As you can see from my home page, I am a Professor of Physics at East Stroudsburg University. This page is my attempt to make my home page a bit more personal.

Undergraduate School

After graduating from High School in 1981, I entered Temple University. Although my major was officially undeclared, I spent much of my time in the Geography department (I originally was thinking about becoming a cartographer).

During my freshman year, I had no science or math courses. In fact, I took the Calc AP in high school just so I would place out of the math requirement at Temple and never have to take math ever again! I was good at math but I didn't see how math related to the real world. Since then, I've learned to love math (with the help of my wife and son).

Anyway, as an undeclared major (which meant I hadn't declared a major...or did I?) I basically took courses that interested me. I took baseball, choral conducting, computer programming (we learned on card punch machines) and cartography (making maps). My first course was Physical Geography and I learned about something called the Coriolis force, which was responsible for the spinning of hurricanes and similar phenomena.

Something about the Coriolis Force sparked my interest: I didn't believe it. I peppered my poor Geography professor with questions but he was unable to answer them so I went hunting on my own. I was unable to find the answer, but I learned that there was this field called Meteorology that studied things like the Coriolis force.

Unfortunately, Temple University had no course on Meteorology. I took physics (since supposedly you needed physics to understand the Coriolis force) and climatology (which I soon learned was not the same as meteorology) but neither helped. I needed more.

So, I decided to transfer to Penn State and enroll in their Meteorology program. Before I did, I spent my second year at Temple taking all of the physics, math (up to differential equations) and chemistry needed for a meteorology major (I also had quietly switched to a mechanical engineering major - its requirements were a better fit than those in the Liberal Arts college). I also spent a week interning at the National Weather Service office in Philadelphia (it is now in Mt. Holly, New Jersey).

That week at the National Weather Service made it clear that I had no interest in weather forecasting. Weather forecasting was for "weather weenies" (a term introduced to me by one of my Penn State instructors), who watch the weather every day with much anticipation. Weather weenies would know the difference between meteorology and climatology, for goodness sakes. I was not a weather weenie.

Still, I decided to continue on to Penn State. Meteorology, after all, was not just for weather forecasters. And, I was hopeful it would hold the answer to my Coriolis force dilemma. It took two years, but by my last semester at Penn State I finally began to understand the Coriolis force (thanks to a hallway conversation with Professor Alfred Blackadar).

Now all that was kind of interesting but my real goal all along was to be a physics teacher - the meteorology degree was just an interesting sidelight. In fact, as part of my one-week internship at the Weather Service before I had even transferred to Penn State, I had to write a professional development plan. In the plan, I wrote that I would graduate with a degree in meteorology then return to Temple to get my teaching certification to teach high school physics.

And that is what I did. Sort of.

Graduate School

After graduating from Penn State, I returned to Temple and entered its Masters program for teacher certification. During the summer, I was oriented to teaching via seminars and student teaching. I was at Camden Junior High teaching algebra for a few weeks and then was transferred to Lower Merion teaching physics (because I still didn't like math, despite all of my credits in math).

During the Fall, I was supposed to find a teaching position and teach as an intern while taking classes at the university. I was unable to find a suitable position, however, and ended up spending most of the time as a substitute teacher.

Part of the problem was that I wanted to teach physics and Temple deemed that my physics background was too inadequate. Having been told that I would need about a year of physics full-time to meet the requirement, I decided to enter Drexel University's Masters program in Physics and Atmospheric Science. My plan was to become a TA (Teaching Assistant) and take all the physics courses required for teacher certification. After all, as long as I was taking all those courses, I reasoned, I might as well get a masters degree.

Unfortunately, when I started at Drexel they offered me a Research Assistantship instead of a Teaching Assistantship. You see, once I was accepted at Drexel, one of the atmospheric research groups there asked me to work for them. I actually worked at Drexel for about four months before I officially enrolled. And since I was pretty good at programming, I was offered a Research Assistantship so I could continue to work with them.

Unfortunately, I had no desire to do research. My purpose was to learn physics and teach. I agreed to the research assistantship as long as I had the opportunity to teach at some point. As it turned out, I did end up teaching several sections of the introductory physics recitations and labs, but most of my time I did research (programming).

