It's been an embarrassingly long since I've written an updated "Where are they now?" post. Partly, that's my fault--but it's also partly other peoples' faults. I don't often hear from students after they graduate; mostly, it's people for whom I've written a letter of reference telling me about their success. So, if you've graduated, and want to share your story with current students (you know, to give them hope that there's life after university), drop me a line!
(To keep your identity private, I just give initials here.)
- L.B. was accepted into MSc SLP program
- S.H. got accepted into graduate school
- J.A. is in graduate school working on her PhD in pediatrics
- A.B. was accepted into a Master’s program in medical sciences
- A.K. is Assistant Grand Moff at a library in the Edmonton area, and has a cat (I am allergic to cats)
- B.N. is working at Bioware
- C.H. got his Bachelor’s degree in applied arts specializing in animation, and has a unique visually based blog, called SKROWL. In his words: “Skrowl is a sort of combination of scrawl and scroll, with a little stank on it... I pronounce it like owl, prowl... skrowl. I think it has enormous potential as a storytelling tool of all sorts”
Go out into the world and do amazing things!
But in the meantime...
Why aren't you studying?
Where are they now? Part 3
The 25 Years: The Numbers
• 12 different courses (2 were co-taught)
• about 200 classes
• over 20,000 students
• at 3 different institutions
In a typical academic year, I teach seven classes, and about 1,000 students.
I have been fortunate to have been given awards for my teaching, including:
• Instructor of the month (Faculty of Science)
• Kathleen W. Klawe Prize for Excellence in Teaching of Large Classes
• Instructors of Distinction Honour Roll, Faculty of Science
• Instructor Appreciation award from the Interdepartmental Science Students’ Society
• Teacher Excellence Award from Delta Chi fraternity
• Department of Psychology Teaching Award
In addition, based on USRIs, I have been placed on the Department of Psychology Teaching Honour Roll 20 times, and the Honour Roll with Distinction 144 times.
As I reflect on all of these numbers and awards, I wonder what they all mean. Am I bragging about them? (No. Seriously.) Am I a good teacher? Students often give feedback that they enjoyed my course, which is all well and good. But did I teach the material effectively? That is, did I do something to help students learn the material well? And to what do I compare these outcomes--to myself 25 years ago, or to other instructors now? There’s no way to know. So I went to the research literature (you probably saw that coming, eh?).
A study by O’Connor and Cheema (2018) found that when a course was offered several times, grades given by the same instructor increased (from about a B+ to an A-). That sounds good, but this finding can be explained a number of ways. Is it because instructors get better over time, leading to better student performance? No: much research (e.g., Marsh, 2007) shows that teaching effectiveness tends to decline with age and years of experience--unless there is “systematic intervention”. Maybe it’s because students are getting better, year over year? Nope again: no significant effects were found on GPA as a factor of calendar year.
So what is responsible? The authors could not say for sure, but suggested that with increasing experience, the decision-making process “contaminates” evaluations--and seems to contaminate them in the upwards direction.
Well, that sucks.
Of course, I’d like to think that I’m the exception to the rule--that I don’t give higher marks now just because I’m older and have all this experience. I’d like to think that all the time and effort that I’ve put into my courses over the years has not been for nothing. But what can I do? Well, there is that “systematic intervention” business. The research on that indicates that using student evaluations of teaching along with consultation actually improve teaching effectiveness. The consultation is based on the ratings, and is used to target specific areas for development and selected strategies for improvement.
So, at this point in my 25-year-long career, it’s not time to sit back. It’s time once again to roll up my sleeves and dive in to some hard work.
Why aren’t you studying?
References
Marsh, H. W. (2007). Do university teachers become more effective with experience? A multilevel growth model of students’ evaluations of teaching over 13 years. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 775-790. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.99.4.775
O’Connor, K., & Cheema, A. (2018). Do evaluations rise with experience? Psychological Science, 29, 779-790. doi:10.1177/0956797617744517
The Edmonton Expo (2018 edition)
And that's a wrap for the Edmonton Expo 2018! For me, it was 2.5 days, 36,795 steps, 25.74 km (according to my Fitbit), and all things geeky.
