This is the start of my 23rd year at Valpo; today's students were not born when I started teaching here in 1977! And, this was not my first teaching position; it followed 10 years at another college. So, do the arithmetic... There is a student in the freshman class whose parents were both students of mine in college. Actually, I am not feeling old today, but rather I do have a perspective; many things have changed. Let me note a few more recently.

• There are 22 computers in our labs. The PC's are 300 MHz and up - fast enough for whatever we do there.
• We use a video camera to collect data in our introductory labs, capture the video in a computer file, and then analyze the motion frame-by-frame (0.0333 sec/frame). The analysis is done by the student in their computer.
• Our multichannel analyzers are no longer stand-alone systems. (If you are old enough you will remember plotting the spectra by hand!) They are all now in fast PC's - a $3,000 board in the PC which houses the MCA. Impressive resources!
• "Graph your data as you are collecting it" I would admonish - often to "deaf" ears. Now, they do it! They set up a spreadsheet, pick the columns and create a graph so that as the data points are entered as they are collected they also show up automatically in the graph! Finally!!
• Students no longer collect transparancies and markers from me to prepare their colloquium talks; they all use MS PowerPoint for their presentations.
• More of our classrooms are outfitted with projection equipment for computer, video, and laserdisk presentations.
• Our faculty are using MS PowerPoint to assist their classroom presentations; some use it every day.
• Check our www page for course information -- especially PHYS-111 and ASTR-101.

It is actually very exciting to see it develop. In fact, it doesn't make me feel old -- it helps to keep me "young". If you haven't been back here to have a look around, please do so. You would be pleasantly surprised!

As always, I look forward to hearing from you. Just "click" below.

With warm regards,

Don

donald.koetke@valpo.edu