been assessed in many studies using standardized, diagnostic tests and shown to be considerably more effective than the conventional lecture approach to teaching. Peer Instruction is now used in a wide range of science and math courses at the college and secondary level. In this workshop, participants will learn about Peer Instruction, serve as the �class� in which Peer Instruction is demonstrated... Read more about Workshop on Peer Instruction
Wrapping light around a hair, at Science Speaker Series, Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School (Hamilton, MA), Tuesday, January 4, 2011:
talk_1668.pdf
Can light be guided by a fiber whose diameter is much smaller than the wavelength of the light? Can we mold the flow of light on the micrometer scale so it wraps, say, around a hair? Until recently the answer to these questions was �no�. We developed a technique for drawing long, free-standing silica wires with diameters down to 50 nm that have a surface smoothness at the atomic level and a high uniformity of diameter. Light can be launched into these silica nanowires by optical evanescent coupling and the wires allow low-loss single-mode operation. They can be bent sharply, making it... Read more about Wrapping light around a hair

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