John Rosendahl earned his B.S. degree in Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1978 and his M.S. degree in Physics from the University of California, Irvine in 1992. He came to UCI in 1987 and has been a lecturer since 1991. In 1995 he received the UCI Physical Sciences Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Teaching Award.

Teaching: Introductory courses for physical science and engineering students, the graduate seminar in physics teaching, and direction of the Teaching Laboratory and Lecture Demonstration Programs.

research summary
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I have a strong interest in understanding how physics is learned and consequently in developing new methods for its instruction . I rely heavily on lecture demonstrations , conceptual problem solving, and small group discussions to complement the traditional mathematical approach. An example of a popular demonstration involves sandwiching myself between two beds of nails, having a heavy brick placed upon the bed resting on my chest, and then having the brick shattered with a blow from a sledgehammer. The relative safety of this demonstration is then explicitly analyzed in terms of the momentum and energy conservation of a nearly inelastic collision.

Lecture demonstrations are also used extensively in annual shows for Orange County elementary schools. Bill Heidbrink and I have used large scale, hands-on apparatus to introduce thousands of children to the wonders of physics.

In 1995, I developed and taught the Seminar in Teaching Physics, which is a required course for all our first year teaching assistants. The goal of the course is to help graduate students become more successful teachers as well as to develop the communication skills necessary in a professional environment.

My research has involved the analysis of the avalanches occurring on real sandpiles as individual grains are added on top. Remarkably , the dynamics of these avalanches appears to be identical to the slippage of model earthquake faults and may be useful in the forecasting of major earthquakes.

representative publications
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:: Persistent Self-Organization of Sandpiles, J. Rosendahl, M. Vekic, and J. Kelley, Phys. Rev. E 47,1401 (1993).

:: Predictability of Large Avalanches on a Sandpile, J. Rosendahl, M. Vekic, and J. E. Rutledge, Phys. Rev.
   Letters 73, 537( 1994).