Session AAPT1: Physics Teaching and Physics Education Research

Friday, March 7, 2008

Colleges with strong music programs generally have a physics course on acoustics for non-science majors. Here I describe a laboratory science course offered at Texas Christian University for about eight years. The course incorporates thirteen laboratory experiences that include an instrument sound level comparison, an individual hearing test, and spectral analysis of each student's instrument. The experiments form the backbone of the course and drive the lectures. I will describe them in some detail, and demonstrate some of the nearly free software that adds enrichment to both the laboratory and lectures. In addition I will explain how guest lecturers from related fields, including audiologists, psychologists and instrument makers, can help provide a more meaningful experience for the students.   

Friday, March 7, 2008

In this talk I will describe how my group manages a large number of undergraduates engaged in meaningful research projects. The interaction is very structured and includes considerable scaffolding to ensure student success. The undergraduates are organized into groups with specified research foci, and a graduate student assigned to each group as a mentor. Groups meet regularly on several levels, leading to a weekly whole group meeting. The structure fosters positive interdependence as well as individual responsibility as students are assigned individual projects with the research focus of the group. The use of a wiki is critical to facilitating the interaction, maintaining a record of progress, centralizing shared resources, and it allows for significant asynchronous interaction. This structure leads to student success, professional growth for graduate students, and a manageable time budget for the group leader.   

Friday, March 7, 2008

Previous studies have shown that many students have misconceptions about basic concepts in astronomy. As a consequence, various interactive engagement methods have been developed for introductory astronomy. We will present the results of a study that compares four different teaching methods for the subject of the phases of the Moon, which is well known to produce student difficulties. We compare a fairly traditional didactic approach, the use of manipulatives (moonballs) in lecture, the University of Arizona Lecture Tutorials, and an interactive computer program used in a didactic fashion. We use pre- and post-testing with the Lunar Phase Concept Inventory to determine the relative effectiveness of these methods.   

Friday, March 7, 2008

. Hands-on activities in selected topics in physics continually are found to be useful in teaching the principles of mathematics and science by engaging the teachers in the projects to the extent that they become possessors of the knowledge needed to teach the children that come under their guidance in the class rooms at their home schools. We continue to provide the ``hands-on, minds-on'' activities that put the learner in the picture so that they gain ownership of the knowledge base. Select experiments will be discussed.   

Friday, March 7, 2008

In 2007 the National Mathematics and Science Initiative, with a grant from Exxon-Mobil, launched two major programs to improve science and mathematics education in the US: an Advanced Placement initiative and replication of the UTeach program. Twelve colleges and universities, from Florida to California, have been selected to receive grants of up to {\$}2.4 million to start UTeach-type programs. I will report on the requirements for these grants, what it really means to have a ``UTeach-type'' program and the evidence that such programs can affect the quantity and quality of physics teachers in the US.