The case-study teaching method has a long history (starting at least with Socrates), and wide current use in business schools, medical schools, law schools, and a variety of other disciplines. However, relatively little use is made of it in the physical sciences, specifically in physics or astronomy. The case-study method should be considered by physics faculty as part of the effort to transition the teaching of college physics from the traditional frontal-lecture format to other formats that enhance active student participation. In this paper we endeavor to interest physics instructors in the case-study method, and hope that it would also serve as a call for more instructors to produce cases that they use in their own classes and that can also be adopted by other instructors.
To meet National Standards recommended by the National Research Council for high school physics, inservice teachers must be integrated into the physics community. They must be empowered by access to resources of the physics community and by sustained support for their professional development. To that end, university and college physics departments must assume an essential role in establishing and maintaining the necessary local infrastructure. Nevertheless, this can be done within their current systems at negligible cost by forming partnerships with local alliances of inservice teachers. Prac…
Quantum physics is considered as one of the most remarkable discoveries of contemporary physics grown during previous century and gradually manifested to the scientific world such as inventions of laser, the transistor, the electron microscope, and semiconductor. Teaching of physical science has been stressed in the National Science Education Standards (NSES) from level K-12 as well as many state science standards (Gossard, 2000). The objectives of the current study are to investigate prospective elucidation of the most common learning difficulties, insufficient teaching strategies and other s…
Despite the negative stereotypes still overshadowing community colleges, scores of freshmen nationwide are deliberately beginning their college careers at these institutions, and the numbers are increasing more than twice as fast as those of four-year schools. Approximately 300,000 of these students take introductory astronomy each year as the last formal exposure to science most of them will ever have, and at least one-third of these students do so at a community or two-year college. The importance of investing in and devoting resources and training to serve this population - everyone, demogr…
The CCD Modeling Activity was designed to supplement the curriculum of the Electrical and Computing Engineering Technology program at the Maui Community College. The activity was designed to help learners understand how a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) works. A team of visiting graduate students was invited to teach an activity through the Teaching and Curriculum Collaborative (TeCC) as part of the Center for Adaptive Optics/Institute for Science and Engineer Educators Professional Development Program. One of the primary goals was to have students gain an understanding of the function of a CCD by…
During recent collaboration with colleagues to revise our institution's general-education curriculum, I encountered many perceptions of what we mean by the Natural Sciences. I was surprised to find that perceptions of scientific pedagogy varied significantly among the scientific disciplines, especially concerning issues of philosophy of science and epistemology, manifested in the approaches to teaching theoretical concepts and their development. These realizations suggest that Physics occupies a singular role in college curricula, introducing students, even at the introductory level, to the ac…
We occasionally include projects in our learner-centered introductory astronomy college course to enable non-science major students explore some astronomical concepts in more detail than otherwise. Such projects also highlight ongoing or upcoming astronomical events. We hope that students will feel more interested in astronomy through projects tied to astronomical events. In Spring 2012, we offered short essays focused on eclipses, transits and occultations to promote the rare transit of Venus that occurred on June 5th, 2012. We asked students to write two short essays from three that were off…
This paper describes the development of a new university physics course designed to integrate physics, education, research, and community partnerships. The coordinated system of activities links the new course to local community efforts in pre-college education, university education, university outreach, and research on teaching and learning. As documented both by gains on conceptual surveys and by qualitative analyses of field-notes and audiotapes of class, the course facilitates student learning of physics, as well as student mastery of theories and practices of teaching and learning physics…
Authentic research as a method of teaching science is gaining popularity in high schools and colleges. To make this research experience most efficient, students need adequate preparation in traditional science courses. Existing materials available for inquiry-based teaching methods are not intended to prepare a student for independent research. We discuss principles for organization of laboratory classes with this goal in mind and provide examples that we have implemented for algebra-based physics, calculus-based physics, and honors chemistry for high school students.