Things were a bit different this year. First, the Expo was smaller--fewer halls, and fewer exhibitors. (That's probably because the Expo is now owned by Fan Expo HQ, the company behind Fan Expo Canada, among others.) There were also some notable cancellations: Jason (Aquaman) Momoa, Karl (Judge Dredd, Star Trek) Urban, Katee (Battlestar Galactica) Sackhoff, and Katie (Arrow) Cassidy. Cancellations always happen, but these were some pretty big names.
On the bright side, I got to see two of my all-time favourite voice actors, Maurice LaMarche and Kevin Conroy. Conroy is, of course, the definitive voice of Batman, going back to Batman: The Animated Series in the 1990s. If you don't know the name LaMarche, you are nonetheless familiar with his work if you've ever watched Animaniacs, The Simpsons, Futurama, or Disenchantment.
The panels with Ray Park, Brent Spiner, and John Barrowman were also highly entertaining. Barrowman's dress, in particular, was stunning. (Sorry, you hadda be there...) I also learned that moderator Tanner Zipchen is originally from Saskatoon and does not go around giving out Scene points. One of the most fascinating panels for me was hearing how junior high school teacher Scott Hebert has completely transformed his classroom into a medieval realm using the principles of gamification--something I've been interested in for a while. His talk was titled, "Press start to begin: How turning a class into a live action game changed everything." (And no, that doesn't tell you everything you need to know.)
In previous years, I unleashed my wallet, buying goodies like autographs, toys, and original art. I tried to rein it in a bit this year, buying some Steven Universe-themed items (pins, art, etc.) for my two sweet daughters who did not attend with me. (Don't tell them, but I held some items back as stocking stuffers!)
As usual, I got the Premium Package which includes a bit of swag: comic book, poster, lanyard, and TARDIS lunch box. You could also go around to vendors, getting stamps in a passport. When completed, you took your passport and got to spin the big wheel to win a prize. The result? An Expo sweatshirt (size medium). Check it out:
Would you like to have this swag package? Of course you would. Like last year, I will give this prize package to the person who pledges to give the most items to the UAlberta Campus Food Bank. Make your pledge in the comments below. The contest closes on Monday, October 1 at 12:00p.m. MDT (that's noon). Whoever has pledged the most number of items wins. (You have to show me a picture of you actually donating the items to the food bank upon pickup.) Even if you do not win, I would encourage you to still donate your pledged items to the food bank.
Why aren't you studying?
What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2018 Edition)
Instead of trying to come up with a theme for my summer vacation post, this year I went back through my photos and social media posts to try and sum up my summer. Here goes!
PHD Comics: Summer https://t.co/8k2pKGKaTA via @phdcomics
— Karsten Loepelmann (@kloepelm) June 13, 2018
It is so true, summer is a time to try and work uninterrupted (by teaching at least). I was home with my kids a lot of the time, so there still were interruptions. (I swear, those kids want to eat lunch like EVERY DAY.)
Instead of adding material to my courses, I spent my time scrutinizing my lecture notes overall, and my PowerPower slides in particular. I have increased the legibility, readability, and flow of my lectures, in addition to rewriting material for clarity and understanding. I have converted all physical media to digital files in anticipation of changes to the classroom computers by IST. That also meant spenting several hours with IST staff trying to fix problems, both old and new, with their systems. Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of confidence that everything will be running properly by the time the term starts. (Be prepared for your instructors fumbling and cursing a lot!)
Summer isn't all about work, though. There's time for a family trip. After visiting BC last year, we just stuck to Alberta for a short trip--Aspen Beach, Calgary, and Drumheller. After skipping the Calgary Zoo for a few years, we had to go back to see the pandas. My youngest daughter was so excited...and then so disappointed. The pandas just slept. The most action-packed moment was when one of them scratched its ear. Wow. To make up for the disappointment, we bought her an ice cream cone. Then a fly landed in it and everything went to hell. Yeah, good times.
Don't see how they can do kung fu.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum is always worth a visit.
Hoodoo? I dunno.
Who wants to see pictures of Aspen Beach when I could
show you the delicious cannoli at Sweet Capone's in Lacombe?
Ugh, I thought the smoke was bad last year. The BC forest fires brought clouds of smoke again this summer, especially in August. When it's an otherwise nice summer day with wretched air quality, at least I don't feel bad about being at my computer and working all day.
