labs

I was wondering around the blogosphere and read some stuff about introductory physics labs. In particular, I was looking at ZapperZ's Revamping Introductory Physics and Dr. Pion's Objectives for a Lab. Both of these are good posts. Here I thought I would add make take on this subject as I am picking the labs I will use for the summer session of introductory (algebra-based) physics labs. When I first started teaching this lab, my goals for the course were a lot like Dr. Pions. Namely, I would like the students to improve in the following areas: Critical thinking Writing and communication…

An article by Evan Mills, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, points out that scientific buildings use a lot more energy than average: Improving energy productivity is a doubly worthy challenge, given that those making the biggest contributions to the science of sustainability often do so in highly energy intensive facilities such as laboratories, computing centers, and hyper-clean environments. There is a long way to go to meet the sustainable practices. According to a U.K. Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs survey, virtually all interviewed…