Welcome to my website! Here you will find information pertaining to my classes and my family life. So feel free to dig right in and start clicking around...
Our Community
The goal of this site is to create a knowledge hub for everyone who is interested in the sciences. Here you will find a collection of information, questions/answers, outlines, notes, activities and practice problems to help you better understand these subjects. It is not my intention to reinvent the wheel, so I have included many carefully chosen links to materials where others have done a better job on a subject than I ever could.
Exploring Together
- Search for Content
- Visit Wiki Pages
- Read about the wonders of science and nature
Learning Together
- If you see any errors, or have expertise and would like to contribute, please email me.
Philosophy
The World Needs Thinkers
As our society continues its movement away from an “industrial age” and into an “information age” it becomes ever more critical for students to develop the skills necessary to thrive in this new environment. These skills have moved away from the physical, rote type abilities of the past and into an era that necessitates the abilities to collect and analyze the massive amounts of information being generated by today's society in math, science, technology, and other disciplines. As such, it is imperative that today's students be taught how to approach today's problems; how to not just memorize the known, but rather, to find solutions to the unknown. Indeed, it is vital that students learn and practice how to think. It is with these concepts in mind that I approach my classes and the driving force behind my classroom activities and assignments.
A Different Approach
As most students are quite familiar, historically, their classes have been the dissemination of information from the teacher to the students as the students sit in their chairs, likely lined up in a neat row. The problem, though, as most adults are quite familiar, is that life doesn't tend to present problems in a neat little package - and there often isn't someone there to give you the answer. This is particularly true in science where the very role of a scientist is to ask questions that have not yet been answered. Furthermore, one must develop a process by which to investigate a problem and derive possible solutions – this is also a fundamental feature of science, the process of inquiry, experimentation, analysis, and making conclusions. Therefore, it only makes sense that for a student to be better prepared for life's challenges they must learn the process of how to approach a problem, and how to go about finding a solution. This is the type of person we need to make the future a better place for all of us.