News Archive

Professor Carl Wieman , Nobel Laureate, will speak during this public lecture on using the methods of science to teach science.

About the Lecture

Guided by experimental tests of theory and practice, science has advanced rapidly in the past 500 years. Guided primarily by tradition and dogma, science education meanwhile has remained largely medieval.

Research on how people learn is now revealing how many teachers badly misinterpret what students are thinking and learning from traditional science classes and exams. However, research is also providing insights on how to do much better.

The combination of this research with modern information technology is setting the stage for a new approach that can provide the relevant and effective science education for all students that is needed for the 21st century.

In this lecture Professor Wieman will discuss the failures of traditional educational practices, even as used by "very good" teachers, and the successes of some new practices and technology that characterise this more effective approach, and how these results are highly consistent with findings from cognitive science.

About Professor Carl Wieman

Carl Wieman is Director of the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative. He retains a 20% appointment at the University of Colorado, Boulder to head the science education initiative he founded. These collaborative initiatives are aimed at achieving departmental-wide sustainable improvement in undergraduate science education.

He has carried out research in a variety of areas of atomic physics and laser spectroscopy. His research has been recognised with numerous awards including the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001 for the first creation of and early experiments on Bose-Einstein condensation.

Dr Wieman is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and chairs the Academy Board on Science Education. He is also a member of the US National Academy of Education.

The details of the lecture are as follows:
Date: Monday, 7 December 2009
Time: 6pm
Location: University Club Theatre Auditorium, UWA
Cost: Free. No RSVP required.
Enquiries: Institute of Advanced Studies on 6488 1340 or [email protected]

For further information please visit the website .

Media references

Magdalena Matuszczyk / [email protected] / 6488 4277