While my wife wasn't looking, I slipped a jalapeño plant in among her annuals when she was buying bedding plants this spring. (Ain't I a stinker?) I didn't have great hopes, but it exceeded all expectations, growing about a dozen peppers. I think I'll pickle them.#nofilter, we swear. It's that smokey today here in #yeg. With all this smoke, the air quality index is "very high" at 9. For more on our EAS live weather cameras, check the link in our bio #yegsmoke #uofa #weathercamera #panaromaview pic.twitter.com/Nbq7MKFI6q— UofA EAS Department (@UofA_EAS) August 15, 2018
Right at the end of August, the Department of Psychology held its annual Welcome Celebration. It's to welcome new graduate students, post-docs, and faculty members, and celebrate our accomplishments over the past year. Although I claim to go just for the food, it's really to hear the speeches. And lookit the nifty two TUTAs (Tolman Undergraduate Teaching Awards) I got!
Now, it's back to school for everyone. This year is just a bit more specialer, though. It's my 25th year of teaching. To those of you who have been taking my classes for 25 years--er, isn't it time to graduate already?
Why aren't you studying?Back to school. pic.twitter.com/wQzYV2b0vh— You Had One Job (@_youhadonejob1) September 3, 2018
The Reading List (Spring, 2018)
This time, the readings I'm recommending all tie into my recently concluded PSYCO 258: Cognitive Psychology course. It's remarkable that there are so many really good popular books about psychology--if you're into that kind of thing. And if you're following my blog, well, either you're a stalker or you're into that kind of thing...
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Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Waitaminnit--I recommended this book before, didn't I? Yup, in my post The Reading Week Reading List (Fall, 2015). But it's so good, I'm recommending it again. The title refers to the unconscious (fast) and deliberate, conscious (slow) modes of cognition. It also gives the first-person backstory to Prospect Theory, which is a unique thing. This theory was the start of behavioural economics, an approach that continues to shake up the fields of economics and psychology. Kahneman neatly summarizes his work with Amos Tversky, and also his more recent research into subjective life satisfaction. This is not a stuffy, boring read; it applies to everyone. |
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The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds by Michael Lewis You may know Lewis as the author of Moneyball. Here he presents a double-biography of Danny Kahneman and his longtime collaborator, Amos Tversky. Lewis tells a great story, providing important context to the lives of his subjects, which really helps give you a sense of who they really are: the constant self-doubt of Kahneman, and Tversky's devastating intelligence. Beyond the biographies, Lewis also follows the chronology of Prospect Theory, doing a great job of explaining it scientific publication to scientific publication. The final line is classic: "Then the phone rang." |
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Misbehaving: The Story Of Behavioral Economics by Richard H. Thaler This third book on behavioural economics is by far the most technical. You may not enjoy this book if you're put off by terms like "diminishing marginal utility," "bounded rationality," and "economics." Thaler, a recent Nobel prize winner, recounts his relationship with Kahneman & Tversky, as well as his contributions to behavioural economics. There are quite a few graphs, and it can be hard to follow if you have no background in economics. Recommended for only the most hardcore fans of behavioural economics, or econ majors. Psychology majors should just skip to the section on nudge theory. |
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Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool Every wonder how an expert got so good at what they do? An athlete, dancer, musician, or chess player? They make it seem so easy--like they were born to do it. But what really underlies their amazing abilities is something Ericsson calls deliberate practice. Along the way, he also debunks misconceptions about the "10,000 hour rule" and the "10-year rule" Sorry, but it takes more than just time to get really, really good at something. Ericsson gives evidence-based advice on how to turn yourself into an expert at just about anything. (Even, say, psychology.) |
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Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth Duckworth's research has shown that grit--a personality trait for persevering on a task--is a more important contributor to grades than IQ. However, the concept of grit is controversial. Some argue that it may be no different from some other personality traits. Also, you may have "grit" for, say, playing tennis, but not for studying. Shouldn't it apply to everything you do equally instead of being situation-specific? In Peak, Ericsson criticizes the concept for being circular: if you don't stick to a task because you don't have grit, which is why you don't stick to the task. However, reading this book seems to have increased my motivation for persisting on tasks; your mileage may vary. |
Why aren't you studying?
The Awards: Fall, 2017
Although my rating for PSYCO 282: Behavior Modification was high enough for Distinction, not enough students completed the online surveys for it to qualify. I appreciate the time you spend doing the evaluations. I do take them seriously. I read every comment and make changes in my courses based on your feedback. Your voice does count!
Warning! My parenthetical responses to selected comments below may contain sarcasm. Please avoid if you have an allergy or sensitivity.
