I have been teaching physics a long time, and all that time I have been teaching physics at the college level, and at the freshman and sophomore level. During the entire time I have been teaching, vectors is something that is always surprises me. For those of you that don’t know, or can’t remember, a…
Category: Teaching / School
Student Differences
This semester I have been teaching 2 identical labs at BSU. One of them met from 10:30-1:15 and the second met from 1:30-4:15. Both classes feed students from the same sets of lecture classes. They were both a mix of men and women (but mostly men regretfully). But the students were very different from each…
Rubrics
I have been thinking a bunch about rubrics recently, and as a result I decided I would write a bit about them. I guess we should start with what a rubric is. For what I am going to be talking about the Merriam-Webster definition is: a guide listing specific criteria for grading or scoring academic…
A “New” Way of Solving a Physics Question
I have been teaching physics for a while now (this is year 22 for me not counting teaching while still in college). Over those years I have given the following question on and off pretty regularly. “Captain Bialar Crais has a mass of 81-kg, and he has been captures in a secret laboratory. He wants…
Comments From Students – And a God Need Filled
I am a few weeks into teaching labs at Boise State University. It has been an interesting time. I am basically leading students through weekly labs that are tied to what they are supposed to be learning in their lecture portions of class. This is a very traditional method of teaching physics at universities. I…
So Much Work
I am getting ready for my teaching schedule to get into full swing. I started my Live Online class already. Having done live online since covid it hasn’t been too bad. I have never done this class fully live online before so it is a challenge in some ways. But not too bad. My labs…
A Final Class Party
The last couple years I have been having an end of year party with my classes at school. We hang out, eat food and play games. Yesterday was my last of these at SCC. I made chocolate chip cookies, which went over pretty well. People brought donuts, chips, brownies, bagels, soda and pizza. I ate…
Goodbye Party with Friends at SCC
Today my department held a goodbye party for me at work. They brought in sandwiches and crumbl cookies. And there were donuts as well. The food was great. But it was the people that mattered. A number of people in my department came by for a while to chat. And there were also a few…
What is the Purpose of College?
I have been in the college system for a long time. I have 21 years of teaching in the college system and 6 years of college prior to that. So, I would like to think that I have some experiences in the system of what college is about. And that is the question I am…
Live Online is Dragging Me Down
Ever since the pandemic starting in Spring of 2020 I have been teaching at least 1 class as a live online physics class. For those that don’t know what that is here you go. It is where the students have to log into a live class using Webex (Like zoom or google chat) and we…