Monday, February 24, 2020 at 4:00 PM

JILA Auditorium

Doug Duncan, CU Boulder

"Reflections from 50 Years of Teaching Astronomy"

Abstract:

I’ve had the opportunity to teach astronomy off and on for 50 years. In this colloquium, I’ll describe and share the most valuable, useful, and surprising lessons I’ve learned. Particular emphasis will be on the results of experiments conducted on large numbers of university students and faculty: What can be better than a clear, well-explained, interesting lecture? Is it true that student mistakes are not random (yes) and how should faculty respond to this? What technology increases learning, and what decreases it? How often are students texting during your lecture and what should you do about it? (Including testing an app designed to stop student texting.) I’ll end with some challenges for those who teach now or will teach in the future.

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