PSYCO 104
notes are hard to study(Comment is hard to understand.)
if there is more picture in the lecture notes that will be more helpful to the visual leaner person(There is no evidence supporting auditory and visual learning. I include pictures where they are relevant, but I do not include extraneous clip art.)
he keeps us all very engaged by relating to real life situations that are relevant to students. very funny! by far the best psychology professor i’ve come to contact with(I try NOT to come into contact with students, as I've been told that is inappropriate.)
dislike.
This is a great class, and I think instructor is good professor.
This was an awesome course taught by an awesome instructor, will be scouting to take classes from this professor again for his enthusiasm to teach us objectives that would otherwise be deemed as boring
This prof. was my favourite of the term. He was very knowledgeable and passionate about psychology and I enjoyed that about the course; he was the reason I showed up to this class and I would loooooovvveeeeee him to teach all of the rest of my courses forever.(Okay, so one "dislike," one "good," one "awesome," and one "loooooovvveeeeee.")
I thought my professor was very good at teaching in the lecture times. My only issue was with the style of the exams. I found it hard to study for since we were not provided practice or example questions from the prof. The questions provided with the textbook did not help prepare me for any of the exam questions and overall I found the textbook incredibly useless. In the future, I would strongly recommend that the emphasis on the textbook (ie 50% lecture, 50% textbook) on the exams be reduced. This was too much information to be studied thoroughly and as a result, made the exam much harder than it needed to be. Perhaps if study guides or at least practice questions were provided with the exam would've been much more achievable.(If you get the Connect online content, you will have access to literally thousands of practice questions based on the textbook, presented as adaptive testing. This is an incredibly powerful tool that changes the difficulty of the questions you get to suit your learning. Evidence has shown that this improves learning and exam performance significantly. It's frustrating that more students do not take advantage of this option.
The textbook pages were messed up and didn't match the glossary in the back which made trying to learn a concept from the textbook extremely difficult.(Thanks for letting me know. I will pass this along to the publisher.)
The professor was very interesting to listen to, which made the topics he was educating the students on much easier to understand and learn. His examples often came from personal, humorous experiences, which also added to the overall course experience. He is very intelligent and I would love to have him for all if my psychology courses!
The instructor was fantastic he always made the class interesting and tried to connect to the students. He made the class enjoyable and always made us laugh a bit. He also had really good example of the material to show us.
The class was very interesting and the way Loepelmann taught it was filled with enthusiasm, passion and interest. He provided great study material that helped on achieving good on the exam. His iclicker quizzes were helpful and even funny. He was so passionate about the material he made coming to class fun. Best prof this semester.
Karsten was an excellent teacher, he made the class interactive and fun. I have told my friends if they have an option to choose him for an instructor for one of their courses to definitely pick him. Tests were fair, you needed to read the text book for sure to do well on the exams. Overall a very good course.(Thanks!)
Overall my professor was outstanding, he’s a great speaker and most of the time the class was entertaining, but there we’re a couple things that stood out to me as kind of unacceptable during the course. First of all he said he wasn’t going to do review classes, which I think is very inconsiderate as a teacher; I understand wanting students to come for more than just a review class but I don’t believe he has the right to make it harder for the students who do come to class and just want to know what to expect going into the exams. I also don’t think that it’s his decision to make whether or not students attend his class considering we are paying him to teach and it’s the students own waste if they do not attend. One more thing that didn’t sit well with me was the fact that he would just start class without any warning, no hello, no welcome, he would just start talking which would sometimes lead to missed notes or missed comments. When 200+ people are all talking at the same time it can be hard to recognize that the one we’re here to listen to has already started.(Thanks for your detailed feedback. No, I don't do review classes, as I've explained before (it's not because I'm lazy, inconsiderate, or trying to make things harder). It sounds like what you're looking for is not a review, but a preview of the exam, which is a very different thing.
Each class, I did say "Good afternoon" and then said "Last time..." and briefly summarized where I left off. I do this to give the class a moment to settle down before actually starting the lecture. I'm sorry that you weren't able to hear me over the noise of the class.)
I really enjoyed being in the class as you taught us in a way in which we could remember things. I also appreciate how you are really patient with students leaving early. Would like to be in one of your other classes in future!(I understand that students often have good reasons for leaving a class early.)