A central goal of the Learning Assistant (LA) model is to improve students' learning of science through the transformation of instructor practices. There is minimal existing research on the impact of college physics instructor experiences on their effectiveness. To investigate the association between college introductory physics instructors' experiences with and without LAs and student learning, we drew on data from the Learning About STEM Student Outcomes (LASSO) database. The LASSO database provided us with student-level data (concept inventory scores and demographic data) for 4,365 students…
The mindset literature is a longstanding area of psychological research focused on beliefs about intelligence, response to challenge, and goals for learning (Dweck, 2000). However, the mindset literature's applicability to the context of college physics has not been widely studied. In this paper we narrow our focus toward students' descriptions of their responses to challenge in college physics. We ask the research questions, "can we see responses to challenge in college physics that resemble that of the mindset literature?" and "how do students express evidence of challenge and to what extent…
Modern students encounter big, messy data sets long before setting foot in our classrooms. Many of our students need to develop skills in exploratory data analysis and multivariate analysis techniques for their jobs after college, but these topics are not covered in introductory statistics courses. This case study describes my experience in designing and teaching a course on multivariate data analysis with no pre-requisites, using real data, active learning, and other activities to help students tackle the material.
Quantum field theory has formed the conceptual framework of most of physics for more than sixty years. It incorporates a complete revision of our conception of the nature of matter and existence itself. Yet it is rarely taught, or even mentioned, in introductory physics---from high school, college, and university survey courses through upper-division "modern physics" courses. This omission is not necessary: This paper describes an approach through which the fundamental concepts and consequent insights of quantum field theory can be grasped, building upon familiar notions from classical and qua…
Teaching the noncommutativity of the product of matrices to high school or college level students is a difficult task when approached from a purely formal perspective. The aim of this paper is to present a simple experimental activity for teaching the noncommutativity of the matrix product, based on the Jones calculus, a mathematical formalism for describing polarised light by means of matrices and vectors. This activity can also be useful to introduce students to the use of matrices in physics, and to illustrate how abstract mathematics can become a powerful tool to help us explain and descri…
Barriers to women's education and employment in Europe and the U.S. in the nineteenth century made it unlikely that any women would be among the few physicists whose ideas are taught in high school and college courses. This paper explores the social settings in which three influential physicists worked--James Clerk Maxwell, Robert Millikan, and Albert Einstein--to better understand the limited opportunities available to women. By acknowledging and explaining why there weren't more women among these founding physicists, instructors may help students understand the barriers that still exist and …
Students' attitudes and approaches to problem solving in physics can greatly impact their actual problem solving practices and also influence their motivation to learn and ultimately the development of expertise. We developed and validated an attitudes and approaches to problem solving (AAPS) survey and administered it to students in the introductory physics courses in a typical large research university in the US. Here, we discuss the development and validation of the survey and analysis of the student responses to the survey questions in introductory physics courses. The introductory physics…
A brief account of some recent controversies about the teaching and learning of physics is presented. A shorter version of this outcome was accepted by The Physics Teacher, but publication is still pending.
The University of Maryland Physics Education Research Group (UMd-PERG) carried out a five-year research project to rethink, observe, and reform introductory algebra-based (college) physics. This class is one of the Maryland Physics Department's large service courses, serving primarily life-science majors. After consultation with biologists, we re-focused the class on helping the students learn to think scientifically -- to build coherence, think in terms of mechanism, and to follow the implications of assumptions. We designed the course to tap into students' productive conceptual and epistemol…
This article examines trends in the development of methodical teaching of physics in high school the Republic of Kazakhstan with the information of the learning process. The article indicates the value of methodical teaching of physics in high school as one of the factors of increasing the level of education students, the formation of professional competence.
We show how builtin sensors in mobile devices can be used as portable laboratories at the service of teaching experimental sciences, especially physics, in the last years of high school and first years of university. We describe experiments that previously required expensive apparatus or were not feasible in teaching laboratories. Finally, we discuss some perspectives about the use of sensors in the physics teaching.
