Erich Mueller ( He, Him, His )

Professor

Cornell

Physics

Pedagogical Methods Used

Peer Instruction / Think-Pair-Share, Collaborative problem-solving, Conceptually-oriented activities, Context-rich problems, Just-in-time Teaching, Computationally-focused activities

Life Sciences Focus

I try to include a broad range of life science topics

Education Research and Pedagogy Expertise

I do not do any education research

Describe the courses that you teach for life sciences students

I teach the first semester of a 2-semester introductory physics course, which is mainly taken by students with an interest in health careers. It covers kinematics, forces, energy, thermodynamics, fluids, and waves.

What is your approach to teaching physics for life science students?

I run a flipped classroom. Students watch videos before class and do sets of pre-lecture questions. There are roughly 300 students in the class. Three times a week are broken up into 2 groups for 60 minute "lectures" -- during which I largely rely on clicker questions. I also send out a microphone to try to get some discussion going. Twice a week group of 20 students have 60 minute cooperative problems solving sessions run by Teaching Assistants. Every other week there is a lab session.