Tag Archives: think-pair-share

Another day of agile teaching

The prof I’m working with in our introductory #astro101 class at UBC surprised me today. I thought he was sabotaging a teachable moment when in fact, he pulled one of the most “agile” moves he’s made yet. Here’s the story: … Continue reading

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Going over the exam

How often have you heard your fellow instructors lament, I don’t know why I bother with comments on the exams or even handing them back – students don’t go over their exams to see where they what they got right … Continue reading

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Clicker votes when students guess

I’m working with a veteran gen-ed astronomy (#astro101) instructor to make his classroom more learner-centered. We’re working hard on effective clicker implementation. The benefit of using clickers for think-pair-share (TPS) questions is the instructor can use the students’ votes to … 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

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Wasn’t expecting Him in class

In the #astro101 class I’m working on, we just reached the “what is life” section. Great timing, considering the new @NASA astrobiology discovery of a bacteria that, unlike every other living creature, uses arsenic instead of phosphorus in its DNA. … Continue reading

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