I'm teaching a seven-week course titled "Teaching Engineering" at WPI every Thursday.  The core idea is to start by playing around with examples and then generalize to a law or equation.  (Teaching is usually done in the opposite order.)   In life, we learn by discovery—it's natural and enjoyable.  It's faster to teach by simply presenting the final result (the generalization), but it robs the student of the essence of learning.  I wrote a couple  papers on this idea after I taught the course the first time a year ago.
    For the past two days we've been working in the front yard. I got grass seed spread, raked in, and rolled before the rain scheduled for the next few days.  Lynn started putting in the 60 plants she bought at wholesale.  She put a gorgeous peony bloom in a small vase.  A small spider built a web in the begonia hanging on the front porch.

Feature: Photos of ice I shot on a foray with Peter Dreyer a couple years ago.  More art photos by Lynn and me.

Quote for the Day: "My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure." - Lincoln