FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2009
Contact: Cal Poly President’s Office
805-756-6000
presidentsoffice@calpoly.edu
Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman Addresses Revitalizing Science Education
at Cal Poly on May 3
SAN LUIS OBISPO – An insightful presentation is in store for Central Coast residents, when Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman takes the stage of Spanos Theater at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 3.
Wieman’s talk, titled “Science Education for the 21st Century, Using the Insights of Science to Teach Science,” will focus on how research on student learning, combined with new technology, can help provide relevant and effective science education for all students. He will also address the failures of traditional educational practices, even as used by “very good” teachers, and the successes of newer practices, showing how these results are consistent with findings from cognitive science.
Wieman won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001 for the creation of Bose-Einstein condensation. He has carried out research in a variety of areas of atomic physics and laser spectroscopy. Wieman has taught physics to a broad range of students, including the Physics Education Technology Project, which creates educational online interactive simulations and studies their effectiveness. More information on this project can be found at http://www.colorado.edu/physics/phet.
His education work has been recognized with the National Science Foundation’s Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award in 2001, the Carnegie Foundation’s U.S. University Professor of the Year Award in 2004, and the American Association of Physics Teachers’ Oersted Medal in 2007.
Wieman received his bachelor’s from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973 and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1977.
For more information on Wieman’s presentation or parking, please contact the Cal Poly President’s Office at 805-756-6000 or at presidentsoffice@calpoly.edu.
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