While at Drexel, I continued to take classes at Temple. My plan was to return to Temple and finish my degree once I received my masters from Drexel, which I did in 1988. However, during the interim, my intern teaching certification had lapsed. In addition, I was urged to continue my studies at Drexel by the Atmospheric Science group there. At their urging, I continued at Drexel, still hoping for some way to finish my Temple degree also.

Fortunately, Temple gave me some leeway. I had several opportunities to teach introductory courses in meteorology and physics at Drexel and Hahnemann Universities and they counted this toward my student teaching. As a result, I was able to finish my MEd in 1991. Along the way, I developed an interest in teacher education.

Back at Drexel, I continued my studies. Since I was never really interested in the PhD, I never worked seriously on my thesis. However, in 1993, two things happened to me that changed my life. In January, I got married, and in November, my son was born. Obviously, I couldn't stay a student forever. I finished my PhD in December of 1993.

Job Hunting

I spent the next seven months as a post-doc at Drexel to finish up some work there and to look for a job. I decided that I would spend the first five or six months looking exclusively for university-level teaching positions. If I found nothing, I would look for high school-level positions.

By June, not too surprisingly, I had no offers from universities and I had stopped looking for university-level positions. I was preparing to present a paper in Norway and so planned to take the opportunity in Norway to look for a desirable research position (although I wasn't really interested in such a position). I fully expected to be teaching in a high school the following fall and took the necessary PRAXIS series exams for obtaining my certication. I told myself I would start looking for secondary-level positions as soon as I got back from presenting the paper in Norway the end of June.

The day I left for Norway, I received a phone call from ESU offering me a position. I accepted immediately.

The story behind this position is also interesting. In April of that year, I came upon a notice about this position at East Stroudsburg University. It was for someone to teach physics labs, meteorology, climatology and a "teaching of science" course. It was such a match to my background, I couldn't believe it. Still, I couldn't decide whether to apply. My wife was still working on her thesis at Drexel and we would have to move out of the Philadelphia area if I obtained the position at ESU.

Of course, I applied anyway and received an interview in early May. I thought the interview went well, but being fresh out of school, I knew my chances were slim. A month and a half went by and still received no word (I found out later that they were awaiting word from their first choice). I was quite relieved when I was notified of my appointment.

I started the in the fall of 1994. With a steady paycheck, I was finally able to receive my PA teaching certification that winter (I had delayed obtaining my certification since I didn't have much money and didn't want to spend it unnecessarily on the certification application and such). I still would like to teach at the secondary school level at some point.

Teaching Philosophy

At ESU, I've tried hard to develop courses that go beyond transferring content from teacher to student. My hope is that my courses provide experiences through which students can learn the essence of the subject rather than specific content from which students must memorize details of the subject.

This has been quite a bit harder than I thought it would be. When I first started teaching, I thought that clear explanations and demonstrations would make students learn. I soon found out that such methods may make the students feel good (and result in good evaluations for me) but the methods don't help to improve student understanding of the concepts.

Many of the concepts in physics (and science in general), it turns out, are difficult for students to understand and it isn't sufficient to simply memorize and regurgitate answers. And, my explanations and demonstrations didn't help them. Many students actually need to learn what it means to really understand and apply concepts and models. For them, they need experiences that force them to question and evaluate their understanding.

In my time at ESU, I've been reasonably successful at doing this although I still have a ways to go. Unfortunately, while I can document that such methodologies improve student understanding of the concepts, most students do not want to question and evaluate their understanding. I am still exploring ways to do this without making them so frustrated they want to kill me. I'm getting better at that.

I've also found it difficult to teach the "teaching of science" course. Many students come in to the course expecting to learn "methods" of teaching science. It is very difficult to convince them that "methods" are best learned in an actual classroom with real students and that, before one chooses a method, one must know what you are trying to accomplish. Most students have never given much thought to why they are teaching and what it is that they really want the students to know and be able to do (beyond simply wanting to make science interesting and share their enthusiasm). It is no wonder that these students simply want "methods". I'm still working on how to make these students realize that they must first learn what it means to teach science in the secondary schools (hence the name of the course). "Teaching of science" is more than simply transmitting information to students. It is the construction of experiences that help students learn how to "do" science and the scientific inquiry that comes with it.

Last updated: February, 2020.

rcohen@po-box.esu.edu