Tuesday, April 27, 2010

momentum

when there's nothing to blog about, i don't blog. when there's too many things to blog about... i don't know where to start and i end up not blogging either. it's probably good for my time management anyway.

vic and sl are in town for a 2 week training camp. 4-day cycling trip coming up next weekend.

and then i'll be flying back to sg on 19 may to join the team flying to holland for the delta lloyd regatta. back to sg for the s'pore laser trophy from 2-6 june, qualification event for asian games later this year. by the time i return to sydney classes will have ended and study break will have just begun.

in other words, now is the time to start doing proper work. force times distance in the direction of the force.

how to give a good lecture 1011

1. keep your students awake. this can be accomplished in a number of ways - audience participation, engaging slides, doing a dance...
2. be confident. appear as if you know what you're doing. would be a lot easier if you did indeed know what you were doing.
3. be clear and concise. don't spend 5 minutes meandering about before getting to the point. 
4. raise thought provoking questions. make students look beyond the 5-mark exam question and see the bigger picture.
5. be passionate, have a good sense of humour, have fun!

this was written sort of in admiration for my physics lecturer for the first 6 weeks, joe wolfe, who was the most animated lecturer i have yet seen. although it was hard to learn from his lectures because of the speed with which he went through examples, he taught with such great energy and passion, conducting 2 minute experiments and putting on a delightful show for us students. sadly the lecturer for the following weeks is as dull as ditchwater. he's not the only one either.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

sailing at forster's





travelled 4 hours north of sydney to wallis lake to sail a university fleet racing/social regatta from 8-10 april. photos courtesy of brett goodall.


liz and i also sailed this formula 16 'viper' catamaran with double trapeze, capsized it without knowing how to upright it... had to be rescued by kingsley, pretty unbecoming of us laser sailors!

cheers!