Instructor could cover more material in the textbook. A lot of the textbook material was never mentioned in class(No, I can't cover more material. I filled the classes covering what I could. And you do NOT want me (or any instructor) to cover all textbook material in class. If you thought it was boring before...
it was very boring and the instructor often just read from his powerpoint slides(See? Boring. Maybe next time, I'll ignore my PowerPoints entirely and just do freestyle rapping.)
I usually hate taking 100 level courses because they're often tedious and hard to appreciate. Doctor Loepelmann changed that for me. He incorporate's humour and anecdotes into his lectures, which make the course material fun easier to learn. He has a genuine love for teaching and wants to help the students share his love of psychology. His personal website is also incredibly useful for navigating the course. One of the best instructors I've ever had.
Dr. Loepelmann is a great instructor. Even though the class had ~400 students, it was one of the most engaging I had this semester purely due to his enthusiasm and teaching style! I hope to take PSYCO 282 with him in the future!(Thanks!)
Can I just say... wow! Completely LIT COURSE WITH LIT FRIENDS AND A LIT PROF. The textbook was half lit, the physical version would only become lit if someone LIT IT ON FIRE. But the online version was fantastic and the questions were wowza! Completely recommend the online, would only recommend the physical copy if... idk you get the electronic when you buy the physical current edition copy but you can't access questions as fast in the physical edition. The in class activities and iClicker and jokes were LIT. If this prof taught math I'd probably take it, the jokes are your classic dad jokes but well thought out so you'd remember the jokes and examples on the exams. His name is a little hard to spell, but shoutout to Loepelmann the mann and looking forward to Yummie Treets being trademarked or patented.(Whoa. Now I wish I was teaching English Lit. Geddit?)
PSYCO 282
great lectures with excellent examples. Instructor disagrees with textbook a bit and it seems like there must be a better textbook option.(Nope. I've picked one that is one of the best in the field, with helpful pedagogical features, and at a great price. You can check ratings of behavior modification textbooks on Amazon and see that Miltenberger is the most highly rated one at 4.5 stars.)
Very interesting course material with lots of relations to real life examples. Excellent course. One complaint is that the assignments are marked so finely, so specifically, that I lost marks for not italicizing a title and journal number and for having an axis labeled as "Days" instead of "Time (Days)" even though the textbook uses "Days". Another complaint is that when I emailed Dr. Loepelmann asking a question, he merely replied with a riddle and did not help me find the answer at all, and I ended up failing that assignment because I didn't know what he was asking or what he was looking for. In the future, it would be great to answer students questions directly or maybe providing some examples.(Science is about precision and accuracy; I explicitly pointed out the requirement for labels and units in the lecture. To your second point, I sometimes get questions from students about the assignments, along the lines of "Here's my answer to question 2. Is it right?" Of course, I cannot answer that. Do math profs say if you got your answers to calculus homework sets right? If I "pre-mark" someone's answers to the assignments, I am obligated to do that for the entire class. That, of course, is impossible. The point of an assignment is to assess your learning. If I give you the answers, it obviates the pedagogical intent of the assignment. Sometimes, the answer to your question is going to be "I can't tell you.")
This was my favorite class. It made me love psychology so much more. The prof made all the difference.
This course was amazing! I looked forward to it every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. The professor was enthusiastic and made the subject matter interesting and easy to understand. The notes provided for the class were thorough and the blanks in them kept me coming to class. The iClicker questions helped review material and engage the class. Marking on assignments were fair and midterms were the appropriate level of difficulty.
This course was awesome to come to. The project component was interesting and valuable because we were able to directly apply what we learned in class to real life behaviour modifying.
Prof is fantastic, the website is extremely handy and easy to use, the textbook is essential if you wish to do great in this class. Self-management project was also interesting and quite fun to do, a different take on learning outside the classroom. I would definitely recommend this course to other people.(Thanks for all the kind words.)
Passionate prof, made his classes enjoyable and learned something new everyday.
This course was taught in a very effective way. The fill in the blank notes used were helpful and made it easy to take notes while still listening to the professor lecture.
The way student notes are given is somewhat unhelpful. Having a ppt or pdf with blanks in it would be much better than the text based notes that were provided.(These two comments were literally right next to each other. *Sigh*)
Overall the course was excellent, the only comment that I have is to be aware of using person-first language, especially since the research in this course focuses primarily on people with disabilities.(Dang it, I really tried to do this. I will go through my lectures again to correct them. Thanks for your important feedback on this.)
