New Faculty Lecture Series - meet our newest faculty members

Tuesday, November 17, 2020 7:00 pm - 7:00 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

The Faculty of Science is proud to announce a new, complimentary online lecture series that highlights the incredible new talent in our midst.  Over the coming months, we will be hosting a series of talks from a wide range of topics that introduce you to our latest lecturers, researchers and future stars of the Faculty.

Stay tuned as we release the names of future series speakers in the weeks ahead! These talks are open to alumni, friends, faculty, staff and the greater UW community.

Karen Cummings, Lecturer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy

cummings headshotTaking a Scientific Approach to Science Instruction:
An Introduction to the Field of Physics Education Research.

How should a physics course be taught? 

It's an important consideration, especially when you're tasked to create a fully online version of a first year physics course!

Historically, the answer to this question came solely from the instructor’s personal views.  However, we've learned to embrace the alternative approach of evidence-based curricular changes through a sub-field of physics known as Physics Education Research (PER).

The result is a scientific approach to teaching that incorporates a contemporary understanding of how people learn based on cognitive science. It uses data collection to inform curricular decisions and on-going cycles of course or curricular improvement that is based on evidence.   

PER allows us to better understand both our student population and their experiences in our physics courses. This educational research is conducted by departmental physicists using the same general evidence-based approaches to thinking about problems that are readily employed by physicists elsewhere.

During this talk Karen will introduce you to the very accessible and interesting field of Physics Education Research.  She will also share with you how our physicists have employed PER-based approaches to make this year’s fully online version of the University of Waterloo’s introductory physics course one of the best ever. 

REGISTER for Karen's talk!

Registered participants will receive an email containing the lecture link morning of the talk.