By: Sabrina Doyle
Rowan Thomson is used to standing out from the crowd. Throughout her post-secondary education, she was one of the few female faces in the male-dominated classrooms of physics and mathematics. These days she鈥檚 teaching those same classes and still sees a stark gender imbalance, though now she stands out for a different reason: she has just won an award.
In her third year of teaching at 杏吧原创, Thomson has been awarded one of the university鈥檚 , an honour handed out by the Educational Development Centre. She teaches three different classes and says she tries to make them engaging, approachable and interesting.
鈥淧hysics is different from many other subjects in that it鈥檚 very technical,鈥� she says. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 just spend the whole class talking about an idea or debating an idea. You actually need to get through content or you鈥檙e not going to cover the course material.鈥�
For this reason, physics classes have a bad rap as being extraordinarily dry. Thomson聽didn’t聽want that to happen in her classes, so she came up with some strategies. She聽didn’t聽use the same ones for every group, of course 鈥� different classes required different approaches 鈥� but there were a few that she found to be generally effective.
For instance, the scientific history books are littered with accidental discoveries and colourful characters. Why not inject some stories into the lecture along with the formulas, says Thomson.
鈥淚n the second year course, there鈥檚 this one experimenter 鈥� Rutherford 鈥� who looked at the scattering of helium nuclei off gold foils. The results were so unexpected that he said it was as if you shot a gun at a piece of tissue paper and the bullet bounced back straight at you.鈥�
Thomson also makes a point of opening the lecture with questions to spark initial engagement, and when possible she tries to connect the lecture material to her personal research or to what鈥檚 happening in the news.
Two years ago news agencies started reporting that scientists had discovered neutrinos that were faster than light. At the time, Thomson鈥檚 class was discussing special relativity and how nothing was faster than the speed of light. The stage was set for a great opportunity to connect real-world discoveries to the classroom material.
鈥淭hat day when I walked in the classroom I didn鈥檛 even have to open my mouth and it was just 鈥楬ey professor did you hear?!鈥欌��
(In fact the neutrinos are not 鈥榝aster鈥� than light 鈥� they just take a more direct route as opposed to light, which bounces around a lot.)
Thomson believes that students are more likely to retain information when she uses these strategies. When asked what pushes her to try new things and go that extra mile, she is matter of fact: 鈥淲ell I want to do a good job of teaching鈥� In my mind there鈥檚 just no other way I can do it.鈥