Fictitious forces (4/5): Coriolis – how not to teach it
Some demonstrations are really not as clever as we thought they might be. We have talked about how to teach aspects of the Coriolis force recently, and just to spice it…
Tag: CMM31
Concept maps II
A couple of pointers on how to use concept maps in class. I recently presented concept maps as a tool both here and in a workshop I co-taught. And I …
Concept maps
Drawing concept maps at the beginning, the middle and the end of the course. Using concept maps in teaching is something that I first tried last year in both the…
Oceanographic concepts and language (part 3)
What level of proficiency do you need to communicate about science? This post is not strictly about oceanography, but I started thinking about it in the context of a class…
Oceanographic concepts and language (part 1)
About teaching in a language that is a foreign language for both your students and yourself. Most of my teaching so far has happened in English to mainly non-native English…
Mediterranean outflow
Students demonstrating the mediterranean outflow in a tank. As reported earlier, students had to conduct experiments and present their results as part of CMM31. Niklas chose to demonstrate the mediterranean outflow…
Rogue waves in a bath tub
Trying to create rogue waves in the bath tub of the infamous “red house”. As a part of their projects, students in the CMM31 in Isafjördur course had to conduct…
Hydrothermal springs
Hydrothermal springs that you can visit without a deep-sea submersible. When teaching about hydrothermal springs, I usually use a video a friend of mine took of hydrothermal vents on the…
On drawing on the board by hand in real time
Drawing by hand on the board in real time rather than projecting a finished schematic? It is funny. During my undergrad, LCD projectors were just starting to arrive at the…
Why do we get an Ekman spiral?
Visualizing an Ekman spiral using a deck of cards. To state this right upfront: this post will not explain why the surface layer is moving at a 45 degree angle…
Q&A pairs
Have students group in pairs, develop and answer questions. It is really hard to come up with exam questions (or even just practice questions) that have the right level of difficulty…
Traveling circus
Stuff that I brought to Isafjördur to teach the intro to oceanography. I’ve been a fan of minimalistic travel for a while. And apparently I was ready for a new…
Interference of waves.
Movie on wave interference – two wave fields arriving perpendicular to each other, interacting and leaving. When talking about waves, it is often difficult to explain that wave heights of…
Standing waves.
A seesaw to visualize how standing waves move in an enclosed basin. In enclosed basins, standing waves can occur. In the simplest case, they have a node in the middle…
Long-distance teaching.
My experiences with giving a lecture via Skype. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I taught two lectures at the University Centre of the Westfjords, Iceland, in 2012 while physically…
Teaching in Isafjördur
Teaching a block course at the University Centre of the Westfjords, Iceland. For those of you who were surprised that lately they didn’t recognize my students any more and the…
Dangers of blogging, or ice cubes melting in fresh water and salt water
When students have read blog posts of mine before doing experiments in class, it takes away a lot of the exploration. Since I was planning to blog about the CMM31…
Why melting sea ice does not contribute to sea level rise.
Simple experiment on why the impact of glaciers and sea ice on sea level, respectively, are not the same. It could be so simple: An ice cube sinks into water…
Measuring temperature.
Students build thermometers. As described in this post, I like to have students build “instruments” to measure the most oceanographic properties (temperature, salinity and density). I find that they appreciate oceanographic…
Measuring salinity
Students evaporate water to measure the salinity of a water sample. As described in this post, I like to have students build “instruments” to measure the most oceanographic properties (temperature, salinity…
Measuring density
Students build a device to measure density. As described in this post, I like to have students build “instruments” to measure the most oceanographic properties (temperature, salinity and density). I…
Tasting sea water reloaded
Doing the “tasting sea water” activity again with a different group of students. A very good introduction to the concept of salinity is the “tasting sea water” activity. Last time…
Introducing voting cards (post 3/3)
How do you introduce voting cards as a new method in a way that minimizes student resistance? As all new methods, voting cards (see post on the method here, and…
How to pose questions for voting card concept tests (post 2/3)
Different ways of posing questions for concept tests are being presented here Concept tests using voting cards have been presented in this post. Here, I want to talk about different…
A, B, C or D?
Voting cards. A low-tech concept test tool, enhancing student engagement and participation. (Post 1/3) Voting cards are a tool that I learned about from Al Trujillo at the workshop “teaching…