Blog – Page 8 – UMass Amherst

My Quantum Life – A Review

The seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspends his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus, if learning the truth is the scientist’s goal, then he must make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.
Ibn al-Haytham, father of optics and the Scientific Method,
Kitāb al-Manāẓir (كتاب المناظر), published 1011-1021,
Quoted in My Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars by Hakeem Oluseyi

I just finished listening to the audio-book of My Quantum Life: My Unlikely Journey from the Street to the Stars by Hakeem Oluseyi. This book was just fantastic. While, Prof. Oluseyi is clearly writing for a general audience, he does not shy away from the physics details. Having a physics (and academic) background, I suspect, makes the book more enjoyable.

Brokk Toggerson contributes to ACUE Inclusive Teaching for Equitable Learning Micro-credential

Brokk Toggerson was recommended by the UMass Amherst Center for Teaching and Learning to contribute to a micro-credential on Inclusive Teaching for Equitable Learning developed by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). Brokk participated in an in-depth interview on a variety of questions. Ultimately, ACUE selected a section on developing effective teams for incorporation into their lesson.

Brokk Toggerson Featured on the new UMass Amherst Website!

UMass Amherst has a new website that launched this week and Brokk Toggerson is featured in a video on the introductory page for academics https://www.umass.edu/gateway/academics/undergraduate-programs.

Toggerson Presenting at Perusall Exchange 2021

Starting May 17th, Brokk Toggerson will have a presentation on the 2021 Perusall Exchange about the use of Perusall in a Graduate Student TA-training & Professional Development Course.

Abstract: Graduate students face several important transitions: becoming a researcher, a teacher, and a colleague. These transitions require specific skills: reading research, giving presentations, and navigating issues of diversity in the workplace. At UMass-Amherst incoming physics Ph.D. students begin developing these skills in a dedicated seminar through the lens of TA training. Students read journal articles about physics education in Perusall: simultaneously honing students’ ability to read research articles and introducing them to teaching best-practices.

Check it out!

Lab groups and peer evaluations

This past year, I have been working to develop a series of labs that focus on scientific skills, as opposed to teaching physics content. These changes are motivated in part by the pandemic: I want to have authentic laboratory experiences that students can complete at home with limited resources. However, these reforms are also motivated by the literature which suggests that lab is better suited to the teaching of such skills as opposed to content:

Holmes, Natasha G., and Carl E. Wieman. “Introductory Physics Labs: We Can Do Better.” Physics Today 71, no. 1 (January 1, 2018): 38–45. https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.3816.
MacIsaac, Dan. “Report: AAPT Recommendations for the Undergraduate Physics Laboratory Curriculum.” The Physics Teacher 53, no. 4 (April 1, 2015): 253–253. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4914580.

Lab groups are one of the necessities of such a large class. In order to respect the TA’s time and keep the grading load manageable, students must turn in reports as groups. Fortunately, I also think that learning to work in a scientific team is also an important goal of the lab experience.

This past semester, I have been trying to use Moodle to manage the lab groups and CATME to do peer evaluations. However, this has yielded two problems:

The TAs must keep the lists in Moodle up to date and there is an unclear chain of command with regards to group management. Also, this requires a rather sophisticated understanding of Moodle and makes changing/managing groups difficult.
The CATME protocol, while fantastic, is, I think, insufficiently transparent. Moreover, I must manage it. This is, frankly, too much load for me. I need a system that the TAs can successfully manage on their own.

I really like the multiplicative nature of the CATME results. A plan with which I am currently toying involves:

Have a number of points equal to the number of members in the team.
Each team member would distribute these points to their team members. Perhaps this would be done for a few different categories.
There would also be one optional point that could be given to someone who really deserves an extra boost. This would be a bonus: if everyone in the team neglects to do it, they will still all get ones (i.e. their score would be equal to their actual grade).
The result would be scaled in such a way that the final multipliers are between 0.7 or so and 1.05.

Obviously, this needs to be flushed out, but there are some key points for improvement here.