Jennifer Kirkey

is stargazing.

Current job title:
Instructor of Physics and Astronomy

My teaching philosophy:
Science is a verb. Active, engaged students learn more.

My must-visit web sites are:

• antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ (Astronomy Picture of the Day)
• www.astronomie2009.ca/ (the official web site of the International Year of Astronomy)

Top five desert island items:
A case of good red wine (is that one item or twelve?), a blank book, an astronomy book, lenses (to make fire and a telescope) and really good sunblock.

Celebrating the stars

This is the International Year of Astronomy. So I am setting up and attending as many 'astronomy for the general public' events as I possibly can. The fog and clouds will clear eventually.

Change is slow but good

Evolution happens slowly. This is the 150th anniversary of Darwin's Origin of the Species, as well as the 400th anniversary of Galileo using a telescope to look up at the stars and planets. My students’ comfort with technology, as well as my own, makes the classroom a more dynamic place with current news items being used to illuminate the learning experience.

Wonders never cease

Highlights of teaching

I get to interact with other people and see the world through their eyes. As well, I can tell the same jokes year after year to someone who has never heard them before.

A good astronomy student

is anyone interested in looking up. All it takes is a sense of wonder.

I would teach for free

but I get paid for marking. (That is a quote from a friend, colleague and mentor Bob Perkins, who recently retired from teaching Chemistry at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.)

The tough stuff

The greatest challenge in teaching is assessment - making it authentic and a growth experience for students as opposed to it being perceived as a punishment or an end in itself. The challenge is making students see that science is an essential part of their life and to being an informed citizen.

Keeping current

I watch the news, and read newspapers (yes I am old-fashioned that way), looking for items that are relevant to what I am teaching. Low friction conditions such as our weeks of ice and snow give me lots to discuss and show in class to illustrate Newton’s law of inertia - all things move in straight lines unless forced to change. I also have a cartoon for each topic and am always looking for new ones. In teaching astronomy, it is wonderful when things such as lunar eclipses and comets appear during the semester.

Links

Information Sessions
Physics
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