Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2020
Volume 65, Number 2
Saturday–Tuesday, April 18–21, 2020; Washington D.C.
Session Q11: Computational Elements in the Physics CurriculumCancelled Education
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Sponsoring Units: FEd Chair: Wolfgang Christian, Davidson College Room: Maryland A |
Monday, April 20, 2020 10:45AM - 10:57AM |
Q11.00001: Making Quantum Mechanics Visual and Interactive with Physlet and Open Source Physics Curricular Material Mario Belloni, Wolfgang Christian The teaching of quantum mechanics has remained relatively unchanged since its inception, despite recent work assessing and improving the conceptual understanding of students. Students, therefore, often see quantum mechanics in terms of misleading or incomplete visualizations, as one dimensional and time independent, and devoid of almost any connection with classical physics. To address these issues, we have produced and class-tested interactive Physlet- and Open Source Physics-based curricular materials in support of introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses in quantum mechanics. These exercises address both quantitative and conceptual difficulties encountered by many students. Because the materials are Web based and extremely flexible, these exercises are appropriate for use with a variety of pedagogies such as Just-in-Time Teaching. Examples of the curricular materials will be discussed. Additional information can be found at https://www.compadre.org/pqp/. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 20, 2020 10:57AM - 11:09AM |
Q11.00002: Teaching Astrophysical Concepts with the Open Source Physics Collection Todd Timberlake Students often have a hard time visualizing how physics principles govern the behavior of real-world physical systems. This problem becomes even worse when physics principles are applied to astronomical situations with which students have little familiarity. Computer simulations can help to solve this problem by providing dynamic visualization of astrophysical systems. Simulations are most effective when they incorporate interactivity and, if possible, multiple simultaneous perspectives. I will present simulations from the Open Source Physics collection that incorporate these key elements to demonstrate orbital dynamics, motion in non-inertial reference frames, and differential galactic rotation. I will briefly discuss how these simulations can be used for teaching audiences of non-science majors as well as physics majors. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 20, 2020 11:09AM - 11:21AM |
Q11.00003: Facilitating Novel Laboratory Experiences in Introductory Mechanics with Open Source Physics Michael Gallis The Open Source Physics Project provides accessible tools that can allow faculty to explore unusual topics not often explored in first-year mechanics courses. Using the Tracker video analysis program, virtually any physical phenomenon that can be caught on camera can be measured, analyzed, and modeled using built-in tools. Easy Java/Javascript Simulations (EJS), an authoring tool for creating interactive simulations, allows faculty (and students) to quickly develop ancillaries that can be used to explore unusual topics for these courses. In this talk, I discuss the role of Open Source Physics in the implementation of three activities: beach ball physics, where drag, buoyancy, terminal velocity and the Magnus effect all play significant roles; scale model rubber band bungee jumping with applications of work and energy concepts, as well as elastic hysteresis; a conical pendulum experiment using tetherball-like apparatus exploring circular motion in three dimensions and including the effects of air resistance. In these three activities, EJS-based simulations were an important part of topic introduction and exploration and Tracker was an essential tool for measurement and analysis. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 20, 2020 11:21AM - 11:33AM |
Q11.00004: Open Source Physics for all ages: From middle schoolers to physics majors Anne Cox Open Source Physics resources have been developed for use in a variety of teaching environments. This talk will examine the types of resources successfully used across the curriculum and how they are structured to help students at each level engage interactively with challenging concepts. We will compare the use of similar simulations with middle school students through upper-level physics majors and will also describe the use of Open Source resources as a bridge between theory and experiment for different age students. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 20, 2020 11:33AM - 11:45AM |
