Category Archives: astro 101
What do you mean by that, again?
Oh sure, trust me to turn a fun Twitter #hashtag into a posting about education. Well, sorry, I filter everything I read and experience through my education filter (or my will-my-kids-have-a-meltdown? filter). I’ve been reading my tweeps #tweetmy16yearoldself messages on … Continue reading
The birth of a clicker question
It’s easy to come up with poor clicker questions, ones that merely test who has memorized X, Y, or Z from the previous slide. Or questions where there is no way to figure out the answer: either you’ve got it … Continue reading
Interpreting formulas and graphs
When you pose a question to students about a non-trivial concept, and they get it wrong, it’s not obvious where the error occurred, which step they missed or misunderstood. Every now and then, though, you find a “diagnostic” question that … Continue reading
First day of learner-centred instruction
In my role in the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) at UBC, I don’t do the actual teaching myself. I train the trainers and then monitor how they’re doing. And I ask myself, you can talk the talk but … Continue reading
