Last fall, engineering seniors Nathan Francis and Aaron McCready presented some “pretty interesting stuff” about astrophysics to area high school students. In a classroom at Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences, students leaned forward in their chairs, listened, and asked questions, while the guest lecturers taught about gravitation, eclipses, and black holes.
More than presenting scientific facts, their professor, Dr. Dominic Halsmer, wanted these lectures to prompt TSAS students to ask themselves “whether science suggests something beyond the material world.” Engaged students immediately posed thoughtful questions.
“Does time exist within the universe, or does the universe exist within time?” asked one student with Stephen Hawking’s book, A Brief History of Time.
The lecturers responded with an appropriate combination of information and wit.
“I’m glad you asked,” Francis said. He went on to explain--via PowerPoint, video, and lecture--fascinating elements of black holes and time, such as momentarily being able to see the back of your head!
McCready added, “You could do your hair really good one morning.”
Silently standing at the back of the classroom, TSAS science teacher Shyrli Thomas smiled. This was the exact outcome she had been looking for when she invited Halsmer and his students to lecture to ten of her classes last semester. She appreciated that her students were “right there,” zoned in to lessons from science enthusiasts closer to their own age.
Thomas said hearing from collegians gave her students a vision of their future. “It has helped the students to put the puzzle pieces together as to why and where the information they’re covering in class is taking them.”
This successful venture has resulted in an ongoing academic relationship between TSAS and ORU’s engineering, physics, and physical science department, which Halsmer chairs. On April 16, about 75 students from TSAS will tour Halsmer’s department. He is hoping for increased enrollment and more invitations to provide guest lecturers.
Interestingly, faculty prayer prompted this ORU-TSAS relationship. Early last semester, Thomas prayed and asked God how she could better teach her students. She says she thought of having collegians as guest speakers. Halsmer interjects, “That was the same time we were praying.” He recounted that his faculty wanted to speak at area schools as a means of recruitment and community interaction.
Providentially, Halsmer received a call from Thomas. When he relayed the information to his Special Topics class, a new and popular apologetics course for engineering juniors and seniors, Francis and McCready jumped at the chance to present. That was all it took to initiate this series of lectures, which also involved Halsmer’s Statics class.
The collaboration included multiple benefits. In addition to serving a community need, guest lecture opportunities challenge ORU students to self-educate. “Aaron and Nate studied this all on their own,” Halsmer said about their extracurricular launch into astronomy. Plus, the seniors sharpened public speaking skills they’d originally acquired in Oral Communications 101. McCready explained, “I took the course five semesters ago and tried immediately to integrate the lessons into my natural style and approach to presentation.” Like the ones at TSAS.
Months after the presentations, Thomas says she still hears enthusiastic questions and comments from her students about the collegians and their university. “Mostly, when will they be coming back, when will [her students] get to go to ORU, how interesting the presentations were, and, of course, the girls have mentioned how cute [the lecturers] are.”
For more about ORU’s engineering, physics, and physical science department, click here.
Last fall, engineering seniors Nathan Francis and Aaron McCready presented some "pretty interesting stuff" about astrophysics to area high school students. In a classroom at Tulsa School of Arts and Sciences, students leaned forward in their chairs, listened, and asked questions, while the guest lecturers taught about gravitation, eclipses, and black holes.
More than presenting scientific facts, their professor, Dr. Dominic Halsmer, wanted these lectures to prompt TSAS students to ask themselves "whether science suggests something beyond the material world." Engaged students immediately posed thoughtful questions.
"Does time exist within the universe, or does the universe exist within time?" asked one student with Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time.
The lecturers responded with an appropriate combination of information and wit.
"I'm glad you asked," Francis said. He went on to explain--via PowerPoint, video, and lecture--fascinating elements of black holes and time, such as momentarily being able to see the back of your head!
McCready added, "You could do your hair really good one morning."
Silently standing at the back of the classroom, TSAS science teacher Shyrli Thomas smiled. This was the exact outcome she had been looking for when she invited Halsmer and his students to lecture to ten of her classes last semester. She appreciated that her students were "right there," zoned in to lessons from science enthusiasts closer to their own age.
Thomas said hearing from collegians gave her students a vision of their future. "It has helped the students to put the puzzle pieces together as to why and where the information they're covering in class is taking them."
This successful venture has resulted in an ongoing academic relationship between TSAS and ORU's engineering, physics, and physical science department, which Halsmer chairs. On April 16, about 75 students from TSAS will tour Halsmer's department. He is hoping for increased enrollment and more invitations to provide guest lecturers.
Interestingly, faculty prayer prompted this ORU-TSAS relationship. Early last semester, Thomas prayed and asked God how she could better teach her students. She says she thought of having collegians as guest speakers. Halsmer interjects, "That was the same time we were praying." He recounted that his faculty wanted to speak at area schools as a means of recruitment and community interaction.
Providentially, Halsmer received a call from Thomas. When he relayed the information to his Special Topics class, a new and popular apologetics course for engineering juniors and seniors, Francis and McCready jumped at the chance to present. That was all it took to initiate this series of lectures, which also involved Halsmer's Statics class.
The collaboration included multiple benefits. In addition to serving a community need, guest lecture opportunities challenge ORU students to self-educate. "Aaron and Nate studied this all on their own," Halsmer said about their extracurricular launch into astronomy. Plus, the seniors sharpened public speaking skills they'd originally acquired in Oral Communications 101. McCready explained, "I took the course five semesters ago and tried immediately to integrate the lessons into my natural style and approach to presentation." Like the ones at TSAS.
Months after the presentations, Thomas says she still hears enthusiastic questions and comments from her students about the collegians and their university. "Mostly, when will they be coming back, when will [her students] get to go to ORU, how interesting the presentations were, and, of course, the girls have mentioned how cute [the lecturers] are."
