Teaching

Mathematical methods of physics

I taught methods of physics during fall 2015 at Bard College and again during fall 2019 at the College of the Holy Cross. They were both mathematics courses with emphasis on utilizing physics applications to motivate the concepts and as problem solving practice. As in other advanced courses, for a significant portion of time the students worked in smaller groups solving problems or deriving on the blackboard. Part of my Holy Cross course was an introduction to Mathematica with weekly computer lab sessions. There, after a short introduction of new commands, the students worked on physics and mathematics problems using Mathematica. Each week new commands were introduced related to the lecture topic. The students learned to plot Taylor series, find limits, solve differential equations, work with vectors and matrices, and more. The students also completed and presented a Mathematica group project by the end of the semester. (sample Mathematica work sheet)

Feedback:  (student evaluations, academic year 2017-2021 at the College of the Holy Cross) 

4.62/5

Introduction to physics 

I have taught introductory physics (both algebra and calculous based) as an instructor for 6 semesters and two summers (sample syllabus).  As an instructor one of my main goals is to encourage student participation. By empowering students to derive a solution themselves rather than just trusting my authority as a lecturer, I help them to develop a systematic, scientific method of problem solving. To encourage this, I use the method of posing conceptual questions in class, and ask students to select an answer using clickers. The correct answer is revealed after discussion and arguments from students with different opinions. (sample lecture slides with conceptual questions)

Another important goal is for students to be conscious of what they are doing when solving a problem or answering a conceptual question. Often they see this process as memorizing, guessing, or applying similar methods to only superficially related problems. I have utilized two main ways to battle this attitude in the classroom. One method is via weekly quizzes of conceptual questions. The quizzes have the dual purpose of challenging preexisting ideas and encouraging the students to think "why?" instead of guessing a multiple choice answer. The students complete the quiz before they learn the material, according to their preconceived ideas and everyday experience. At the end of the week they get their quizzes back, and correct themselves by writing full explanations for their revised answers. These are then returned to me for feedback. A second method is the inclusion of one problem in each homework assignments that requires a highly thoughtful response. They have to answer three questions at every step of the solution: 1. Can you describe what exactly you are doing? (What laws of physics apply? Why do they apply here?) 2. Why are you doing it? (How does this equation you wrote t into your solution?) 3. Does your answer make sense? (If you found a number, is it reasonable?) This process explicitly helps the students think about these questions internally every time they solve a problem. (sample quiz, example of extended homework problem)

I have also taught introductory physics in an integrated lab-lecture setting at the College of the Holy Cross. In that setting, students interact with laboratory equipment during every lecture. The equipment is used to allow students to explore and discover physical concepts, convince them of counter-intuitive results, provide definite answers to conceptual questions or in some cases teach them the basics of experimentation; making measurements and qualitatively estimate uncertainty. 

Feedback:  

(student evaluations, academic year 2016-2017 at Bard College) 

Physics I: 4.81/5 

Physics II: 4.83/5

(student evaluations, academic year 2019-2020 at the College of the Holy Cross) 

Physics I: 4.55/5 

Excerpts from student evaluations:

"Eleni is an amazing teacher. She is always prepared and approachable. She also makes the classroom a very comfortable environment to work in. Her methods of teaching have made the course material much easier to understand."

"Eleni is a fantastic professor. Made physics, my last (dreaded) pre-med course into a no-big-deal, manageable process. Would highly recommend her to other pre-med students!"

Astronomy and astrophysics 

During the academic year 2016-2017 I designed two new courses for the physics program curriculum of the Physics Program at Bard College: Astrophysics for physics majors and Astronomy for non-science majors. Each course had different challenges and was taught in very different ways.

Astrophysics was a small class of enthusiastic students and an interested faculty member in chemistry. Astrophysics is a difficult course to teach, as it draws upon topics from just about every core course in the physics major. The main focus of the course was to teach astrophysics by drawing on fundamental principles of physics and applying them to new contexts. As in my other advanced physics courses, a large part of the course was group problem solving. Another part of the students' grade and work throughout the semester was a bibliographical project and presentation. The students picked a topic of their interest that was not included in the class syllabus and wrote a 20-30 pages analysis using textbooks and review articles. To ensure that the students were making progress on the projects throughout the semester, there were several intermediate deadlines and personal meetings with feedback about the progress of the projects. (syllabus of the course)

Astronomy was a course designed as a course for non-science majors that had to satisfy their laboratory science requirement. It included lecturing, clicker questions and group problem solving. The laboratory exercises were varying, from an optics lab to observation of sunspots, and from simple data analysis of galaxy rotation to a build-your-own-telescope exercise. (sample lab manual) The class also included a visit to the local planetarium and a day of student presentations focused on how their own major intersected with astronomy. This was a very fun experience for the students who enthusiastically prepared short presentations that ranged from poem reading to simple coding and from video projection to an astronomy-themed comic! Another aspect of the course was the class blog. There, the students wrote their own blog posts about recent astronomy news and important figures in the history of astronomy. The main aim of the course was to peak the interest of students with fascinating ideas about the universe while at the same time teaching them how to think like scientists. (syllabus of the course) 

Feedback:  (student evaluations, academic year 2016-2017 at Bard College) 

Astrophysics: 5/5

Astronomy: 4.71/5

Excerpts from student evaluations:

"Eleni took the time to present accessible yet thorough treatments of her own devising. I especially liked the way she stepped back from derivations, whether long or short, to list assumptions, laws or definitions that were employed in the process. From her emphasis on the interconnectedness of physics, students learned not only astrophysics but also how to think like physicists." (evaluation of faculty auditor in astrophysics)

"Eleni was amazing! She is an incredible teacher and made it very easy to understand such huge theories even for non-majors." (student evaluation in astronomy)

"I was really dreading taking a lab science because science was always my most challenging subject, but this class has been so much fun. I've been geeking out to my friends and recommending it to all my art and social science colleagues." (student evaluation in astronomy)