This post couldn’t have been written a year ago, and one year from now it may seem quaint and archaic. Still, I’ll write it to serve as a record. As noted in the last post, I taught The Physics of Energy and the Environment this past term, a course for non-science major undergraduates at the … Continue reading ChatGPT takes my Energy and the Environment final exam
The quote in the title is from Woody Allen, and you’ll see below why it’s appropriate for this course recap. This past term I again taught “Physics of Energy and the Environment,” a class for non-science-major undergraduates at the University of Oregon. I enjoy teaching this topic and in some ways this round was better … Continue reading “Eighty percent of success is showing up” — Physics of Energy and the Environment, Winter 2023
This past term, Fall 2022, I taught for the second time a course I created on image analysis. (Syllabus.) The structure and content were similar to last year’s — last year went well, and I put lots of work into it, so “if it ain’t broke…” Here’s a summary of things in the 2021 course … Continue reading Image Analysis Course Recap, Fall 2022
A more technical post than most. If the symbol and the equation look familiar to you, you’ll be fine. If not, you may still like the post, but in case you’re about to depart I’ll put my customary link to my pop-science biophysics book’s description here, and also share this week’s news that it will … Continue reading What does the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle have to do with microscopy?
I’ll touch on the important question of how students learn from in-person vs. remote courses by showing just one graph based on the class I taught last term. Adding a bit of commentary, I note a conundrum that I think universities have avoided addressing.. Plotted below are the mean and standard deviations of the overall … Continue reading The perils of online learning, in one graph
This past term (Fall 2021) I taught a course on image analysis. It was a new course — not just new for me but completely new, though it grew out of an informal image analysis class I’ve taught “off the books” before and have posted about. The class went well, though I severely underestimated how … Continue reading Image Analysis: Reflections on a New Course
Before my memories grow even dimmer I should write down some thoughts about the class I taught Spring term: The Physics of Solar and Renewable Energies. Like its companion course, The Physics of Energy and the Environment, which I taught the quarter before and wrote about here, it’s a course for non-science-major undergraduates at the … Continue reading Course Recap: Physics of Solar and Renewable Energies, Spring 2021
In the quarter that recently ended I taught The Physics of Energy and the Environment, a course for non-science-major undergraduates at the University of Oregon (UO) that I’ve taught before, though never before as an online, Zoom-based course. (For those reading this in the far-off future: It’s April 2021, and we’re a bit over a … Continue reading Course Recap: Physics of Energy and the Environment, Winter 2021
Last week, I gave the final exam for my Physics of Energy and the Environment class, a course for non-science-major undergraduates. Nearly all of the questions were answered correctly by a majority of students, and the individual question outcomes correlated well with overall exam performance. Surprisingly, however, there was one question that the vast majority … Continue reading A Puzzle about Paris and Climate
Synopsis: I describe a short activity for high school students on visualizing protein structures and etching them in wood. Challenge: If you’re familiar with proteins, you might like to ask yourself before you get to Part 2: If you were to show non-scientists a few protein structures, which structures would you pick? 1. Background: SAIL … Continue reading Etching proteins — SAIL recap, 2019
The Eighteenth Elephant 