Phone: (760) 757-2121 ext. 6407
email: myeager@miracosta.edu
Instant Message (for both AOL Instant Message and Yahoo Messenger): MCCChemProf
Office: Room 3206, Oceanside Campus
On the outside of Building 3200, down the ramp to the left of room 3205.
Office Hours, Fall 2008:
Monday and Wednesday: 12:30 to 1:00 PM
Tuesday: 3:00 to 4:00 PM
Other meeting times are available by appointment--PLEASE, feel free to call or e-mail your request for an appointment. I will do everything I can to accomodate your request.
Phsn 106--Energy, Motion and Matter (Physics and Chemistry)
Section #1728
Monday & Wednesday 10:30 to 11:45 AM
Room 4809, Oceanside Campus
Phsn 101--Fundamentals of Physical Science (Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy and Earth Science)
Section #1727
Monday & Wednesday 1:30 to 3:05 PM
Room 3606, Oceanside Campus
Begins September 8 ("Late Start")
Chem 111--General Chemistry 2
Section #2120
Tuesday and Thursday
Classroom: 10:30 - 11:45 AM, room 3101
Laboratory: 12:00 - 2:50 PM, room 4501
Oceanside Campus
TBA--It will include one section of PHSN 106, and one section of CHEM 110
The two most important characteristics a scientist must have are a true sense of Wonder, and profound, but not cynical, Skepticism. Science is the method we humans use to try to figure out how the universe works, and without both wonder and skepticism, Science fails. Education in chemistry (and in the other sciences) has often simply presented the knowledge that has been built through science, leaving out all of the wonder and most of the skepticism that goes into the process of Science.
Science education should employ and encourage both Wonder and Skepticism, just as it should demonstrate and elucidate concepts and skills. The process of science should be used to teach science, as well as being a subject of science education. That is why I use an inquiry based approach wherever I can. Chemistry, as a science, is based on experiment. It should be taught in a hands-on manner, where students learn not just by reading and listening, not just by carrying out "cookbook" laboratory exercises, but by designing and performing their own experiments.
Science is a uniquely human endeavor, and I feel that it is very important for students to feel a connection to the humanness of science, to its history and its process. Science is not just a huge collection of facts, it is an ever-evolving picture of the universe, as seen through human eyes. It is also the many men and women who have contributed, and who continue contributing, to this picture.
Richard Feynman, one of the greatest physicists of our time, wrote:
"The principle of science, the definition, almost, is the following: The test of all knowledge is experiment. Experiment is the sole judge of scientific 'truth.' But what is the source of knowledge? Where do these laws come from? Experiment, itself, helps to produce these laws, in the sense that it gives us hints. But also needed is imagination to create from these hints the great generalizations--to guess at the wonderful, simple, but very strange patterns beneath them all, and then to experiment to check again whether we have made the right guess."
I am very enthusastic about science in general, and about chemistry in particular. If I can use my own enthusiasm for chemistry to ignite my students' sense of wonder, and that this leads them to a greater interest in, and a better working knowledge of the chemistry and science they are learning, then I have been successful.
Education
University of Puget Sound, 1979 - 1981
Principia College, 1981 - 1982:
B. S. in Chemistry, 1982
University of Washington, 1983 - 1984
Washington University in St. Louis, 1984 - 1986:
A. M. in Inorganic Chemistry, 1985 (Master of Arts)
Stanford University, 1989 - 1992
Teaching Positions
Principia College, 1985 - 1989
MiraCosta College, 1992 - present
