How Best to Learn Atmospheric Thermodynamics?

1. How Best to Learn Atmospheric Thermodynamics? Doug Yarger (retired) Atmospheric Sciences Iowa State University

2. Jeanne L. Narum, Director, Project Kaleidoscope, interviewing Dr. Carl Wieman Distinguished Professor of Physics, Nobel Prize winner, University of Colorado-Boulder. Dr. Wieman, If a visitor were to come into your classroom/lab - the environment in which you work with students - what impression would s/he leave with?

3. Jeanne L. Narum, Director, Project Kaleidoscope, interviewing Dr. Carl Wieman. Dr. Wieman, If a visitor were to come into your classroom/lab - the environment in which you work with students - what impression would s/he leave with? “… I would hope they would see a bunch of students interested in what they are learning and taking a lot of responsibility for figuring out physics and how it applies to the world around them. I do know that, compared to many other physics classes I have observed, a far larger fraction of the students in my "lectures" are awake, paying attention, and asking questions, so I may not be hoping entirely in vain.”

4. What brought you to an interest in "advancing the frontiers of education" and to connecting your research to that work?

5. What brought you to an interest in "advancing the frontiers of education" and to connecting your research to that work? “… It became increasingly clear to me that when evaluating the effectiveness of most physics teaching, if one stripped away the triple biases of ancient tradition, how we were taught as students, and what we wanted to see the results looked pretty dismal.

6. What brought you to an interest in "advancing the frontiers of education" and to connecting your research to that work? “… It became increasingly clear to me that when evaluating the effectiveness of most physics teaching, if one stripped away the triple biases of ancient tradition, how we were taught as students, and what we wanted to see the results looked pretty dismal. … I was also struck by the contrast between the meager understanding of physics most students got from taking years of physics courses compared with the almost routine caterpillar-to-butterfly like transformation into skilled physicists that I could observe in graduate students working with me on research.”

7. Were there risks in doing this? What were they? What made you persevere?

8. Were there risks in doing this? What were they? What made you persevere? There are two negative factors that are pretty much guaranteed downsides.

9. There are two negative factors that are pretty much guaranteed downsides. “First, it will take a lot more time to teach differently, whether or not it is better. It is really quite easy to follow a textbook similar to what was used in courses that you took in school, reciting more or less what is in that text up in front of the class while noting the important points on a blackboard, and finally assigning students to do the standard homework problems at the back of the chapter and giving closely related exams.

10. There are two negative factors that are pretty much guaranteed downsides. “First, it will take a lot more time to teach differently, whether or not it is better. It is really quite easy to follow a textbook similar to what was used in courses that you took in school, reciting more or less what is in that text up in front of the class while noting the important points on a blackboard, and finally assigning students to do the standard homework problems at the back of the chapter and giving closely related exams. And if you make a minimal effort to be reasonably organized and enthusiastic and tell a few jokes in class, your teaching will take fairly minimal time and effort and, at worst, will certainly be considered quite respectable in most any department.”

11. “It takes a GREAT DEAL more time to start from scratch to attempt to do it right. You have to go through and analyze what you really want the students to learn, analyze how student's think and learn and then figure out how each part of the course does or does not contribute to your goals, prepare materials accordingly, and then after you have used them evaluate if they are working or not, and finally going through it all again to make corrective actions based on those evaluations.

12. “It takes a GREAT DEAL more time to start from scratch to attempt to do it right. You have to go through and analyze what you really want the students to learn, analyze how student's think and learn and then figure out how each part of the course does or does not contribute to your goals, prepare materials accordingly, and then after you have used them evaluate if they are working or not, and finally going through it all again to make corrective actions based on those evaluations. Some day we will know how to teach science right, and we will be accustomed to doing it that way and it will be much easier. However, it is pretty clear that we are not there yet, and as a result it takes a lot of work to put in any useful changes.”

13. “...The second downside is that the students will resent and dislike anything different from what they are used to. Over time, many can be won over if you work hard enough, but many never will be. Their unhappiness and complaints are particularly difficult to handle when you are doing something "nonstandard". Students do not particularly like the traditional physics course, but they are at least used to it.

