Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2014
Volume 59, Number 5
Saturday–Tuesday, April 5–8, 2014; Savannah, Georgia
Session R9: Education - Practice and Research I |
Hide Abstracts |
Room: 203 |
Monday, April 7, 2014 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
R9.00001: A flaw in a textbook derivation of Faraday's law Bernd Berg It is found that the derivation of Faraday's law in Jackson applies only to special situations, which leave, for instance, already out the important case of a loop rotating in a constant magnetic field. A derivation of the general case is given borrowing some arguments from Landau, Lifshitz and Pitaevskii. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 7, 2014 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
R9.00002: Periscope: Looking into learning in best-practices physics classrooms Rachel Scherr \textit{Periscope} is a set of materials to support university instructors in observing, discussing, and reflecting on best practices in university instruction. Periscope is organized into short ``video workshops,'' each introducing a significant topic in the teaching and learning of physics, such as formative assessment or cooperative learning. The workshops are appropriate for university professors, two-year college faculty, graduate student teaching assistants, and undergraduate learning assistants. Key topics in teaching and learning are introduced through captioned video episodes of introductory physics students in the classroom, chosen to prompt collaborative discussion. Video episodes from exemplary sites (including the University of Maryland, University of Colorado -- Boulder, Harvard University, and Florida International University) showcase a variety of research-tested instructional formats such as \textit{Peer Instruction} and \textit{Tutorials in Introductory Physics.} Discussion questions prompt participants who view the episode to reflect on their pedagogical beliefs, on their own practice, and on the results of physics education research. \textit{Periscope} materials may be flexibly adapted for settings ranging from brief introductory sessions to all-day workshops or weekly meetings. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 7, 2014 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
R9.00003: Clickers don't always help: Classroom context and goals can mitigate clicker effects on student learning Amy Shapiro, Grant O'Rielly, Judith Sims-Knight Clickers are commonly used in large-enrollment introductory courses in order to encourage attendance, increase student engagement and improve learning. We report the results from a highly controlled study of factual and conceptual clicker questions in calculus-based introductory physics courses, on students' performance on the factual and conceptual exam questions they targeted. We found that clicker questions did not enhance student performance on either type of exam question. The use of factual clicker questions actually decreased student performance on conceptual exam questions, however. Directing students' attention to surface features of the course content may distract them from the important underlying concepts. The conceptual clicker questions were likely ineffective because the practice students got on homework questions had a stronger effect than the single question posed in class. Interestingly, the same studies in general education biology and psychology courses show a strong, positive effect of clickers on student learning. This study suggest that the usefulness of clickers should be weighed in the context of other course activities and goals. Secondary analyses will explore the effect of students' GPA, motivation and study strategies on the results. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 7, 2014 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
R9.00004: Teaching Vectors Through an Interactive Game Based Laboratory James O'Brien, Gergely Sirokman In recent years, science and particularly physics education has been furthered by the use of project based interactive learning [1]. There is a tremendous amount of evidence [2] that use of these techniques in a college learning environment leads to a deeper appreciation and understanding of fundamental concepts. Since vectors are the basis for any advancement in physics and engineering courses the cornerstone of any physics regimen is a concrete and comprehensive introduction to vectors. Here, we introduce a new turn based vector game that we have developed to help supplement traditional vector learning practices, which allows students to be creative, work together as a team, and accomplish a goal through the understanding of basic vector concepts. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 7, 2014 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
R9.00005: Teaching Scientific Reasoning to Liberal Arts Students Louis Rubbo University courses in conceptual physics and astronomy typically serve as the terminal science experience for the liberal arts student. Within this population significant content knowledge gains can be achieved by utilizing research verified pedagogical methods. However, from the standpoint of the Univeristy, students are expected to complete these courses not necessarily for the content knowledge but instead for the development of scientific reasoning skills. Results from physics education studies indicate that unless scientific reasoning instruction is made explicit students do not progress in their reasoning abilities. How do we complement the successful content based pedagogical methods with instruction that explicitly focuses on the development of scientific reasoning skills? This talk will explore methodologies that actively engages the non-science students with the explicit intent of fostering their scientific reasoning abilities. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 7, 2014 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
R9.00006: The Higgs bridge: a tutorial for students and teachers Roland Allen, Suzy Lidstr\"{o}m In this talk we summarize the very broad significance of the recent Higgs boson discovery and Higgs-Englert Nobel Prize (with further discussion in R. E. Allen, Physica Scripta 89, 018001(2014)). The particle recently discovered at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva is almost certainly this long-sought completion of the Standard Model of particle physics. But this discovery, an achievement by more than six thousand scientists (including students), is actually much more than a mere capstone of the Standard Model. It instead represents a bridge from the Standard Model to exciting discoveries of the future, at higher energies or in other experiments, and to the properties of matter at very low temperatures. The mere existence of a particle with zero spin implies a need for new physics, with the most likely candidate being supersymmetry, which requires that every known particle has a superpartner yet to be discovered. And phenomena similar to the Higgs are seen in superconducting metals and superfluid gases at low temperatures, which extend down to a millionth or even a billionth of a degree Kelvin. So the discovery of a Higgs boson has a central place in our attempts both to achieve a true understanding of Nature and to harness Nature in practical applications. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 7, 2014 11:57AM - 12:09PM |
R9.00007: Framing the Questions: the Freshman Approach to Special Relativity Elaine Tennant, Hamilton Carter Two inertial frames move at relativistic speeds with respect to one another. What does an observer in one of the frames see? This is often times the only question students answer in their freshman physics course. Could a more fundamental understanding of special relativity be instilled if a larger variety of insightful questions were asked? Examples of questions from a question pool designed to expose students to the many different aspects of special relativity during the freshman course will be presented along with anecdotal experiences related to our first deployment of the pool. [Preview Abstract] |
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