Robert "Bud" Talbot, PhDI’m a science educator, teacher, and researcher. More specifically, I am an Associate Professor of science education at the University of Colorado Denver in the School of Education and Human Development. I currently teach pre-service and in-service science teachers, undergraduate peer Learning Assistants (LAs), and doctoral students. My research focuses on peer learning support in undergraduate science courses across the disciplines, and my particular interest is in physics education research (PER). Prior to entering academia, I taught science in grades 7-12 for seven years in US public schools, primarily physics in 11th and 12th grade.
Runner | tele skier | Father of twin girls | amateur radio operator W0RMT | science geek |
International Travel is Interesting During a Pandemic My wife has trained my daughters and I well in the use of the word “interesting.” She tells us that it is what to say when you don’t know what else to say, or when you don’t necessarily want to call something out as good or bad. Maybe […]
I often take the daily things for granted at home. I think we all do. Stuff like cooking, laundry, sleeping, shopping, getting around town, etc. One of the things I was really looking forward to on sabbatical was re-discovering these daily things in a different context. We’re starting to figure that out, so I feel […]
Like many people, I want to learn and use some new skills while on sabbatical. One of those skills on my list is writing in Markdown. According to the original developer John Gruber, Markdown is both a plain text formatting syntax and a software tool. I’ve been using Markdown for quite some time in R […]
How much stuff does a family of four need to take for 6 months in Australia? “Need” is the operative word here. Let’s just say that we didn’t want to buy anything we already had, and we had a BIG baggage allowance: 2 x 23 kg checked bags + 1 carry-on + 1 “personal” item […]
Well, the sabbatical has finally started. I’ve sent my first “I can’t attend that meeting because I’m on sabbatical” email (which felt great) and I’m getting ready to invoke the out-of-office email autoreply. Two years of planning have set us up for this great adventure. It is a great privilege to have a paid sabbatical, […]
Collaboration Collaborative research work is very common in some academic fields. In science education (my field), all of my projects are collaborative at small or large scales. For example, I may collaborate with a student on a small project, like the student’s dissertation research. Often, I am part of a large project team that spans […]
TL;DR I created a graphic syllabus. The final product is cool, but it took a lot of time. I’d do it again. It was fun. So with a new semester approaching, I decided it was time to do a better job with my course syllabus. And having been inspired by some of my colleagues, including […]
Updated Feb 2020 Current Stein, J. (2019). In Defense of Elitism: Why I’m Better Than You and You are Better Than Someone Who Didn’t Buy This Book. Grand Central Publishing. Carroll, S. (2019). Something deeply hidden: quantum worlds and the emergence of spacetime. Dutton. Power, S. (2019). The Education of an Idealist. Harper Collins UK. […]
Well, it’s been a long time coming, but I needed a new professional website. Hence the development of www.bud-t.com Special thanks to the great tech folks in the CU Denver School of Education and Human Development who set this up for me (especially Matt M.). And while I won’t promise to post engaging and meaningful blog content every […]