Monday, March 17, 2008
Teaching with an Edge
"MIT professor and Web star Walter Lewin swings from pendulums and faces down wrecking balls to show students the zany beauty of science.
"It took me a decade to come to the realization," says Lewin at his MIT office, "that really what counts is not what you cover, but what counts is what you uncover."
"You have to challenge [students]. You have to be a little fun. I could make them sit on the edge of their seats, I could make them wet their pants." — Walter Lewin
People of the Web - High Wire Act - with video.
I still have vivid memories of one of my professors at Leiden University. His class in Physical Chemistry took us on an engaging journey from the most primitive laws of Physics to the modern day laws. And it was the way he led this journey: not with a dry summary of dates and figures, but by asking simple but provoking questions which would lead us eventually to the next law. Wow. Seeing all these laws being linked together on the canvas of history was quite a revelation!
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