For more about ORU's engineering, physics, and physical science department, click here.
More than presenting scientific facts, their professor, Dr. Dominic Halsmer, wanted these lectures to prompt TSAS students to ask themselves “whether science suggests something beyond the material world.” Engaged students immediately posed thoughtful questions.
“Does time exist within the universe, or does the universe exist within time?” asked one student with Stephen Hawking’s book, A Brief History of Time.
The lecturers responded with an appropriate combination of information and wit.
“I’m glad you asked,” Francis said. He went on to explain--via PowerPoint, video, and lecture--fascinating elements of black holes and time, such as momentarily being able to see the back of your head!
McCready added, “You could do your hair really good one morning.”
Silently standing at the back of the classroom, TSAS science teacher Shyrli Thomas smiled. This was the exact outcome she had been looking for when she invited Halsmer and his students to lecture to ten of her classes last semester. She appreciated that her students were “right there,” zoned in to lessons from science enthusiasts closer to their own age.
Thomas said hearing from collegians gave her students a vision of their future. “It has helped the students to put the puzzle pieces together as to why and where the information they’re covering in class is taking them.”
This successful venture has resulted in an ongoing academic relationship between TSAS and ORU’s engineering, physics, and physical science department, which Halsmer chairs. On April 16, about 75 students from TSAS will tour Halsmer’s department. He is hoping for increased enrollment and more invitations to provide guest lecturers.
Interestingly, faculty prayer prompted this ORU-TSAS relationship. Early last semester, Thomas prayed and asked God how she could better teach her students. She says she thought of having collegians as guest speakers. Halsmer interjects, “That was the same time we were praying.” He recounted that his faculty wanted to speak at area schools as a means of recruitment and community interaction.
Providentially, Halsmer received a call from Thomas. When he relayed the information to his Special Topics class, a new and popular apologetics course for engineering juniors and seniors, Francis and McCready jumped at the chance to present. That was all it took to initiate this series of lectures, which also involved Halsmer’s Statics class.
The collaboration included multiple benefits. In addition to serving a community need, guest lecture opportunities challenge ORU students to self-educate. “Aaron and Nate studied this all on their own,” Halsmer said about their extracurricular launch into astronomy. Plus, the seniors sharpened public speaking skills they’d originally acquired in Oral Communications 101. McCready explained, “I took the course five semesters ago and tried immediately to integrate the lessons into my natural style and approach to presentation.” Like the ones at TSAS.
Months after the presentations, Thomas says she still hears enthusiastic questions and comments from her students about the collegians and their university. “Mostly, when will they be coming back, when will [her students] get to go to ORU, how interesting the presentations were, and, of course, the girls have mentioned how cute [the lecturers] are.”
For more about ORU’s engineering, physics, and physical science department, click here.
Story URL: http://www.oru.edu/news/news_stories.php?id=532&intNav=
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Engineering a Win-Win Relationship
By Jadell Forman (Class of 1990)
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More than presenting scientific facts, their professor, Dr. Dominic Halsmer, wanted these lectures to prompt TSAS students to ask themselves "whether science suggests something beyond the material world." Engaged students immediately posed thoughtful questions.
"Does time exist within the universe, or does the universe exist within time?" asked one student with Stephen Hawking's book, A Brief History of Time.
The lecturers responded with an appropriate combination of information and wit.
"I'm glad you asked," Francis said. He went on to explain--via PowerPoint, video, and lecture--fascinating elements of black holes and time, such as momentarily being able to see the back of your head!
McCready added, "You could do your hair really good one morning."
Silently standing at the back of the classroom, TSAS science teacher Shyrli Thomas smiled. This was the exact outcome she had been looking for when she invited Halsmer and his students to lecture to ten of her classes last semester. She appreciated that her students were "right there," zoned in to lessons from science enthusiasts closer to their own age.
Thomas said hearing from collegians gave her students a vision of their future. "It has helped the students to put the puzzle pieces together as to why and where the information they're covering in class is taking them."
This successful venture has resulted in an ongoing academic relationship between TSAS and ORU's engineering, physics, and physical science department, which Halsmer chairs. On April 16, about 75 students from TSAS will tour Halsmer's department. He is hoping for increased enrollment and more invitations to provide guest lecturers.
Interestingly, faculty prayer prompted this ORU-TSAS relationship. Early last semester, Thomas prayed and asked God how she could better teach her students. She says she thought of having collegians as guest speakers. Halsmer interjects, "That was the same time we were praying." He recounted that his faculty wanted to speak at area schools as a means of recruitment and community interaction.
Providentially, Halsmer received a call from Thomas. When he relayed the information to his Special Topics class, a new and popular apologetics course for engineering juniors and seniors, Francis and McCready jumped at the chance to present. That was all it took to initiate this series of lectures, which also involved Halsmer's Statics class.
The collaboration included multiple benefits. In addition to serving a community need, guest lecture opportunities challenge ORU students to self-educate. "Aaron and Nate studied this all on their own," Halsmer said about their extracurricular launch into astronomy. Plus, the seniors sharpened public speaking skills they'd originally acquired in Oral Communications 101. McCready explained, "I took the course five semesters ago and tried immediately to integrate the lessons into my natural style and approach to presentation." Like the ones at TSAS.
Months after the presentations, Thomas says she still hears enthusiastic questions and comments from her students about the collegians and their university. "Mostly, when will they be coming back, when will [her students] get to go to ORU, how interesting the presentations were, and, of course, the girls have mentioned how cute [the lecturers] are."
For more about ORU's engineering, physics, and physical science department, click here.
