“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
-Mahatma Ghandi
You will absolutely love Jane’s outlook on life and perspective on learning. These are parts of her background many don't know; I admit that I didn't know. Enjoy today’s read, one of Jane's answers to her opening question: "What is most important?"
By Jane Jackson, Ph.D.
"In my daily life, physics has a profound influence. Every day, I am aware of physics. Physics is everywhere! I use physics, not just for fixing things around the house, but also when I move my body. When I sit, stand, lie down, I am aware of being in a gravitational field. If I hadn’t studied physics, I wouldn’t be so aware; I wouldn’t make these connections. Education empowers us to understand. Understanding enhances our awareness. Awareness can magnify our appreciation, our awe and respect for nature.
Global warming: how often do you think of it? I think of it daily. I look at the sky, and because I know physics, I can see in my mind’s eye the invisible blanket of CO2 that is growing, day by day, when we drive our cars, and when we burn the world’s coal, oil, and gas. Global warming is by far the biggest challenge to humanity. We could destroy civilization. What is at the heart of understanding global warming? Physics.
That is why I persist in Modeling Instruction in physics – it empowers people to become aware, make connections, see cause and effect, THINK. And appreciate nature and our place in it – and, I hope, to work to slow down global warming.
I married my husband, Paul, at age 19. He put me through college at ASU, while he worked full-time in TV and studied part-time at ASU for a PhD in English. General physics at ASU was terrible – lecture, cookbook labs. I almost switched to math. But advanced lab was great! My lab partner and I didn’t understand capacitors, so we chose to make one, and take measurements on it. Having freedom to choose a project, in order to understand, made it memorable.
I did well in physics, so the faculty asked me to stay on as a graduate student, with a fellowship. I was always the only female in the class, but I never thought about it. My studies and my husband were most important to me."
Uncover the backstory of how she found herself involved in Modeling Instruction in the next installment. Stay tuned…
Add your name to those who support Modeling Instruction (MI) by liking & subscribing to The STEM Secret blog here (there's a subscribe button at the top and the bottom of the page: https://www.thestemsecret.com) and by liking & following The STEM Secret FaceBook page (https://www.facebook.com/theSTEMSecret/?modal=admin_todo_tour).
If you are a Modeling teacher, share your story by sending it to the email listed. If you know a great Modeling teacher, encourage them to send their story to the email listed. cjones.stemprofessionals@gmail.com.
If you are Modeling teacher and want to interact with other Modeling teachers with a question, an issue, a classroom experience, an announcement, or anything other MI teachers might be interested in, post it on the M2M (Modeler to Modeler) blog on the AMTA site. https://modelinginstruction.org/submit-a-blog-entry-to-m2m/
コメント