Dr. Gibson's Teaching Interests
My primary goal is to improve students ability to learn and solve problems
on their own through the development of critical thinking skills. To this
end, I require that students participate as much as possible in lecture
and lab exercises. At a minimum, this means that students need to come to
class prepared in the following ways:
- Reading the assigned material before it is covered in lecture or lab.
- Attempting the assigned homework before it is covered in class so
that you can ask relevant questions.
- Bringing your calculator to class and having it ready to use every
day so that you may participate in quantitative exercises.
- Being prepared to participate in class discussions, exercises, and
concept tests.
It is also important that students learn to communicate technical
information in writing with both precision and concision. This essential
skill is very marketable! To develop it, students will be required to
explain short, fundamental questions on exams or in formal writeups.
Another of my interests involves the integration of modern computational
techniques into the
traditional physics curriculum. To accomplish these goals, the department
has made significant hardware and software available for our students. As
Director of the Departmental Computer Center, it is my goal to maintain
these computer resources at as high a level as possible.
Courses Taught:
- PHYS 5322: Graduate Computational Physics
- PHYS 5308: Graduate Theoretical Physics II
- PHYS 5307: Graduate Theoretical Physics I
- PHYS 5300: Advanced Computational Physics
- PHYS 4307: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics
- PHYS 4301: Undergraduate Computational Physics
- PHYS 2401: Introductory Physics II for Scientists and Engineers
- PHYS 1408: Introductory Physics I for Scientists and Engineers
- PHYS 1404: Introductory Physics II (Noncalculus Level)
- PHYS 1403: Introductory Physics I (Noncalculus Level)
- PHYS 1305: Introduction to Programming for Engineering Physicists
- PHYS 1401: Introductory Physics for Nonscientists