Nobel winner

By Alana Mikkelsen

Dr. Carl Wieman is probably most famous for his Nobel Prize-winning science, but it’s his passion for improving undergraduate education that’s been driving him of late.

Wieman shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 2001 for his part in producing a new state of matter. Instead of continuing his world-class research, he used part of his prize money to launch the Physics Education Technology Project at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The project incorporates online experiments to make physics concepts accessible to a general audience.

Wieman, who will speak at the University of Calgary on Feb. 5, has become a passionate advocate of what he calls evidence-based teaching, including using real-time feedback tools during lecture sessions to make sure concepts are sinking in.

Far too many teachers, he says, rely on anecdotal evidence of their students’ progress, or—worse yet—leave the evaluating until a midterm or final exam. For him, it’s also important to improve the scientific foundations of people getting teaching degrees.

“Unless you improve science education at the college level first, you are wasting your time and money on trying to make major improvements in K-12,” Wieman told the U.S. Congress in 2002.

Last year, the University of British Columbia announced Wieman would be moving to Canada to start a $12-million science education project there. He’ll return to Calgary in June to co-host free workshops for high school physics teachers, co-organized by faculty members in the U of C’s Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The Faculty of Science and the Department of Physics and Astronomy present Dr. Carl Wieman, Nobel Laureate, speaking on Science Education in the 21st Century: Using the Tools of Science to Teach Science, Feb. 5 at 5 p.m.in MacEwan Hall. Free. RSVP to scievents@ucalgary.ca or 220-2010.
Wieman’s presentation will be available on podcast after Feb. 5 at www.ucalgary.ca.