Tod Ramseyer

Philosophy of teaching: An understanding of math and science is important for everyone, since so much of our lives are influenced by those disciplines.  I believe students learn best when the material is relevant to their lives, so I try to use examples from the world around them whenever possible.  I try to present topics in as many ways as possible, and test students in multiple ways, since everyone learns differently.

Areas of expertise: My specialty is astronomy, particularly optical and infrared observations of close binary stars.  I am also interested in computational physics, and in hands-on techniques for teaching physics.

Teaching background: I have taught a wide range of physics classes, at the introductory level for non-science majors, and at the advanced undergraduate level.  I have also taught many astronomy classes, particularly for the non-scientist, as well as mathematics and general scientific-literacy classes.