Date: Fri 05-Mar-2010
Speaker: Dr. Melissa N. Hayes-Gehrke (U. Maryland)
Title: "Introducing a New Suite of Dynamic Think-Pair-Share Questions to Engage Students in the Classroom"
After Payday Pizza - dessert will be provided! Dr. Hayes-Gehrke will be demonstrating the use of ClassAction tools, which have been developed at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. The tools include changeable think-pair-share questions, animations, and simulations on popular topics. The tools are customizable so that you can choose the parts that are useful in your own lectures.
Date: Fri 09-Apr-2010
Speaker: Prof. David Hammer (U. Maryland)
Title: "What do the students need?"
(In the library! Dessert will be provided! If you wish to arrive early to chat with the speaker over a brown-bag lunch, you are welcome.) The instruction we offer students, at any level, presumably reflects what we believe will help them understand physics. But we don't often subject our beliefs to scrutiny. Most physics instructors work from common sense assumptions about what students need: clear explanations, demonstrations, motivation and practice. As in physics, however, common sense ideas (e.g. 'objects move because they are pushed') aren't always correct. I will present evidence that these usual assumptions are insufficient and offer an expanded set of possibilities, focusing in particular on how students understand knowledge and learning. In some cases what students most need is help taking a different approach to learning, a 'refinement of everyday thinking' (Einstein, 1936) rather than a reception of information.
Date: Fri 07-May-2010
Speaker: n/a
Title: "Teaching Idea Exchange"
Help your students understand astronomy. What has worked well in your class? Join us for a Teaching Idea Exchange. Share a teaching technique in 3 - 5 minutes. You may bring 1 - 2 transparencies if you want. You ared encouraged to COME AND LISTEN EVEN IF YOU CAN'T THINK of an idea to share. Bring your own lunch - dessert will be provided.
