My personal journey: My interests were from the first philosophical and pedagogical - to learn the deepest secrets of our reality, and to impart them to others.
This led me to various pursuits including a Ph.D. in theoretical physics at NYU, and to teaching university courses from introductory physics to quantum mechanics, from courses in astronomy for health professional and other science majors to seminars in general relativity & cosmology to physics-major seniors and grad students.
Physics as an essential element of the liberal arts: After many years of study, when I began to deeply understanding physics and appreciate the beauty and logic of the 'laws on nature', it became clear to me as to others that physics is an integral aspect of our human cultural heritage, a treasure-filled repository of human creative genius. There is good reason that theoretical physics is an important component of the liberal arts, and I feel strongly that a liberal arts education which does not include physics is sorely lacking.
But it must be taught in the right way. Otherwise is becomes a drudge of memorizing obscure relationships, inducing either fear of the subject, or a deep distaste, What a shame when that happens.
My Greatest Teaching Expertise:
Imparting to non-science majors a real comprehension and deep appreciation of: the scientific method in its application to everyday life and interests.
Presenting the views and methods of science, and particularly the concepts and equations of physics, including cosmology, in ways which stimulate students rather than bore or stupefy them.
Enabling students to directly appreciate what is meant by "the beauty of physics equations" rather than being told that physicisists believe that somehow equations are beautiful, or having them think that only the theories are 'beautiful' but not the equations.
Making physics accessible to those with religious, political or new age worldviews which tend to disincline them towards the sciences and quantitative relations expressed in equations.
Making clear the point that when correclty understood, physics is neutral, making predictive statements which are subject to verification, without adding any claims to be the only way that one can understand our reality or that only those facts which can be dealt with by physics are truly existent.
Experience
Individual course design for guided independent study: for example a science-requirment fullfilling course based on reading a popular science book such as "The selfish gene" or "The Blind Watchmaker" for those interested in biology/genetics/evolution.
Experience teaching - online or classroom – both innovative science/math-related courses which I have designed, and standard courses;
Theory and lab components of pre-med students who are required to follow a rigid curricullum, and physics majors who must complete a set prerequisite for later courses (I even gave an independent-study physics + lab course in my own home!);
imparting to physics majors a real comprehension and deep appreciation of the concepts and equations of physics.
Imparting to non-science majors a real comprehension and deep appreciation of the scientific method in its application to everyday life and interest;
Teaching science and mathematics to students with more trepidation than background in science/math.
Courses I re-designed in real-time:
Engineering students: I designed and taught a course in differential equations which focussed specifically on those equations which would later be studied by them in future courses on optics, thermodynamics, electromagentic theory, and quantum mechanics.
While teaching an astronomy course in a community college to 1st and 2nd year students heading towards health-science majors at a 4-year college, I discovered their complete lack of preparatory scientific background; with the chair's approval I completely re-designed the course to remove detailed discussions of orbits and the mineral composition of each of the planets in the solar system etc, to instead focus on "interesting topics" such as probabilistic analysis of the likelihood of alien life, caclulations of space-tavel limitations using conventional rocketry including considerations of special relativity, calculations of the nuclear-bomb equivalent in stellar-core explosions, the concept of a black hole in Newtonian gravity and in Einstein's theory, etc.
For a group of particularly-capable students in an intro physics course for health science majors (for women, at Touro college in Manhattan, NYC) After becoming acquainted with the abilities of these students in the first weeks of the course I added an enrichment section based on intensive readings and discussions of deep ideas of general relativity and quantum physics from the popular-science classic "The Dancing WuLi Masters". The final exam included essay questions on these topics for extra credit, where though the questions on the standard section of the exam were directly from the assigned problems during the semester, these extra-credit enrichment ones though based on classroom discussions were deliberately designed to push the students to their limits (the students were exhausted, but very appreciative of what they had gained :).
Courses/studies which I would be particularly interested in teaching/mentoring:
Given the great interest of the general public in cosmology as evinced by the sales of books by Hawking, it would be interesting to teach a course which uses his "A Brief History of Time" as a textbook.