We investigated the intersectional nature of race/racism and gender/sexism in broad scale inequities in physics student learning using a critical quantitative intersectionality. To provide transparency and create a nuanced picture of learning, we problematized the measurement of equity by using two competing operationalizations of equity: Equity of Individuality and Equality of Learning. These two models led to conflicting conclusions. The analyses used hierarchical linear models to examine student's conceptual learning as measured by gains in scores on research-based assessments administered …
In view of the difficulties encountered in science teaching, specifically in the teaching of physics, studies aim to develop methodologies that help science teaching. In this context, the present work proposes the use of the Arduino platform as a methodological tool to improve the teaching of physics in high school. For this purpose, the objective of the work was to produce physics experiments with the aid of Arduino that can be used in the classroom and thus we investigated that the experiments provided students with a dynamic and close to ideal class in physics teaching. For the development …
Much work in physics education research (PER) characterizes faculty teaching practice in terms of whether faculty use specific named PER-based teaching methods, either with fidelity or with adaptation; we call this research paradigm the "teaching-method-centered paradigm." However, most faculty do not frame their teaching in terms of which particular named methods they use, but rather in terms of their own ideas and values, suggesting that the teaching-method-centered paradigm misses key features of faculty teaching. These key features include the productive ideas that faculty have about stude…
Should teachers concentrate on critical thinking, estimation, measurement, and graphing rather than college-clone algorithmic physics in grades K--12? Thus far physics education research offers little substantive guidance. Mathematics education research addressed the mathematics analogue of this question in the 1930's. Students in Manchester, New Hampshire were not subjected to arithmetic algorithms until grade 6. In earlier grades they read, invented, and discussed stories and problems; estimated lengths, heights, and areas; and enjoyed finding and interpreting numbers relevant to their lives…
We propose discussions and hands-on activities for GCSE and A-level students, covering a fundamental aspect of nuclear physics: the concept of bond and the energy released (absorbed) when a bond is created (broken). This is the first of the series of papers named "A teaching guide of nuclear physics", whose main goal is to provide teaching tools and ideas to GCSE and A-level teachers, within a consistent and complete curriculum.
The papeer presents results of "non-traditional" teaching of basic course of Physics in the first year of study at the Technical University in Zvolen, specifically teaching via interactive method based on an increased focus on problem tasks and experiments. This paper presents also research results of the use of the given method in conditions of Slovak universities and its comparision with traditional methods.
This paper presents some ideas which might assist teachers incorporating special relativity into an introductory physics curriculum. One can define the proper-time/velocity pair, as well as the coordinate-time/velocity pair, of a traveler using only distances measured with respect to a single ``map'' frame. When this is done, the relativistic equations for momentum, energy, constant acceleration, and force take on forms strikingly similar to their Newtonian counterparts. Thus high-school and college students not ready for Lorentz transforms may solve relativistic versions of any single-frame N…
Significant obstacles prevent large, university-level, introductory physics courses from effectively teaching problem-solving skills. We describe our program for integrating three internet-based "teaching-while-quizzing" tools to address two of these barriers: students' poor math skills and instructors' insufficient grading recourses. We outline our system of math remediation, homework and after-homework quizzes, and mini-practice exams, and demonstrate how it can be incorporated into courses with modest instructor effort.
This Resource Letter provides a guide to the literature on teaching experimental physics using sensors in tablets, smartphones, and some specialized devices. After a general discussion of the hardware (sensors) and the software (apps), we present resources for experiments using mobile-device sensors in many areas of physics education: mechanics, oscillations and waves, optics, electromagnetism, matter, modern physics, and astronomy.
The COVID-19 impacted the teaching; indeed, both schools and universities had to shift from face-to-face to distance teaching organizing on-line lectures. Thanks to easily accessible materials, smartphones physics apps, on-line toolsand devices, it's possible to perform laboratory practice even in this period. In this paper, a method to measure the gravitational acceleration by oscillation of a simple pendulum, using Arduino board, is presented.
