Posts in category Education

there were many students as well. Somehow I wanted to say more about elementary quantum mechanics than it was intended. I do not think I did it trying to come in tune with the audience: I think its level was higher. Anyway, I did not have time to say a word about counting statistics: must do this in a week.

Before the lecture I was shocked by a ridicuously big number of students who have enlisted themselfs for the course. In fact, it almost exceeded the capacity of the room reserved for the lecture. The reality appeared more realistic, still the number of attendees was pretty high. There has been even a hope risen that it stays high during the course.

The students are also much more active in enlisting for the presentations – another good sign.

Thus inspired, I made the lecture in a pretty good pace: I almost finished it! There was an interaction with the audience. A daughter of a colleague bashed me about mistakes in the slides.

No, seriously, it was a good start!

has presented the results of his bachelor eindproject on Monday, Aug
20, 11:00. The project with some interruptions lasted from March. It was in the field of nanomechanics where we wanted to understand better the interpaly between torsion and bending in the oscillations of carbon nanotube resonators. 

He impressed us with his presentation that had some elaborated structure
and provoked deep and provocative questions: given the fact that it was
perhaps the first presentation of a kind in his life. During the closed
part of the defence, he answered quickly and correctly on my classic
question about the rainbow, a question no master student could answer
without substantial hints. With this, and his persistence and enthusiasm
during the project time no wonder he got a pretty good mark. After this, he said he enjoyed time spent in our group: perhaps he was sincere.

Good luck, Ferdinand, with your master studies!    

was graded by me yesterday. This completed the semester! That was really endless this year.

Everybody has passed, although the overall marks are rather average, with a single-student exception. I’d like to have more exceptions like this in coming years.  There was a graduate student taking the course and the exam. He can use the credits for his graduate education.

Wish to thank everybody who took the course this year.

has been graded today. It has brought quite opposite feelings to me.

 The exam appeared to be reasonably popular. As to results, an overwhelming majority have passed while the marks turned to be more average than I could expect, with an exception of a single student who manage to get an exceptional mark. 

It was rewarding to see that the "theoretical" part of the course, that outlined during the lectures, went much better than expected. It was rather troubling to see that the problem-solving sessions that were so popular and costed so much effort did not quite get through. An apparent stumbling block were unusual and unpredictable mathematical deficiencies that ranged from mistakes while diffirentiating log function to inability to recognize the relation between summation and integration, and/or to apply a Fourier transform. Less obvious and more difficult problem is to access the ability of a student to expand the knowledge gained just by one step further. 

I’ve also contibuted to the confusion: I’ve spell-checked the text of multiple choice questions but managed to print out the previous version of the file. So I got many remarks concerning the spelling: fortunately, this did not seem to lead to any misunderstanding of questions.

For those interested, I’ll upload the exam and solutions later today.

I have read today. I still have to prepare two exams.

The time period from March to now has been difficult for me, this havs also reflected on the education. I could not blog the educational activities, for instance. It must become better next year. 

During the semester, I enjoyed very much from the communications with a group of devoted students, I wish to thank them.

has taken place today. It was a switch to the second book of Kardar. The lecture has began very philosophical since we’ve discussed reductionism, emerging complexity and all that. So surprise I got distracted and could not say much about the methods… What a pity, again a delay. The next lecture will be on Monday.