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Dr. Mar is the founding director of the Stony Brook Philosophy Department Logic Lab.  In this lab faculty use games and puzzles, robots, and logic programs to teach logical and critical thinking and to create a community in which students can meet and get excited about logic and philosophy outside the classroom.  Games encourage students to form learning communities to master the formal techniques of reasoning and to play games that develop logical skills in teams (e.g. Siamese chess or bug house, go, and three or four dimensional tic-tac-toe).  Gary uses recreational logic puzzles (e.g., manipulatives such as the Rubic’s Cube) to illustrate logical concepts such as the concept of an algorithm for problem solving.  Dr. Mar uses pedagogical strategies to reduce stress around tests—such as having practice exercises a few days in advance of the official examination, creating “cheat sheets”, and collaborative peer tutoring.  One advantage of this approach which makes use of “retrospective learning” is that often the time after cramming for an examination is when the unconscious mind can process the material and come to an ‘aha!” moment when the material makes sense as a coherent and integrated unit of knowledge.

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