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Re: [Phys-l] Trading Research for Teaching



Richard Hake called our attention to an article by Epstein, D. 2006, "Trading Research for Teaching," Inside Higher Ed, 7 April, online at <http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/04/07/wieman>.

I was pleased and surprised to read that Carl Wieman was leaving Boulder and coming to the University of British Columbia to work on the problems of physics teaching earlier this week in the Vancouver Sun. I am a retired physics professor from Simon Fraser University, across town from UBC, and one of the founders of the BC Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers. I am further encouraged by what David Epstein has written here. I can add some local intelligence which will explain my attitude to any who might think that British Columbia is a strange geographical choice to nurture such an activity.

British Columbia has a first rate record for secondary mathematics and physics teaching based on its students' performances in national competitive examinations. We have an enthusiastic and committed group of high school physics teachers, perhaps because our teachers are fairly well paid compared to their US peers. Wieman will be working with an exceptionally well prepared student body at UBC. I see great merit in applying his peer involvement methods to this population.

Brian Pate tried student feedback at SFU in 1966 in his chemistry lectures. A 300+ seat lecture theater was wired with five-position rotary switches in the armrests of each the seats. Positioning the switch to any choice produced a contribution to a reading on a corresponding meter at the lectern. Brian had seen a smaller installation in Scandinavia on which he patterned the SFU system. It is my impression that that system never worked very well, and of course it is prone to malfunction or even malice. Wieman's wireless solution is much more practical, of course.

All of us physics teachers in British Columbia welcome Wieman's coming, and I expect that something significant will come of it.

Leigh