On the one hand, it is wonderful that millions have supposedly read it, but being professionally-familiar with the content I suspect that the great majority of the millions who bought the book didn't truly understand it, even if they may have felt the feeling "wow, this is so interesting and cool". It is of course wonderful that they may have experienced a high, the exhileration and buzz of having been exposed to deep ideas. However, it would be terrific to be able to present a course to bright students who want to actually understand the content They could then have an even deeper buzz from studying it' than is obtained by simply 'reading it', and forever afterwards keep a copy of the book in their library with both senses of 'owning it' .
There is great public interest in astrology, and I believe that it would be enlightening for non-science students to explore the ways that the scientific method, logic, observation, statistical analysis and the discoveries of science can be utilized to assess its efficacy or accuracy, while avoiding judgements as to its validity.
The course I designed "Astrology and Science: learning about the scientific method via an evenhanded and open analysis of Astrology" is based on a book I hope to publish, informed by the attitude outlined above, as evidened in the title "Choosing the most accurate astrologer for you: how to use the scientific method and statistical analysis to get the best results".
Courses for which I have developed materials
A) A non-quantitative "introduction to statistical reasoning and the scientific method" course for students with little or no exposure to science, involving a great deal of classroom discussion (besides the assigned reading), including these components:
Logical open-minded analysis of claims and reports in news sources about conventional and alternative healing.
The X-Files and Science: learning about the scientific method via analysis of the scientific methodology employed by the open-minded Sculley in the x-files and the flaws of the scepticism of her partner Mulder.
Who Needs Science!?: Readings from Carl Sagan’s “Broca’s Brain” and selected readings in the writings of Whitehead, Russel, Davies, Einstein, Schroedinger, Eddington, and Wheeler.
B) Non-quantitative physics/philosophy courses, for students with an appreciation of science
Introduction to Quantum Physics, the Theory of Relativity, and cosmology: Based on popular-science texts, including Gary Zukav’s classic “The Dancing Wu Li Masters”; readings from: Heinz Pagels’ “The Cosmic Code” and “Perfect Symmetry”, and Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time”.
"Einstein’s Moral Philosophy": based on material in my manuscript entitled: “Einstein’s Blunder and the God Who Plays Dice”. Non-quantitative readings in, and analysis of, Einstein’s writings on the subjects of free will, morality and purpose, and the tie-in to the physics and philosophy of cosmology.
C) Mildly-technical courses, requiring simple mathematics preparation as prerequisites: For non-physic smajors: appropriate to a science/health science dept, pre-med program.
Pre-physics Math: Preparation for algebra/trigonometry-based physics course. Prerequisites: High school Algebra/trig/geometry.
General Relativity for science majors: Prerequisites: two semesters of calculus-based college physics.
Programs I would like to develop
"Start-up" prep: Many young people today dream of their own 'start-up', often a non-profit to benefit humanity, sometimes for-profit. In the past few years I myself learned a lot about the start-up method via theory and practice, and then served as a mentor of sorts to beginning solopreneurs. By now I feel I could give a very introductory course on how to create a "lean startup" to budding entrepreneurs with no business background who will not be attending business school - a course which could include a project developing their own idea, with periodic peer-input, an experimental venture serving as a learning experience.
Interdisciplinary physics: students can learn a specific physics chapter and the methods utilized in discoverig the law broached there, as well as techniques in the accompanying lab section, and then learn to apply the method to their favorite non-science field.
Degrees for exceptional decommissioned officers/soldiers: for high-functioning veterans who are eager for academic study in order to obtain a quality college education and to find a position utilizing their talents.
The goal would be to develop a program which includes accreditation of prior learning/experience supplemented by academic input and intern-placement under academic supervision: special counselors to identify the skills they developed in the service, and determine how to apply them to market needs, then constructing an individually-tailored mentored degree program for them; in conjunction with real-life NYC opportunities/internships in education, politics, technology etc. [See some exisiting programs: “Troops to Teachers”eg at NYIT, “Troops to College”].