Since 1993, the University of Massachusetts Physics Education Research Group (UMPERG) has developed curriculum and pedagogic techniques for use with classroom communication systems (CCSs) and has researched the effectiveness of CCS-based teaching. This bulletin describes how CCSs can influence "interactive pedagogy" and fundamentally transform the learning process. It includes advice drawn from lessons learned through a decade of experience.
Most STEM students experience the introductory physics sequence in large-enrollment (N $\gtrsim$ 100 students) classrooms, led by one lecturer and supported by a few teaching assistants. This work describes methods and principles we used to create an effective "flipped classroom" in large- enrollment introductory physics courses by replacing a majority of traditional lecture time with in-class student-driven activity worksheets. In this work, we compare student learning in courses taught by the authors with the flipped classroom pedagogy versus a more traditional pedagogy. By comparing identic…
Flipped classroom approach has gained attention for educational practitioners and researchers in recent years. In contrast with traditional classroom, in flipped classroom, students gather basic knowledge out of class, so that class time can be used by them to engage in active learning experience. While rich body of research has been investigated the effectiveness of flipped classroom, yet little is known about student's perspective towards the implementation of flipped classroom, especially for non-mathematics students that enroll statistics course. This study aims to describe pre-service Eng…
Transforming High School Physics with Modeling and Computation
Engage to Excel（PCAST）报告，国家研究委员会的K-12科学教育框架以及下一代科学标准都呼吁将物理课堂转变为教学生真正科学实践的环境。这项工作描述了一个这样的尝试，以改变高中物理课堂的早期阶段。具体而言，一系列的模型构建和计算建模练习试点在九年级物理第一教室。学生使用的计算进行了评估，使用监考编程作业，学生通过高级编程环境（VPython）制作并讨论了运动中的棒球的计算模型。学生对计算及其与力学的联系的看法是通过一篇书面文章和一系列有声思维访谈来评估的。这项初步研究显示了计算的能力，连接科学实践的高中科学课堂。
The twenty-first century is the century of encounter of the different races, nations, cultures, religions and customs. In the twenty-first century, man is more and more exposed to various influences that leave a trace on the entire sphere of his social life, including education. Given that education systems play one of the key roles in the formation of both physically and morally healthy communities, it is of an enormous importance to analyze the phenomenon of a classroom composed of culturally diverse students.
With the advent of research-grade robotic telescopes (and professional archives) coupled with the wide availability of the Internet in schools, getting high-quality data in the classroom has become much easier than ever before. Robotic telescopes (and archives) have revolutionized what is possible to accomplish in the confines of a high school classroom. Especially in the context of new science standards in the US, schools need to be moving towards more project-based learning and incorporating more authentic scientific inquiry, so demand for programs such as this is only expected to grow. This…
This study aims to produce a classroom management application based on a database of student learning styles to identify and analyze student learning styles and match them with appropriate learning methods and media. This application is expected to facilitate classroom management according to student preferences. This research was research and development. Respondents were 198 people consisting of 30 teachers and 168 students at a Junior High School in South Bangka Indonesia. The data analysis used quantitative data analysis techniques using descriptive statistics. The results showed that the …
We describe a procedure in which elementary education students fabricate 3-cell, $\approx5 ~\mathrm{Watt}$, $1.6~\mathrm{V}$ solar panels. The panels are manufactured at a cost of about $\$6$ each. The paper also describes a series of characterization activities that we have had our students complete with the panels once fabrication is complete. Specifically, our students have determined: the dependence of panel power on load resistance, the variation of open-circuit panel voltage between different students' work, and energy capture efficiency. The activity also allows opportunities for discus…
We present a method to study engagement level uniformity in a class of students. We validate our method by comparing two semesters taught using different methods in a physics and mathematics course. The first semester used conventional methods while the second semester used graphic spreadsheets-based laboratories and homework before the introduction of formal methods. We found that engagement of the students that were below the median at the beginning of the semester improved by an order of magnitude (by our metric) while the engagement level of students initially above the median did not chan…
We report results from a study designed to identify links between undergraduate students' views about experimental physics and their engagement in multiweek projects in lab courses. Using surveys and interviews, we explored whether students perceived particular classroom activities to be features of experimental physics practice. We focused on 18 activities, including maintaining lab notebooks, fabricating parts, and asking others for help. Interviewees identified activities related to project execution as intrinsic to experimental physics practice based on high prevalence of those activities …
