How I became a physics educator (part 1 of ?)

When I was in elementary school I always wanted to teach. From the time I was in first grade, I knew that I was going to be a teacher – I just didn’t know what that meant or involved. (Okay, I also wanted to be a writer, and a marine biologist, but it was the […]

How I became a physics educator (part 2 of ?)

I have memories from early childhood of hanging out with my grandfather, drawing pictures on his home computer. I’d spend hours creating pictures in his old version of paint, and then we’d print them out – in black and white – on dot matrix printer paper. My grandfather, an engineer, provided my first introduction to […]

How I became a physics educator (part 3 of ?)

I don’t think I ever thought I’d become a scientist until late in high school. Besides my brief interest in being a marine biologist, I really did think I would get into creative writing or teaching in other disciplines. I remember in eighth grade we were supposed to do a research project to learn about […]

Improving Intro Physics Labs

This semester I am teaching introductory (College Physics) labs for the first time in four years. Although the labs are relatively similar to what I was doing four years ago, I find them to be far less acceptable. By that I mean – I struggle to see the relevance of what we are asking students […]