It was great and there should be some sort of assigned readings(Er, what? Like the assigned readings in the syllabus you mean?)
I appreciate the fact that the notes could be easily pasted into a word document for easy note taking (as opposed to notes posted in PDFs)(You may be the first person to thank me for that. I'm glad it worked for you.)
Manipulative and obnoxious instroctor. I won't take any class with again.(I know, right? I'm so obnoxious, manipulating you into taking my class, reading the textbook, taking exams.)
Loepelmann is not very approachable. Seems slightly obnoxious and cold when asking questions. Get the feeling he is offended at questions getting asked, since it could mean he did not explain a concept clear enough. Cheerful personality when presenting/teaching and a good prof, but has some underlying attitude issues when one-on-one.(When did you ask questions? At the end of class when I'm trying to pack up my stuff and get out of the way of the next instructor while dealing with a line of students all asking questions? Or during my office hours, when I don't have to rush through my answers in a quiet atmosphere? I'm sorry if I gave you the impression through our interactions that I have a bad attitude. I respect students, try my best to answer questions, and try to learn and improve by paying careful attention to student comments.)
Karsten was an excellent and engaging instructor. I have told all of my peers to take this course with him along with any other courses he may teach. This course has inspired me to widen the scope of my degree and look at extra certifications in the subject area.
Karsten Loepelmann is an excellent instructor, and my designated TA taught me things about APA formatting I should have learned a very, very, very long time ago. Thank you both for that. I really appreciated all of Karsten's supplementary materials on his websites, which helped me extensively on the Self-Management Project. While I wasn't extremely interested in the material, the structure and enthusiasm in lectures made them easy to attend.
Karsten was very successful in creating an amazing classroom experience. I never missed a lecture because he made them so interesting and enjoyable!
The instructor was really good and always replied to emails promptly. He was always very helpful and answered questions in a meaningful way.
Karsten Lopelman is a God" Okay, but actually. Karsten is the most pleasant professor I have ever had a course with. He is caring about his students, he lectures well, he gives great examples and has clear notes. Karsten's exams are fair, the textbook is a very useful resource (I read it religiously) and the fill in the blanks are the best idea since peanut butter. I would take absolutely any course Karsten teaches and when anyone tells me that they might take PSYCO 104 or PSYCO 282 the first words out of my mouth are " You have to take it with Karsten". I truly enjoy that you start every chapter with a research focus, it helps centre the idea and focus on where these ideas might be going. Once again another amazing course taught by Karsten, Bravo !
Dr. Loepelmann is a very nice professor and accessible outside the classroom. I have encountered some professors who refuses to answer students' question through emails and will refer them to the TAs but Dr. Loepelmann always answers my emails promptly and with detail and care.(Thanks!)
PSYCO 494
What can I say? I am obsessed with human factors and ergonomics, now! I think about it every day and in almost every situation. I may actually devote my life to this topic. Aside from the captivating lectures, however, I wasn't terribly drawn to the textbook or the required readings. They seemed to be more "supplemental learning" and I honestly found myself forgetting to read the course pack. Thank you, Dr. Loepelmann, for the wonderful term! I am excited to take more classes with you in the future!(I'm constantly looking for better readings; thanks for your feedback.)
This is my second course I have taken with this instructor. I thought he did a great job of making the course engaging and explaining concepts clearly and with humour. There was a lot of lists of things to understand within each topic, but I thought the exam format did a good job of examining these. I studied really hard for the first midterm and didn't do as well as I had hoped, but the instructor was great about being willing to discuss how to improve for the final. I am actually enjoying writing my term paper as the instructor gave us the freedom to choose a topic we are interested in. Overall, I enjoyed this class and would recommend this instructor.(Thanks. I recommend me, too.)
The timing of the Macewan exercise around thanksgiving weekend was tricky. Procrastination=closed buildings. Excellent use of recent research. Like the independent topics for paper, would love a formal draft date to encourage getting it done early.(Sorry about encountering closed buildings. I'll mention that to future classes. I don't want to have a formal topic-selection deadline, because to enforce it, it would have to be for marks--and I don't want anyone losing marks for something like this.)
