Teaching Philosophy:

I believe that students need to be challenged, but I do not believe that the challenges in a physics curriculum are the same as in other disciplines. Many subjects rely on rote memorization of facts or formulas. Students take notes furiously and then memorize what they have written down to "prepare" for the exams. To challenge these students, simply more information is thrown at them. In physics I believe the exact opposite approach is warranted. The challenge is to throw less information and formulas, but more understanding. Physics is, of course, built on the notion that a few physical laws govern the world around us. Once a student has mastered these principles, he or she may better understand a huge variety of problems, both inside and outside of physics.

I try to follow one simple rule when I teach: Get one idea across to my students per lecture (conservation of energy, conservation of momentum, light is made of photons, etc.). If my students can leave the classroom understanding that one simple statement, they will have a better grasp on the homework, perform better on the exams, and will ultimately inherit a deeper overall comprehension of physics. The problem is that students often want to simply write down notes and memorize them later. I prefer to consider a slightly different approach. In my classes I encourage students to not take notes, but to sit and listen to the lecture and actually think about the concept at hand. I provide the lecture notes to them separately so they won’t miss anything, and I believe this approach works for the majority of students. Physics is a difficult field, but it doesn’t have to be frightening. Students are generally more relaxed when they are not trying to keep up with transcribing the lecture.

Physics is about mastering concepts. I have met many people who have gone through college physics and still do not really understand conservation of energy and momentum. Yet the simple principles of physics can provide huge insight into everyday problems. This is another way to reach students: connect physics to "reality." I have found that students respond favorably when I connect physics to real-life situations. For instance, in the physics labs at Oregon we did an easy experiment to measure the difference between static friction and kinetic friction. I told them this was an extremely interesting result, and one of my students asked me why. They were amazed to learn that this is the fundamental principle behind anti-lock brakes! Suddenly the principle held more importance, and I’m positive they remembered it more fully.

I believe this is the first goal of a physics teacher, to get this simple message across to their students: The principles are what’s important; think about the concepts first, the mathematics second. If they can realize that, then they have a shot at actually understanding physics. The hard question is: How do you get your students to think? This is indeed the biggest challenge that a college professor faces. I believe the answer lies in the professor’s own attitude. The old adage is true: Teachers teach best by example. What students pick up on is the professor’s enthusiasm for the subject, the professor’s whimsical curiosity. Professors that are truly motivated by the subject can easily convey this to their students. Research and teaching are not mutually exclusive, because often it is the professor’s research that sustains the enthusiasm for physics. Staying active in research is a great way to convey this motivation to your students.

Challenging your students to think about what they observe in everyday situations is a great way to open their minds. For instance, I asked my students to sit far from a computer monitor and chew on a pretzel. I asked them what they observed, and they said that the screen flickered. I asked them if they could correlate the flicker with anything else that was happening, and pretty soon they realized that chewing on the pretzels caused the flicker (although a few were convinced I was doing it somehow). They were very surprised to learn the cause of the flicker : Chewing on the pretzel caused their head (and eyes) to shake at a frequency close to the update rate of the computer monitor which causes aliasing. I believe that demonstrations such as this stimulate and help motivate students to question what they observe.

Another way to keep yourself and your students motivated is to continually think up new approaches to teaching. My primary approach is to conjure up interesting new in-class demonstrations. I have found that for undergraduate teaching, a demonstration that is part physics / part magic show has great appeal. Students like to be entertained. They are more focused when they are intrigued by the demonstration, and generally more likely to ask questions. I try to do in-class demonstrations at least every other lecture, and some recent optics demonstrations are described in the next section.
 
 

Teaching History:

It was an honor to co-teach Introductory Optics with Professor Turan Erdogan last Spring term. He is a superior instructor and I was able to learn a lot from him. He is very easy to work with, and together we taught a great course.

I believe optics is actually one of the premiere disciplines for effective in-class demonstrations and student laboratories. The experiments are generally simple and do not require a lot of sophisticated electronics. Plus the nature of optics lends itself to more interesting demonstrations. It is visual. Let me describe just a few of the demonstrations we did in Introductory Optics last Spring:

1) Jell-O optics: This is a great way for students to visualize optical devices. We made a large pan of clear gelatin dessert (triple strength), then cut out shapes from the pan. We pre-fabricated and also had the students fabricate lenses, prisms and "fiber-optic" waveguides. Using a HeNe laser, the students could arrange the pieces on the table with fascinating results, like joining pieces together to simulate a fiber coupler. The Jell-O scatters enough light that the beams are clearly visible which helps the students understand what is actually happening inside.

2) Speed of light measurement: We put a great new spin on this classic demonstration. Using a pulsed diode laser, a fast detector, and a good oscilloscope, we had the students measure the speed of light in the classroom. The laser pulse propagated across the room and back (just 30 ft. or so) and we measured the time difference on the scope. We had the students align it and measure the distance and propagation time. They calculated a value for c that was within 2% of the accepted value!

3) The optical record player: It is possible to "play" a record using a laser beam. This is done by focusing a HeNe laser onto a single groove of the record and then picking off the reflected beam. This reflected beam is modulated by the record groove’s modulation, and thus contains musical information. By using a standard photodiode hooked to an audio amplifier, you can actually hear the record! The only problem is our device doesn’t "track" so the record continually skips, but the audio quality is usually high enough to recognize the tune. Much to our students chagrin, they were able to recognize our Bee Gees album.

These are just a sample of the more than 20 demonstrations we did that term. The kids seem to really enjoy them and they grew to be much more vocal after participating in the measurements.

For the lectures, Professor Erdogan and I split the duties down the middle. He would lecture for a few days, then I would lecture for a few days. It worked quite well, and the students seemed to enjoy the change from one to another. The course covered introductory optics in the broadest sense. We gave our students a "flavor" for what comprises the field of optics. Starting from "light is a ray," moving on to "light is a wave," and ending with "light is a photon," we emphasized the physical nature of light in its many forms. We focused on lenses and imaging, diffraction, lasers, cameras, the human eye, wave-particle duality, and a plethora of other topics. I felt very comfortable lecturing in front of this group of 20 students, many of whom I still see around campus.

Ever since I first started teaching junior lifeguards on the beach in Del Mar, I knew that I wanted to continue teaching. In college I tutored students regularly. In graduate school I taught several introductory physics labs and helped teach a general physics lecture. Here in Rochester I taught physics labs at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Introductory Optics here at the Institute. In all my experience, there is nothing that compares to seeing the students’ eyes light up after finally understanding a difficult concept. This is the true reward of teaching.