Theories developed by Tinto and Nora identify academic performance, learning gains, and involvement in learning communities as significant facets of student engagement that, in turn, support student persistence. Collaborative learning environments, such as those employed in the Modeling Instruction introductory physics course, provide structure for student engagement by encouraging peer-to-peer interactions. Because of the inherently social nature of collaborative learning, we examine student interactions in the classroom using network analysis. We use centrality---a family of measures that qu…
The effect of class size on student learning has numerous policy implications and has been a major subject of conversation and research for decades. Despite this, few studies have been done on class size in the context of university settings or physics courses. After discussing some of the reasoning behind hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) as well as how to interpret the results of an HLM analysis while grounding this study in measurement theory as it applies to course grades, this paper goes on to examine the effect of class size in active-learning based introductory physics courses using a …
We propose a novel application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) using classroom video data as a means of quantitatively and visually exploring the collaborations between students. The context for our study was a summer program that works with first generation students and deaf/hard-of-hearing students to engage in authentic science practice and develop a supportive community. We applied SNA to data from one activity during the two-week program to test our approach and as a means to begin to assess whether the goals of the program are being met. We used SNA to identify groups that were interact…
It has been reported that students often leave the introductory physics classroom believing that physics is less connected to the real world than when they entered. In this paper we aim to complicate that narrative by considering students' experiences in an introductory physics for the life-sciences course that leverages students' disciplinary expertise in biology and chemistry as they learn physics. In a case study of three students, we probed the role of physics in their lives to challenge the typical interpretation of PER attitudinal and epistemological measures that aim to assess how stude…
Data from the Kepler satellite were analysed using the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) database. With the participation of 53 students, we determined the parameters of the HAT-P-7b (Kepler-2) exoplanet system (transit duration, planet-to-star radius ratio, orbital period, semi-major axis, and star mass). To achieve the result, we used approaches that are easy to understand and apply to secondary school students as well. In this way, they were able to gain insight into the essential process of light curve analysis.
It is well documented that students sometimes resist active learning techniques. A recent study showed how students believed that they learned less in active learning classrooms than they learned in lectures, even though they learned more. In this article, we describe a method for introducing active learning methods to college students that is based on a preparation for future learning approach. The students who received this introduction to active learning appeared to be more receptive to group work in the classroom than students who started the course with an explanation of the reasons and v…
This study examines physics students' evaluations of identical, video-recorded lectures performed by female and male actors playing the role of professors. The results indicate that evaluations by male students show statistically significant overall biases with male professors rated more positively than female professors. Female students tended to be egalitarian, except in two areas. Female students evaluated female professors' interpersonal/communicative skills more positively than male professors'. They evaluated female professors' scientific knowledge and skills less positively than that of…
We present a simple activity based on the liquid-drop model which allows secondary school students to explore the uses of mathematical models and gain an intuitive understanding of the concept of binding energy, and in particular the significance of positive binding energy. Using spreadsheets provided as Supplementary Material, students can perform simple manipulations on the different coefficients of the model to understand the role of each of its five terms. Students can use the spreadsheets to determine model parameters by optimising the agreement with real atomic mass data. %This will subs…
Understanding Growth Mindset Practices in an Introductory Physical Computing Classroom: High School Students' Engagement with Debugging by Design Activities
The finite scope of the some elementary interactions is usually presented to Physics students as a natural consequence of the time-energy uncertainty relation. It is demonstrated that this heuristic derivation is not a priori valid. Accordingly, it is argued the doubtful usefulness of this "proof" in the classroom, for it may lead to misconceptions.