A bit more guidance/discussion on the term paper would have been appreciated Overall a very interesting course with a lot of parallels to real life. More class interaction maybe would be something to consider to improve the class(I am willing to work with you one-on-one if you need help with your term paper, but you've got to reach out to me via email or during office hours--otherwise I don't know what you need.)
Dr. Loepelmann did an amazing job with this course. I wasn't 100% what to expect with this topic but he was able to spark my interest by always coming to class well prepared and delivering lectures with enthusiasm. The two written assignments in this course were well though out and were effective ways of making sure we actually understood concepts and were able to apply them. I really enjoyed how the Loepelmann was able to link course concepts to real-life situations with videos and case studies that helped break up the lecture time. I would encourage you to continue using these and perhaps adding more, if possible. I also appreciated that you were able to offer us feedback on the Term Papers before final submission; that was super helpful!(Yup, I am working to include more active learning content.)
Why aren't you studying?
The Reading List (Winter, 2018)
It'll soon be time for another Reading Wee--wha? It's over already? Well, it sure didn't last long. (I swear, a week isn't as long as it used to be.) I did actually spend some time reading--mostly papers on neuromagic, but even more time frantically writing my lecture on neuromagic. (It's for PSYCO 403: Advanced Perception, if you're interested).
Anyway, I've got a backlog of books I've read going back to, er, 2016. (I swear, a year isn't as long as it used to be.) I posted some of my favourite recent graphic novels last time; this time it's some random nonfiction.
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Head in the Cloud: Why Knowing Things Still Matters When Facts Are So Easy to Look Up by William Poundstone Why do you need to know anything anymore? In a world with Google, what is knowledge worth? William Poundstone argues that it may be worth more than you think. This book, based on original survey research, catalogs the many things that people don’t know. It’s shocking. Would you be able to identify Johann Sebastian Bach in a photo? Do you know the sun is a star? Did you know research shows that people with more general knowledge (e.g., trivia) have higher incomes and are happier (Admittedly, it is just a correlation.) When you phone battery dies, you might start to realize just how little you actually know... |
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Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating by Charles Spence Spence won the Ig Nobel Prize for his study, in which he amplified the sound of a person eating a Pringles potato chip to make it seem fresher and crunchier. Yes, seriously. This book describes how our experience of food is affected by taste, smell, sight, sound, and touch, as well as the atmosphere, the people you are eating with, and more. Some of the most fun parts are his accounts of the often bizarre world of high-end restaurants. Imagine eating in the dark, or with your hands. How about eating food off a tablet computer? Or being spritzed in the face with scent as you eat? Loads of great perceptual psychology for anyone who eats food. I’m recommending this book to students of my PSYCO 403: Advanced Perception course. |
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Touch: The Science of the Hand, Heart, and Mind by David J. Linden My area of training as a graduate student was perception and psychophysics, specifically how the skin processes information, so this book grabbed my attention right away. Be aware that an understanding of our sense of touch is going to require some biology. Terms like HPA axis, stratum corneum, dorsal root ganglia, ventroposterolateral nucleus, and TRPM8 receptor get thrown around a lot--maybe a bit too much for a popular book. If you can get past that, there are some interesting discussions of “hot” and “cool” taste sensations, the nature of itching, touch illusions, and the social nature of touch (yes, that includes sexual touching). I’d recommend taking PSYCO 367: Perception before reading this book. |
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See What I’m Saying: The Extraordinary Powers of our Five Senses by Lawrence D. Rosenblum Yup, another book about perception! (Remember: I’m a perception geek.) Rosenblum’s thesis is that we don’t give our senses enough credit; we focus more on the limitations of our senses. But there are more to our senses than most people realize. This book is not a catalog of our senses; rather, it delves into particular phenomena that highlight extraordinary abilities--some of which are displayed by only a small number of people. Many of these cases will be familiar to students of psychology: the blind man who rides a bike using “sonar,” how molecules in human sweat may synchronize women’s menstrual cycles, and the curious phenomenon of synesthesia. Another recommendation for students of perception. |
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Selp-helf by Miranda Sings Why did I read this book again? She was funny or something? If you really love Miranda Sings, you’ll--well, you’ll probably tolerate this book. Just like the real Miranda, it’s best in small doses. Like, really small doses. In fact, you’re better off watching Miranda on Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (season 5, episode 4, available on Netflix). That episode made me laugh out loud. Hey, not all these books are winners. Wait--this book was on the New York Times bestseller list? I just can’t anymore... |
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