What time is it anyway, and what does that question even mean? I want to describe a classroom activity that is the culmination of our discussion of time. I’ll start with a brief description of the background leading up to this activity and then describe the activity itself. If there is any aspect of astronomy […]
Read More Learning Critical Thinking Through Astronomy, Week 16Because of Thanksgiving, this week was a short week, only two days (Monday and Tuesday). However, because of a bizarre institutional policy (described here) Tuesday ran on a Friday schedule. Therefore, my MW evening astronomy section only met once, the TuTh section didn’t meet at all, and the MWF section met on two consecutive days. […]
Read More Learning Critical Thinking Through Astronomy, Week 15This is the last full week of instruction before Thanksgiving. First, a short rant. It’s unfortunate that students are racking up harmful absences. There is an institutional attendance policy, but we’re really not permitted to enforce it as written and yet it doesn’t change. This puts faculty in the dangerous position of having to decide when […]
Read More Learning Critical Thinking Through Astronomy, Week 14This is basically a quick brain dump. I’m teaching a section of conceptual physics this semester for the first time in many years. It has caused me to revisit everything about the topics I’m including in the course. When the course was assigned to me, I immediately decided to make it consist of twentieth century […]
Read More Conceptual Physics: Time in Special Relativity