14. “...The second downside is that the students will resent and dislike anything different from what they are used to. Over time, many can be won over if you work hard enough, but many never will be. Their unhappiness and complaints are particularly difficult to handle when you are doing something "nonstandard". Students do not particularly like the traditional physics course, but they are at least used to it. In the face of student unhappiness a faculty member always has the security of knowing that the course has always been taught that way so you cannot be held personally responsible.-----Doing something nontraditional gives up all that security however, and will always bring in more complaints from students, sometimes even expressed to higher up administrators in your department or college.”

15. “I still remember the terrible course evaluations I got back when I made some radical changes in teaching the lowest level introductory course that was offered specifically for students who were deficient in science. ---There were many irate comments along the lines of ‘This professor was terrible and I should get my tuition money back. I had to work hard in this course and I learned a lot more than I have in other science courses, but Professor Wieman never taught us anything. I had to figure it all out by myself.’

16. “I still remember the terrible course evaluations I got back when I made some radical changes in teaching the lowest level introductory course that was offered specifically for students who were deficient in science. ---There were many irate comments along the lines of ‘This professor was terrible and I should get my tuition money back. I had to work hard in this course and I learned a lot more than I have in other science courses, but Professor Wieman never taught us anything. I had to figure it all out by myself.’ Of course this meant I was completely successful in the goal I had set out to achieve, but many of the students were completely unsatisfied, because they were so convinced that a science course was strictly rote memorization.”

17. Were there risks in doing this? What were they? What made you persevere? “Fortunately the experience with students is not totally negative. One cherishes those occasional letters of gratitude from students who say you have opened their eyes to a completely new way of thinking about the world and what science is.”

18. Please tell us about the project that you will be undertaking I am basically trying to find a way to substantially improve the educational experiences of students taking an introductory physics course, and to do this without requiring any additional resources in terms of faculty or teaching assistants time or changes in the physical layouts of classrooms. In spite of their many shortcomings from a learning point of view, the traditional, large lecture format that is used for most introductory physics courses is extremely cost-effective as simply measured by dollar per course credit hour.

19. The project ... Recognizing the fiscal realities of modern day higher education, particularly in public universities, I hope to find a reasonable compromise that preserves this cost effectiveness, but at the same time will greatly improve the learning experience for the students. I am considering how changing the subject matter and the method of delivery can help to accomplish this. I am undertaking two related projects as specific efforts to achieve this goal.

20. The project ... First: to enhance the teaching of physics by developing interactive java applets that help students to better visualize the basic physics processes at work. Second: to develop interactive lecture demonstrations (actual experiments done in a large lecture class for which the students predict the results, and then analyze and discuss the outcome of the experiments).

21. Where are we going? • We will consider how students learn

22. Where are we going? • We will consider how students learn • We will look at instructional methods unique to science education

23. Where are we going? • We will consider how students learn • We will look at instructional methods unique to science education • We will consider how alternatives to traditional methods might be better

24. Where are we going? • We will consider how students learn • We will look at instructional methods unique to science education • We will consider how alternatives to traditional methods might be better • We will test some tools that help create learning environments

25. Tradition is the democracy of the dead. A paraphrase from The Ethics of Elfland by G. K. Chesterton

26. Tradition is the democracy of the dead. We need to build on what others have done but we don’t want to be bound by how it is used -

27. Between the ideaand the realityBetween the motionand the actfalls the shadow From The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot

28. Between the ideaand the realityBetween the motionand the actfalls the shadow You will be finding your way through the shadows this week. It is fortunate that you have some guides available!

29. Your Guides • Teaching and Learning: Brent Wilson, Mike Taber, David E Meltzer, Tom Boyd, Mary Marlino, Steve Ackerman, Joe Lamos, Pat Parrish,Woody Wang, other “COMET staff”

30. Your Guides • Teaching and Learning: Brent Wilson, Mike Taber, David E Meltzer, Tom Boyd, Mary Marlino, Steve Ackerman, Joe Lamos, Pat Parrish,Woody Wang, other “COMET staff” • Tool Development: Tom Whitaker , Tom Yoksas , Mike Taber, “COMET staff”

31. Your Guides • Teaching and Learning: Brent Wilson, Mike Taber, David E Meltzer, Tom Boyd, Mary Marlino, Steve Ackerman, Joe Lamos, Pat Parrish,Woody Wang, other “COMET staff” • Tool Development: Tom Whitaker , Tom Yoksas , Mike Taber, “COMET staff” • “Been There, Done That”: Tony Hansen, Mike Taber, Tom Boyd, David Meltzer, Steve Ackerman