Q11.00005: Building interactive eTexts using Open Source Physics Tools Kyle Forinash In this talk I will show two examples of how Open Source Physics tools makes it possible to create truly interactive textbooks for physics education that require students to actively participate in reading the material. The modern classroom is now often very interactive with many student-centered teaching methods being applied but we still use a lot of our technology in a mostly passive way. Faculty typically put PDF versions of their syllabus, readings, sample tests, assignments and maybe a few web links on a class management system and hope that students will read them. Some textbooks are now also available in electronic form but the only advantage of the electronic versions of all these teaching resources is that they are easier to access and search. Our teaching methods are up-to-date and well researched but our textbooks and handouts are not much different from the time of Gutenberg. Open Source Physics tools can help fix this. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 20, 2020 11:45AM - 11:57AM |
Q11.00006: Incorporating Project-based Learning Into Your Physics Courses with Open Source Physics Aaron Titus I loosely define undergraduate research as asking interesting questions and finding answers to those questions. Thus, project-based learning is undergraduate research on a short time scale in the context of a course. Video analysis with Tracker is one of the most economical and flexible experimental techniques to enable students to do independent projects. Computational modeling, using tools such as Easy Java Simulations, allows students to solve problems numerically so they can compare predictions from theoretical models to experimental results. Students' projects will be demonstrated, from introductory to intermediate/advanced levels, with an emphasis on the impact of project-based learning on developing a thriving physics program. If you want to hook students on the excitement of independent discovery, then video analysis and computational modeling are for you. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 20, 2020 11:57AM - 12:09PM |
Q11.00007: Open Source Physics learning analytics of on-line simulations. Francisco Esquembre, Felix Jesus Garcia-Clemente, Rafael Chicon, Lawrence Wee, Leon Tze Kwang, Darren Tan A large number of the educational simulations in the Open Source Physics digital library were created with the Easy JavaScript Simulation (EJS) authoring tool and are suitable for inclusion on online courses for supervised or unsupervised student learning. We describe the current and planned features of EJS that allow teachers to collect data from students' interactions with our simulations in a customizable, instructional-aware format, so that teachers can automatically obtain valuable pedagogic information by applying either Learning Analytics or Educational Data Mining techniques to these data. Simulations created with EJS can be embedded in popular leaning management systems via a plugin that serves the simulation and collects the interaction data desired by the teacher. The data can then be mined to elicit information on the student's behavior, performance, or learning strategies to help teachers improve their materials, detect disconnection of the student with the course, predict potential failure and provide timely assistance. We describe the current state of our development and architecture and describe future directions for our work and our plans to use these features for research in physics students' on-line learning. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 20, 2020 12:09PM - 12:21PM |
Q11.00008: Teaching Introductory Physics through Interactive Simulations Huey-Wen Lin, Pengpeng Zhang, Jaideep Singh We designed teachable units to be incorporated into small-group activities in a traditional Introductory Physics classroom with O(200) students. Interactive HTML5 games are used with a guided worksheet for students to achieve a 3D learning experience. Assessment-test results are presented with and without this teachable unit. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 20, 2020 12:21PM - 12:33PM |
Q11.00009: Improving Computational and Data Science Education and Workplace Readiness via Machine Learning Amir Shahmoradi The field of Data Science has grown substantially over the past few years with a 663\% increase in the number of data-scientist job postings during 2013-2018. The demand for college graduates who are trained in data science skills spans every field of natural sciences and engineering, necessitating undergraduate and graduate programs to adapt their curricula with these dynamic needs. However, the data-scientist job title is relatively new and its competencies are not well-defined. Here I will describe our current efforts at the University of Texas at Arlington to determine what these data-science technical and soft skill competencies are by analyzing data from national job postings. We systematically investigate the pattern of required skills by co-occurrence, the domain of science knowledge, and the characteristics of jobs and employers. This knowledge can help identify gaps between academic preparation and the skills employers seek by identifying data science competencies employers are requesting within and between domains of science, and then evaluating how well these skills align with the science curriculum in our academic programs. Such analysis over a long period will also enable the prediction of the future of job market’s supply versus demand for data science skills. [Preview Abstract] |
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