Carl Wieman Lectures at the Cowan Center

On Thursday, September 5^th in the Cowan Center, Dr. Carl Wieman visited the UT Tyler campus at the Cowan Center, the first of four in the Cowan Center Distinguished Lecture Series for the school year.  As I discussed previously on this blog, Dr.Carl Wieman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995 for his work with the Bose-Einstein condensate, and has since been heavily involved with improving science education in the high school and collegiate levels.

His lecture on Thursday, titled, “How advances in research on learning can dramatically improve science and engineering education", discussed how using “peer instruction” can innovate the instruction of science, math, technology, and engineering (STEM) for high schools and universities.  “Peer instruction” is a pedagogical system originally created by Eric Mazur, in which teachers repeatedly ask multiple-choice questions to a class, and students rely on group discussions to find a collective response.  Wieman discusses that this practice in classrooms allows students to better analyze given questions and scenarios, rather than rely on teacher walkthroughs to understand solutions.  This is a popular standpoint amongst educators, as they wish to move away from the banking method of education, and move toward a collective thought process for better understanding of a given topic.

While the lecture primarily targets STEM classrooms, I was curious as to how this teaching method applies to classrooms with liberal arts topics, such as Political Science, Communication, Journalism, etc.  While the peer instruction method works successfully in technical classrooms, students in liberal arts classes often utilize the banking method to acquire a set amount of information, while avoiding the injection of ideologies in the discussion that may hinder progress in the classroom.  This is a common criticism of class discussions during lectures; it is challenging to teach subjects that are prone to a negative response from someone who holds a conflicting ideology toward the topic.  This is a criticism that Dr. Wieman is working toward solving for these classrooms, so his method of peer instruction can be more applicable to liberal arts classes.

Remember, Dr. Wieman was the first of four lectures that will happen during the school year.  Soon to follow are Katie Couric, Charles Krauthammer, and Robert Edsel.  Check out the Cowan Center website for ticket and date information. Do not miss a great educational opportunity at UT Tyler! 

Crazy things actually happen at UT Tyler?

                  So today is Monday. Like every other Monday, I set off on my trek to the Ratliff Building North to go to my math class. Pretty bland, you could say. Then all of a sudden, I heard a loud roar. Honestly, I was a little bit scared, but I pretended not to be because there were seniors everywhere. So I continued to walk in the direction of the loud noise.

                Not long after, I just saw a huge stampede of human beings running straight towards me. I justified this in my head by saying that maybe some people are having a race, or running away from the RBN. I was wrong, SO wrong. Not only were these people being loud and running fast, but they were masked and sported diapers.

                I've never seen something quite this odd happen on campus, this kind of thing happens all the time in places like New York, I’m sure. All I know is that it made my trip to math a lot more funny and creepy than it usually is, and it was among the more hilarious things I've experienced here. A lot of people are talking about it around campus today, and I hear some talk saying apparently this happens every year around this time. I also heard that these masked adult-babies are the men’s soccer players. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it were.

                If I knew ahead of time, I would've snapped a few pictures of them, so that there embarrassment would be forever captured here on my blog. Luckily, a few other people did, and the just so happened to get this photo of them. Hope you like it!

                Also, Humans vs Zombies has officially started, and people are hiding, getting attacked, and turning into “zombies.” It’s almost like a real life The Walking Dead, but not really. Good luck humans, and don’t attack me when I’m the only human left!

Yours truly,

Chandler Upchurch

You Shall Not Pass (Math)!!

Today I took my very first college math test EVER! I really didn’t know what to expect from it, mostly because in high school, I found the majority of my tests to be very easy to pass. I was friends with a lot of seniors when I was a junior, and when they went to college, they told me about how the tests in college are very different than in high school! So in remembering that, I was very nervous when I realized that a test worth a lot of my final grade was coming up. Luckily, I wasn’t the only one in my class that felt that way. In fact, most of the class was dreading the test.

                Another thing that I was worried about was how to study, because I’ve never really had to study for anything before. Since I don’t exactly have perfect study habits, it’s very beneficial that I go to the math lab.
                What’s a “math lab” you may ask? Well, the math lab is a magical place where you go on campus that has a bunch of resources and tutors to help you with any math homework, or to help you study before a test! If you don’t know how to do a problem, they sit there and help you figure out and learn what to do!

Emmy's Summer

 This is a video of my traveling throughout my summer. My vacations were to Austin, Galveston and to Oakland/San Francisco, California. Whilst in California, I went to an awesome concert in Golden Gate park called Outside Lands. Footage from that concert is at the end of the video.When I was not taking these awesome trips I was at home taking an online developmental math course and biology and taking care of my new puppy, a Shnorkie (a Schnauzer and Yorkie) named Charlie.
                                     
               

No More Math (for me) at UT Tyler

Today I walked into my Math classroom ready to take my final and be done with math classes for the rest of my life.... No more math classes for the rest of my life. It sounds better every time I say it. It was the first time I've actually walked out of a final with a smile on my face.

Well, I have 3 more finals to go (philosophy was optional so I said no thank you) 2 happening on Tuesday and the last one on Wednesday morning. This semester has been a wacky ride but it's semesters like these you learn the most from. Anyway, you won't be hearing from me until after finals so good luck to all of you on your finals. IT'S ALMOST OVER!!!

Because of copyright issues our next musical guest issued us the lyrics for us to read. (clears throat)

"SKOOOLLSS OUT. FOR. SUMMER!!! SKOOOOLLSS OUT. FOR. EVER!!!"

Life Cheat #2875: Turn signals save lives