In this episode, Mark talks with Jon Anderson, a physics teacher at the high school and college level, and modeling workshop leader. They discuss the differences he sees in student engagement and understanding when exploring phenomena using the modeling instruction methodology. He also talks about how even veteran teachers look at teaching with a new perspective during and after modeling workshops.

Guests

Jon Anderson has an M.Ed. in Physics Education and has taught physics for 36 years at both the high school and college levels. Currently, Jon is a Physics Instructor at the University of Minnesota, as well as a Clinical Supervisor of science student teachers. He also works as a consultant for the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) as the PhysTEC Teacher-in-Residence (TIR) Coordinator and as the PhysicsBowl Academic Coordinator. Additionally, he has spent 24 years as a member of the "Physics Force," an outreach team from the University of Minnesota and 20 years as a QuarkNet Lead Teacher. He has been a physics modeler and leading physics modeling workshops since 2008.

Highlights

[11:32] Jon Anderson "I love seeing, particularly veteran teachers, look at teaching physics from a different perspective...taking a different approach to teaching it than, perhaps they had felt comfortable doing before or maybe weren't aware that it was an option."

[28:31] Jon Anderson "I always figure if they can't look at the world without seeing physics, then I've been successful."

Resources

Ep 43 Transcript