Research Interests

Physics Education

Having attended numerous NSF workshops on introductory physics education research and current curriculum improvement, I am active in improving my physics teaching by implementing new techniques that enable students to gain knowledge actively rather than passively. I analyze data obtained from my classes, compare that to national data, and am constantly revising my teaching strategies. My courses are taught in the Overview-Case Study/Conceptual Exercises (OCS/CE) mode, with minimal traditional lecturing taking place. I plan to integrate computers into the physics and astronomy curricula in such a way that lab and lecture lines are completely blurred. In the sense of Priscilla Laws' Workshop Physics curriculum, I hope to make the computers better facilitate the students' discovery of physical laws. In astronomy, it will also enable the class to direct its own search for information on topics of interest, rather than be instructor led. In this way I subscribe strongly to John Holt's philosophy of self-direction as a means to increase the students' sense of ownership of their knowledge - be it astronomy, physics, or any other subject.

Cosmology and Quantum Gravity

My subject area research has been in computer-modeling of simple cosmologies, examining such things as the large-scale symmetries of the universe early in its history, compared to its current state. This work is important in that numerical results can be obtained for geometries that cannot be considered in the standard continuum models. The Regge Calculus approach is used to discretize spacetime and the Hartle-Hawking "No boundary" condition as applied to their quantum mechanical model. Many further questions are still to be asked because of the ability to vary parameters in the model (such as the cosmological constant or type of matter fields).

Astronomical Observation and Data Analysis

With a number of telescopes now online, it is possible to request data on objects that have the potential to lead to new astronomical discoveries. Perhaps the most interesting is the discovery of supernovae in distant galaxies by maintaining a survey of perhaps 20 given galaxies. Probabilistically it can be shown that surveying such a number of galaxies over one year is likely to reveal a supernova in one of the galaxies. Another area is variable star photometry. There are numerous known variable stars that have poorly defined light curves, and hence can not be well classified. Again once data is on hand, analysis of that data can lead to important results.