Greetings,
Welcome to my website! This site contains a variety of information about me, the courses I teach, the things that interest me, and many things that may interest you. I've been teaching physics and astronomy at Oakton Community College since 1999. My research includes student understanding of relativity and quantum mechanics, and (when I have time) dimensional perturbation theory as applied to higher angular momentum states of the helium atom. I enjoy astrophotography, playing racquetball, and building animations and simulations with Mathematica.
I received a bachelor of science degree in physics, mathematics and chemistry from Beloit College and a master's degree and PhD in physics from the University of Oklahoma. Through the influence of great teachers I developed a desire to teach. I never seem to be satisfied with my approach to teaching; there always seems to be a better way to explain something. Lately I've been working on developing interactive animations and simulations using Mathematica to demonstrate concepts in physics and mathematics. Some of these projects can be played with using the Simulations link above. Other projects that I am either currently working on, or will start soon include providing solutions to physics and mathematics problems using a device called LiveScribe, or possibly something similar. This device records your pen-strokes along with your voice. Students can play the resulting document and watch you work out the solution as they hear you explain it.
Much of my site is still under construction, but let me know
what you think so far ...
John Carzoli