1st class done!
My first class, a first-year seminar called “Order and Chaos, Reconciling atomic randomness and the human world” was a big success. Some of the final projects students designed, carried out and presented:
- Gas permeation through a eggshell-like membrane (pictured below)
- Irreversibility of an explosion simulation
- Thermal equilibration and planet formation
- Equilibration of plucked strings
Some key take-aways:
- I can do this, and more importantly, I enjoy doing this even when it is difficult.
- I had two very different groups of students: one highly engaged and one disengaged
- In neither case was it helpful to worry too much about something “going great” or “going poorly”
- It was helpful to simply recognize if something went poorly, and think “can I easily address that next time?”
- Definitely want to ask to be called “Professor” and assert a reasonable amount of authority
