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| Senior Instructor, Department of Physics, Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA), spring 1999 to spring 2000 |
I taught general physics each of my three semesters at Virginia Tech. This included both (1) calculus-based physics for freshmen in engineering and science and (2) physics without calculus for students in biological disciplines. Each semester, I was responsible for 2 or 3 sections, ranging in size from 80 to 120 students each. My favorite part of the course? Motivating students to tackle a challenging subject. Despite the sheer number of students I had each semester, I was able to give one-on-one attention to the students who needed it (including a few who didn't realize that I'd spot them even if they didn't approach me).
| Visiting Lecturer, Division of Physics and Electronics Engineering, University of New England (Armidale, NSW, Australia), second semester 1996, 1997, and 1998 |
The Division of Physics has hosted me in Armidale three times now, starting each time in July. As the only astronomer at UNE (and a visiting one at that), I was asked to teach their astronomy course, help them reorganize and update it, and improve the laboratory exercises for the students. I still maintain a web page for them with some recent pictures from Galileo and other probes.
 | Visiting Instructor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Montana (Missoula, MT), summer 1991 |
The summer before I completed my Ph.D., Montana needed someone to teach their concurrent summer courses on planetary and stellar astronomy. Lecturing 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, didn't lead to a lot of progress on my dissertation that summer, but I had a lot of fun. Most memorable was the open house we held during the partial solar eclipse. One of the department engineers linked a heliostat on the roof with a closed-circuit large-format television monitor in the lecture hall, and several hundred people came by to view it! I was very impressed with the interest in astronomy among the citizens of Missoula, and this was the first time I made the evening news.
 | Instructor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY), summer 1986 and 1988 |
While in grad school, I also served as a teaching assistant for virtually every course the department offered (but then, who hasn't?).
Curriculum vita available in postscript or PDF format.
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Last modified 18 October, 2002. © Gregory C. Sloan.