Exploring the experiences of undergraduate physics students taking a 'Teaching Physics in School' module and the effects on their intentions to become a secondary physics teacher
A recent paper by Salehi et al. claims that the differences found between major demographic groups on scores in introductory college physics tests are due to differences in pre-college preparation. No evidence is produced, however, to show that preparation differences are more causally important than any other differences. In one case, the male/female difference, the paper actually provides evidence that preparation gaps are unimportant.
We present the formulation and development of the unique physics program at Manhattanville College. By addressing challenges faced by small physics departments in liberal arts colleges, such as the lack of critical mass, lack of significant funding, and under-staffing, we share our efforts and experiences in revitalization of the program into one that is small but of rigor and vitality, with unique features that take advantage of the resources available, including adoption of computer technology in instructional laboratory, collaborations with nearby institutions, and joint efforts with collea…
One of the difficulties related to the COVID-19 pandemic is the shifting from face-to-face to distance teaching. Both schools and universities had suddenly to organize on-line lectures. To perform laboratory practice even in this period, easily accessible materials, smartphones physics apps, on-line tools and devices can be used. In this paper a method to measure the gravitational acceleration studying the free falling body using Arduino board is presented.
The Einstein-First project approaches the teaching of Einsteinian physics through the use of physical models and analogies. This paper presents an approach to the teaching of quantum physics which begins by emphasising the particle-nature of light through the use of toy projectiles to represent photons. This allows key concepts including the spacing between photons, and photon momentum to be introduced. This in-turn allows an intuitive understanding of the uncertainty principle. We present optical interference in the context of individual photons, using actual videos showing the development of…
In this paper we propose strategies and methodologies of teaching topics in high school physics, through a show of Educational Robotics. The Exhibition was part of a set of actions promoted by a brazilian government program of incentive for teaching activities (PIBID) and whose primary focus is the training of teachers, improvement of teaching in public schools, dissemination of science and formation of new scientists and researchers. By means of workshops, banners and prototyping of robotics, we are able to create a connection between the study areas and their surrounding, making learning mea…
Recruiting and retaining highly qualified physics and physical science teachers is critical for maintaining America's global competitiveness. Unfortunately, only one third of the high school teachers in physics have a degree in physics and an even smaller number of physical science teachers in middle school have a good grasp of the scientific content they teach. Moreover, teachers often lack adequate pedagogical content knowledge to teach science effectively. Here, we discuss the development, implementation, and assessment of a course for science and engineering undergraduates designed to incr…
This is a report of a course on modern physics designed and taught to undergraduate science and engineering students in the Spring of 2013. The course, meant for freshmen, attempts to integrate statistical mechanics into non-classical physics and introduces some novel teaching ideas such as the field approach in contrast to typical wave and particle viewpoints traditionally covered in usual textbooks. The various modern applications of quantum theory in realizing practical devices are recounted in a way that is amenable to beginners. Especially, we describe the inclusion of visually appealing …
Physics can be seen as a conceptual approach to scientific problems, a method for discovery, but teaching this aspect of our discipline can be a challenge. We report on a first-time remote teaching experience for a computational physics third-year physics laboratory class taught in the first part of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic (March-May 2020). To convey a ``physics of data" approach to data analysis and data-driven physical modeling we used interdisciplinary data sources, with an openended ``COVID-19 data challenge" project as the core of the course. COVID-19 epidemiological data provided an i…
Effects of Physics Teaching Materials on Student Critical Thinking and Creative Thinking Skills: A Meta-Analysis
Master’s Program in Physics Education, FMIPA, Universitas Negeri Padang（帕德大学FMIPA物理教育硕士项目）；Physics Department, FMIPA, Universitas Negeri Padang（帕德大学FMIPA物理系）；Electrical Engineering Department, FT, Universitas Negeri Padang（帕德大学FT电气工程系）
We discuss several ways of illustrating fundamental concepts in statistical and thermal physics by considering various models and algorithms. We emphasize the importance of replacing students' incomplete mental images by models that are physically accurate. In some cases it is sufficient to discuss the results of an algorithm or the behavior of a model rather than having students write a program.
