Projects, Plans, and other things
Here are some of my projects currently under development. Most are located at the intersection of teaching and computers. (A nexus fraught with both successes and failures over the last half century.)
Online Lecture Notes
I've never subscribed to the notion that we should hold course content hostage and only release it during lecture hours. I try to make as much of my material available for either download, print, or in class use. Currently, this involves the use of a web based slideshow that I use in class. Students can also access the slides during class, or can print out pdf version of them before (the recommended approach).
Lecture slides are often built using powerpoint. My first year of teaching I did indeed use Powerpoint. However, I abandoned powerpoint as a platform for building course material several years ago. These slides are built using HTML5 and some Javascript. They are essentially web pages, formatted to look and behave like a slide show. This enables them to contain all the power associated with the web: interactivity, accessibility, platform independent, and full of rich media.
Features
- Portable
- Write-on-screen capabilities
- Free / Open-source
- Media-rich
Simulating Science
Visualizations are great. Animations fabulous. But, I really get a kick out interactive science sims. These have been around for a while, but have had some hiccups entering the landscape of the Modern Web. I run a small group of students that build sims for use in education and research communication. We build them using tools fit for 2018, not 1998.
Mini-Solar System →
Click around to add a planet. Notice the differences between the orbits of the ones closer to the sun verses the planets further away?
Check out more here: Sims Catalog
Online Homework System
After using MasteringPhysics, WebAssign, and WileyPlus, I became frustrated with the standard publisher created online homework systems. So, I built my own. I've been using in classes now for about 2 years. The best feature, from the student's perspective is the cost: 0$. I felt ashamed as an instructor when I required students to pay for the privilege of doing their homework. Over a January recess last year, I built the initial site. Since then, I've been adding features in response to student feedback.
Features
- Free!
- Numeric Input w/ Random Variable generator
- Hints & Solutions
- Short answer questions too
Revamped Introductory Physics Labs
In collaboration with others in the department, I've been helping to update our intro physics labs so that can offer opportunities for students to learn skills and methods that are expected in modern science. While the basic content doesn't need to change much (i.e. balls fall to the ground the same way they do now as they did 100 years ago), we can infuse some modern methods to lab activities. We've implemented digital data acquisition tools as well as some introductory computational methods.
← Video Analysis
One activity that was essentially unavailable a decade ago was the incorporation of high-speed video analysis to help understand the basic aspects of motion. Here is a slo-motion free fall video of a ball. Students can use the frame-by-frame controls to measure the location of the ball at fraction of a second intervals.