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Category Archives: Teaching
In on-line teaching one thing is essential
Of all the preparations with Canvas and Zoom, in all the discussions with my Teaching Assistants, in reading the blizzard of emails my anxious university sends out, there is one thing I keep remembering from my son’s long experience with … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching
Tagged learning, online teaching, remote teaching, small groups, study groups, teaching
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Wikipedia is worth writing for and teaching with
A guest blog post I wrote on teaching with Wikipedia just cam out. Check it out! https://wikiedu.org/blog/2018/02/22/secrets-of-teaching-with-wikipedia/
Posted in Teaching, Wikipedia
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Active learning in research perspectives and science communication
Science is a lot more than measuring and testing ideas. It is a rich social endeavor with its own language, its own standards, its own ethics, and its own literature. Undergraduates miss out if they do not learn this. But … Continue reading
Grading ruins teaching
I do not want to hear one more word about grade inflation. I do not want to hear one more word complaining about today’s students. I want to hear about why so many professors and teachers have decided we are … Continue reading
Teaching effectively and efficiently: abstract writing
Are you happy with how you teach writing? Do you have a trick? The only tricks I have are to give good examples and to have students write a lot. Beth Fisher at a Wash U writing workshop convinced me … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching, Writing
Tagged abstracts, Active learning, posters, teaching, writing
2 Comments
What if the undergrads ran their own class with no faculty present?
Earlier this fall we had an excellent presentation about how to make physics classes more interactive. The legendary speaker, Carl Wieman, see this, talked about how students should think first, then get feedback, discuss, then perhaps the lecturer could move … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching, Undergraduates
Tagged discussion, evolution, seminars, study questions, teaching
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Will an exit interview tell the truth about the biology major?
It’s graduation! We are launching the 2016 model of biology majors out into the world, or to medical and graduate schools. Whatever we as faculty tried to achieve in teaching and mentoring our students, it is over. Did we do … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching, Undergraduates
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Have you tried the new Wikipedia Visual Editor?
One of the things that keeps some people from making a quick edit to Wikipedia is unfamiliarity with the HTML markup code. It isn’t hard, especially if you do some of their great tutorials, but you can also use their … Continue reading
No, I will not give you an extension on the assignment!
The paper is due tomorrow and I haven’t started working on it. I just discovered that I can’t find enough references. I know the professor said to line up the references up front, but I started writing with only a … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching
Tagged classroom mangement, deadlines, equity, extensions, teaching
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Teaching without lecturing: Exploded discussion in Class 3
In discussion session on Friday the students told the TA, Omar, they wanted me to explain some of the questions that they did not understand. So I agreed and offered them one of two lectures. Either they could hear … Continue reading
Posted in behavioral ecology, Teaching
Tagged kin selection, quiz, Selfish Gene, study questions, teaching, Test
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Sociobiology 