“Don’t forget your mask.” I haven’t been in a place where people are actually expected to gather since March 6. I have so much to remember as I re-enter the world. I have to remember to get all my keys. Where are all my keys? My car keys are on my dresser. One of my… Continue reading A Journey Closer to the Hot Zone (C+66)
Category: Education
Virtual Social Anti-Distancing
I love surprises. I love them more when I know about them but get to share in surprising someone else. It was a real win when I was asked if it was okay for SMU President, Gerald Turner, to drop in on my digital classroom to chat with students. The SMU President is iconic for… Continue reading Virtual Social Anti-Distancing
What I learned this week
I have really thrown myself into physics, since I am stuck at home (a) because there is a pandemic and (b) because SMU won’t let me on campus until tomorrow (because I was abroad when they ended work-related international travel 2 weeks ago). This has been a grand opportunity. Here are some things I learned… Continue reading What I learned this week
Training Day
SMU is running two straight days of online faculty training for teaching digitally in the next few week. I spent a good part of today in various Zoom sessions, listening to rundowns of how to use certain features for certain purposes. The most useful thing, though, was hearing the concerns about mapping in-person teaching into… Continue reading Training Day
Collecting scientific programming on COVID-19
I started this post as a place to collect scientific programming discussing COVID-19. The Guardian’s Science Weekly – “Covid-19: can ibuprofen make an infection worse?” (March 26, 2020) Nicola Davis speaks to Dr Ian Bailey about the current guidance on taking ibuprofen and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs during a Sars-CoV-2 infection. And, why there was… Continue reading Collecting scientific programming on COVID-19
Digital Teaching
COVID-19 is stressing systems in interesting ways. One thing we are seeing with increasing frequency in the U.S. is schools switching to “online teaching” for the next several weeks (perhaps even for the rest of the terms this academic year). Below, I share some of my perspectives on strategies for “online teaching” – or, more… Continue reading Digital Teaching
A Trip to the National Video Game Museum
Thanks to a visit from an old friend (now Prof. Katherine Rawlins at the University of Alaska in Anchorage), we discovered the existence of and visited the National Video game Museum (NVM) last weekend. It was awesome. It was a tour of the computers and games of my youth; a reminder of how I got… Continue reading A Trip to the National Video Game Museum
Honors Physics, Spring 2020: The Physics of Video Games and Gaming
SMU students are invited to explore physics through the lens of creating games and gaming experiences using interactive technologies. Coding, math, visualization, and storytelling combine in a landscape of physical laws to allow us to interact in increasingly realistic ways through a virtual space. Games may break the laws of nature in such a space,… Continue reading Honors Physics, Spring 2020: The Physics of Video Games and Gaming
A Decade On – The Physics Grand Challenge Problem
When I arrived at SMU in 2009, I was not a teacher. I was a researcher. Unfortunately, it has been common in our field to leave people unprepared for the teaching environment. When I was in graduate school, there either were no classes in, or no one advised me to take classes in, how to… Continue reading A Decade On – The Physics Grand Challenge Problem
A Peek into the Secret City
Four of us stood in the lobby of the La Fonda Hotel. The beautiful space sits just off the main square in Santa Fe. You could almost feel the ghosts of the Manhattan Project walk past as people now sat, perhaps unaware, reading papers, waiting for friends, eating in the restaurant, or drinking in the… Continue reading A Peek into the Secret City