Category Archives: Education and the Mind

Is your class going online? Are you feeling a little overwhelmed? Hey, that’s ME too! Fortunately, even if it sometimes feels like there’s no time, there is help. I’m going to post the ‘credible’ links I discover to online help … finish reading Online Teaching Links

Virtual reality (VR), once the province of supercomputer labs, is going mainstream. A few months ago, I strapped on a VR headset in Prof. Joel Franklin’s computer lab so that I could explore multi-hued computer-generated landscapes, some realistic, others purely fanciful. … finish reading Are Chemists Ready for Virtual Reality?

Lecture is, perhaps, the most time-honored method of college instruction out there. It would seem to create the perfectly level playing field: every student hears the same lecture and every student has the same opportunity to pay attention and learn. … finish reading Is lecture discriminatory?

Chemists are storytellers out of necessity. A friend of mine just sent me an article that he wrote (and has gotten approved for publication). It begins, “One of the main problems for student comprehension of chemistry is that atoms and molecules are invisible entities.”

His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, has a message for us (reposted from Lion’s Roar): My hope and wish is that, one day, formal education will pay attention to what I call education of the heart. Just as we take for … finish reading Holiday greetings from the Dalai Lama

Eric Mazur is well known in science teaching circles for the innovative teaching approaches that he has popularized. He pays close attention to student behavior and data on student performance, and he also thinks deeply about what is going on … finish reading Eric Mazur on Assessment

Is science something you learn or is it something you do? Reed students seem to spend an unusual amount of time on both. They spend hundreds of hours curled up with books and assignments, and they also spend hundreds of … finish reading Become a Reed senior: own a bit of science