COOS BAY, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College invites the community to join us on Friday, March 6, 2026, at 6:00 pm, for “Confessions of a former lecturer: 10 years after flipping my classroom” with KC Walsh, Teaching Professor Department of Physics, Oregon State University. This is a free event; all ages are welcome.
Coos County residents can join us in-person in the Umpqua Hall lecture room (room 184) on the Coos Campus, 1988 Newmark Ave., Coos Bay.
Curry County residents can join us for a watch party in the Community Room on the Curry Campus, 96082 Lone Ranch Parkway, Brookings.
For those not able to attend in person the lecture will be streamed live on the College’s YouTube channel at: www.youtube.com/@southwesternOR/streams.
About the Lecture:
Introductory Physics at Oregon State University has gone through a tremendous transformation over the past 10 years. From transitioning to active engagement lectures, to building open education resources, to going online pre-pandemic, to navigating genAI, the landscape looks entirely different now. Professor Walsh will share the ten most valuable lessons he has learned during this time and talk a little about the challenges we now face.
About the Presenter:
From Professor Walsh: “I consider myself equal part educator and education researcher. It was not always this way. I graduated with my PhD in Physics studying condensed matter theory. As a TA in graduate school, I fell in love with teaching. Upon graduation I decided to focus on it as it felt more fulfilling than research. After years of teaching, I realized that I still possessed an innate curiosity to study the world and was looking for a creative outlet. In 2015 I decided it was time to make a huge curricular change with my class – I was going to completely flip the classroom – and that presented a unique opportunity to study the change. I was very concerned that students would not watch the required “pre-lecture” videos before class, which free up time for problem solving and critical thinking in class. That year I got my first grant where I received modest funds to create a data collection tool to study students’ engagement with pre-lecture videos and reading. The following year a unique opportunity arose in the COS to perform Action Research with the Enhancing STEM (ESTEME) Group. The spark from that initial grant, combined with a new community based around evidence-based instructional practices (EBIPs) and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), paved a clear path for sustained growth in both the quality of my teaching, and the expansion of my career into research. Six years later I’ve had 4 research fellowships, received 8 grants, built a nationally recognized quantitative physics education research group, completely redesigned introductory physics to adhere to modern EBIPs, designed and implemented a completely innovative and highly successful Ecampus intro physics sequence, and won the highest teaching award for faculty in their first 10 years at OSU. All of this was possible because of the agency I received being part of a community centered on EBIPs and SoTL.”
For more information about the lecture series contact Dr. Aaron Coyner, Associate Professor, Physics and Engineering at aaron.coyner@socc.edu or 541-888-7244.
For more information on upcoming lectures contact Cassie Coyner, STEAM Pathways Coordinator, at 541-888-7416, or cassie.coyner@socc.edu .
To learn more about STEM degrees at Southwestern visit: https://www.socc.edu/programs-classes/stem/.
