Welcome to my homepage!
My name is Tony Zable and I am a full-time physics instructor at PCC, as well as the Faculty Co-Chair for the Physics Department at PCC. During the SARS-CoV-2 shutdown, by necessity, I was compelled to teach general physics via remote instruction, both lecture and lab sessions. As with many of colleagues, even though the shutdown, I still teach many classes using the remote modality. Although I am most comfortable in the physical classroom, I have to adapted the remote teaching. However, I suspect that will inevitably transition back to on-campus classes. The prospect fills me with both excitement and maybe some regret. I ponder what will become of the tremendous amount of material I have developed specifically for remote physics classes. Having invested so much passion and energy into developing a body of online learning materials, it would be disappointing for those those efforts to be relegated to the dark corners of my cloud drive, never to again see the light of day. My current inspiration is to identify and establish best practices for integrating this synchronous digital content into the face-to-face classroom setting, in a way that will further promote effective student learning in an increasingly diverse and distracted population of learners.
Professional Background:
Located at Cascade Campus, I’m a Physics Instructor and the Faculty Department Chair for Physics. I regularly serve as a manuscript peer-reviewer for The Physics Teacher and occasionally publish a paper or two. Although my background was an experimental biophysicist, my current research interest is physics education and the development of novel ways to teach physics and learn physics. At various stages of my career, I have been an NIH Post-Doctoral Fellow, Transportation Consultant, QA/Process Engineer, and Project Manager. I have always enjoyed confronting new professional challenges. Now, for the time being, I wear a gamer headset while awkwardly streaming remote physics classes on Zoom, whilst continuing to explore ways to improve class presentation and student learning of physics in the online setting.
Education:
BS, Physics/Honors, Portland State University, 1991
MS, Physics, Portland State University, 1996
PhD, Physics/Honors, Portland State University, 1996
Postdoctoral Fellow, Vollum Institute, Oregon Health Sciences University, 1997-98
Professional Links
Contact Info:
Office: 218A Jackson Hall, Cascade Campus
Zoom: https://portlandcc.zoom.us/my/drtonyz
Google Meet: azable@pcc.edu
Office Phone: 971-722-5040