Author Archives: Ian

About Ian

Physics professor... science education researcher and evangelist... foodie and occasionally-ambitious cook... avid traveler... outdoorsy type (hiking, camping, whitewater kayaking, teaching wilderness survival skills to high school students, etc.)... amateur photographer... computer programmer and amateur web designer... and WAAY too busy!

a crazy collision of a teaching idea

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Ian

I love it when two different ideas collide in my head, even when I’m not entirely sure whether the result is a beautiful synthesis or an ugly wreck. first idea In a conference paper I wrote exploring what we could … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning & Teaching, Pedagogy, problem/project-based learning | 12 Comments

Post-Holocene Education?

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Ian

Tonight, Prof. Ben Ramsey of the UNCG Religious Studies Department gave the University’s inaugural Future of Learning lecture. I attended. I feel like I’ve been ambushed and beaten up, intellectually speaking. This was not the “bright new horizons in pedagogy” … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Learning & Teaching, Politics | 6 Comments

If flash cards are the answer, we’re asking the wrong question.

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Ian

I’m in St. Louis. I’ve just finished a two-day conference at Washington University that brought together leading cognitive science/cognitive psychology researchers with education researchers and innovators from various STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) disciplines. As conferences go, it was … Continue reading →

Posted in Educational Research, Learning & Teaching | 2 Comments

No-Bullshit Teaching

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Ian

This is a post where I try to put some ideas I’ve been wrestling with for a while into new words, hoping for new insight. What follows may or may not be worth a hoot. Caveat emptor. The more I … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning & Teaching, Pedagogy | 1 Comment

What’s in a model?

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Ian

I’m trying to incorporate some of the ideas and practices of Modeling Instruction, especially Eric Brewe’s University Modeling Instruction (MI-U), into my teaching this semester. I can’t do full-on MI-U, since (a) I don’t have six hours per week of … Continue reading →

Posted in Learning & Teaching, Modeling Instruction, Pedagogy | 3 Comments