We present an investigation of game-like simulations for physics teaching. We report on the effectiveness of the interactive simulation "Real Time Relativity" for learning special relativity. We argue that the simulation not only enhances traditional learning, but also enables new types of learning that challenge the traditional curriculum. The lessons drawn from this work are being applied to the development of a simulation for enhancing the learning of quantum mechanics.
Dimensional analysis is a simple qualitative method for determining essential connections between physical quantities. It is applicable to a multitude of physics problems, many of which canbe introduced early on in a university physics curriculum. Despite the relative simplicity of theapproach, it is rarely included in physics curricula. Here, we apply dimensional analysis to find the radiated power from an electric dipole. Employing dimensional analysis, we demonstrate a straightforward way to derive the latter without the need for complex mathematical treatments.
As the frontiers of biology become increasingly interdisciplinary, the physics education community has engaged in ongoing efforts to make physics classes more relevant to life sciences majors. These efforts are complicated by the many apparent differences between these fields, including the types of systems that each studies, the behavior of those systems, the kinds of measurements that each makes, and the role of mathematics in each field. Nonetheless, physics and biology are both sciences that rely on observations and measurements to construct models of the natural world. In the present theo…
Commercial video games are increasingly using sophisticated physics simulations to create a more immersive experience for players. This also makes them a powerful tool for engaging students in learning physics. We provide some examples to show how commercial off-the-shelf games can be used to teach specific topics in introductory undergraduate physics. The examples are selected from a course taught predominantly through the medium of commercial video games.
Highly successful students, as measured by grades and by scores on the Force Concept Inventory, still struggle with fundamental concepts in mathematics and physics. These difficulties, which turn physics into parrot learning and include confusing velocity and acceleration or being unable to reason with graphs, are revealed by problems requiring estimation and conceptual reasoning. I discuss these problems, the difficulties that they reveal, and suggest possible remedies.
The Einstein-First project aims to change the paradigm of school science teaching through the introduction of modern Einsteinian concepts of space and time, gravity and quanta at an early age. These concepts are rarely taught to school students despite their central importance to modern science and technology. The key to implementing the Einstein-First curriculum is the development of appropriate models and analogies. This paper is the first part of a three-paper series. It presents the conceptual foundation of our approach, based on simple physical models and analogies, followed by a detailed…
The LA Program at Oregon State University began in 2014 in one department as an effort to provide support for the implementation of active learning in large enrollment Biology courses. Since its start, the program has spread to include courses in five out of seven departments in the College of Science and four out of six departments in the College of Engineering. At OSU, we identified specific course logistics and educational goals in the College of Engineering and developed an adapted engineering LA Program, which has a different recruiting procedure and pedagogy professional development usin…
Elementary particle physics is gradually implemented into science curricula at high school level. However, common presentations on educational, semi-technical or popular level contain or support severe misconceptions. We discuss in particular the notion of `particle', the interaction between them and the use of Feynman diagrams. In many cases the true novelty of particle physics (i.e. quantum field theory) is largely ignored. We also suggest reasons for this widespread distortions of particle physics in popular accounts.
A flipped classroom was introduced in pre-service education in order to promote MM and the quality of their use in the teaching and learning process in laboratory. The course, Physics Lab Didactics, promoted active learning through the direct experience of young teachers. The flipped classroom approach was presented and discussed with the aim of clarifying the teaching process and in-training teachers were invited to explore how to implement this methodology in a class after their experience. Different open source or free software were proposed (Audacity, Algodoo, GeoGebra and Tracker) with so…
