Gave my first talk at the UnB this afternoon and it went really well. Reva’s husband was expecting attendance around 8-10 people
since it’s during their exam period so professors are busy writing,
administering and grading exams.
However, I had an enthusiastic crowd of 30-40 professors from a variety
of backgrounds. Since I had some
time before I started talking, I asked the attendees what they taught and it
ranged from elementary school, to physics, to international relations,
Portuguese and even physical education!
The audience was attentive and I got many questions at the end- over 20
minutes of public questions and several people stayed after to ask more
questions and confirm my contact information. Success!!
Giving this talk, and any talk really, is a reminder of both
the exciting and annoying parts of studying physics education. It’s exciting because usually people
can understand and relate to what you are talking about. It’s a great conversation starter and
it is fun to share experiences with people. Even back when I did a poster session during my summer
research at the University of Minnesota, I was the only physics education
research poster and it was one of the most popular stops. Many people stopped to read my poster
and I was always talking to someone.
However, a lot of people (especially professors who have been teaching
for decades) don’t like to be told to how to teach so they can be prickly or
refuse to listen to what you have to say.
An older, European man questioned me during and after the question
session. He was convinced that
when students work in groups, only the top student does work and the other two
tag along. I explained how we
strategically group the students, quiz them individually every week, test them
individually and showed him the data separated out by bottom, middle and top
third of students. Each group has
a member from each of these thirds and the chart shows how each category of
these students learns significantly more than if they were sitting in a
traditional lecture. Which won’t
happen if they weren’t participating!
Anyway, I won’t complain now but you think a scientist would appreciate
that data does not lie!
Other exciting news of the day: APS (American Physical
Society) wants me to write a column in their newsletter! Which will justifying getting my
housing in Rio paid for! Sweet deal! Good thing that I’m getting warmed up
to write because Reva wants to get a publication out of this women and science
thing as well. Speaking of
publications, the Physics Teacher article I’m a co-author on is set to run in
April 2013 so keep your eyes peeled for that, if you are a physics person.
After that, went to play Snooker with Gilberto. Basically pool but with a slightly
smaller table and balls. You play
odds and evens instead of stripes and solids- supposedly an American game but
if I played in the past, it wasn’t memorable. It was an excellent time- the first game, I technically
deserved to crawl under the table but he was nice and didn’t make me. My skills improved, we talked about
life… an excellent evening overall.
I was very impressed with Brazilian bars- they make you carry around a
piece of paper to keep track of your drinks then you check out with a cashier
and pay for it then. Although their musical choices were pretty hilarious- classical 80s and early 90s. One guy was a dancing machine in purple sparkly converse, which made me laugh.
I need to get up at the crack of dawn for another talk tomorrow. Boa noite! Tchau tchau!
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