Tag Archives: CWSEI

CWSEI End of Year Conference

Every April, at the end of the “school year” at UBC, the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) holds a 1-day mini-conference to highlight the past years successes. This year, Acting-Director Sarah Gilbert did a great job organizing the event. … Continue reading

Posted in astro 101, clickers, physics, teaching | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

A misconception about extrasolar planets

A couple of weeks ago in the introductory “Astro 101” class I work in, the instructor and I confirmed that many students hold a certain misconception. I was, still am, pretty excited about this little discovery in astronomy education. If … Continue reading

Posted in astro 101, clickers, communicating science, interpreting graphs, teaching | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

#eqjp, a teachable moment

In my current assignment through the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative in Physics and Astronomy at UBC, I’m working closely with a senior astronomy professor to help him better teach his general-education “Astro 101” course. It’s a mixture of providing … Continue reading

Posted in astro 101, communicating science | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Evidence of Learning in Astronomy

Throughout the Sep-Dec, 2010 term, I worked with an astronomy instructor to create a more learner-centered classroom. As I described elsewhere, we spent just over one third of the instructional time on interactive activities: think-pair-share using clickers, lecture-tutorial worksheets, ranking … Continue reading

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But did they learn anything?

The course transformations I work on through the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) in Physics and Astronomy at UBC are based on a 3-pillared approach: figure out what students should learn (by writing learning goals) teach those concepts with … Continue reading

Posted in astro 101, clickers | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment