04/28/2000
Welcome to my home page. Here you will get to know me better, and find links to things that interest me.
I work in the Physics Department as the Laboratory Manager. So, I basically take care of the lab manual, training the teaching assistants, ordering of equipment, and trying to keep old equipment still operating. Each quarter I also teach a few of the laboratories. This is so that I can come into contact with the students and hear what they have to say about experiments first-hand.
I edit the lab manual every-so-often so as to update the language of the manual. It was very archaic sounding at one time. I try to catch as many typographical errors as I can, but they seem to create themselves. Making the lab manual as user-friendly as possible and still challenge the student using it can be interesting. Seeking for a balance of the two is somewhat challenging.
There is a Physics Laboratory home page that I am currently working on. It can be found by clicking your cursor on the following highlighted text. Physics Laboratory Home Page. There is not much to this page, but I intend on expanding it in the next month. For example, many students have questions on some fairly common topics that aren't explained in the lab manual. Here is where the student tries to find their lab teaching assistant and ask him or her the appropriate questions. What if the student can't find their teaching assistant, or the student is working late at night. Well, in comes the frequently asked questions (with answers) page to help out. Here I go over the commonest mistakes that might occur and help to remedy them. Sounds like a huge data base of information, but it will be a good resource.
Another idea that I have is to include digital photos of the laboratory equipment to help familiarize the students before coming to class, or help refresh their memory days after they have done the experiment.
I also would like to include digital photos of the faculty, staff, and teaching assistants to help students identify with the people here in the department. Now all I need do is purchase a digital camera and some software to go along with it. A scanner might also be a good accompaniment to the camera.