Fall 2008: (Lab Instructor) PHYS121 & PHYS122 - Introduction to Physics I & II

A two-semester course in general physics treating the fields of mechanics, heat, sound, electricity, magnetism, optics, and modern physics.
The Phys121 tutorials are administered so students can work collaboratively on work-sheet based group-learning activities (based on the model developed at University of Washington). Our tutorials emphasize the reconciliation of everyday, intuitive thinking and experience with formal scientific thinking and to encourage explicit epistemological discussions about the learning process. The goal of the Phys121 laboratory is to help students understand the construction of knowledge through measurement and analysis. The students design their own experiments using the available equipment, make measurements, analyze results and present them to the class [Redish & Hammer (2008) Reinventing College Physics for Biologists: Explicating an Epistemological Curriculum]
Phys122 (Fall 08) follows a more tradional implementation of laboratory classes.

Fall 2007: PHYS115: Inquiry into Physics

For Elementary Education, Early Childhood majors. Use of laboratory-based and inquiry-based methods to study some of the basic ideas of physical sciences.
My primary focus in this course is helping students frame learning physics as a meaningful endeavor: making observations in class, always starting with what students know from everyday experience and refining from there via discussions and individual reflection [as opposed to committing facts, formulas, and problem-solving methods]. Along the way we also talk about teaching science in elementary school, what it can and should entail. By the end of the course, I hope that students are competent and comfortable with scientific inquiry. To that end, class meetings are made up mainly of discussions, experiments, and debates—not lectures.

Spring 2007: (Teaching Assistant) PHYS115: Inquiry into Physics

Fall 2006: (Teaching Assistant) PHYS121: Introduction to Physics I

Spring 2005: (Facilitator/Moderator) EDPL338: Inter-Group Dialog Course [LGBT/Hetero Dialog]

Fall 2004: (Facilitator/Moderator) EDPL338:  Inter-Group Dialog Course [LGBT/Hetero Dialog]