Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2005 36th Meeting of the Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Tuesday–Saturday, May 17–21, 2005; Lincoln, Nebraska
Session 3A: New Pedagogy in Introductory Physics and Upper-level AMO Courses |
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Chair: Robert C. Hilborn, Amherst College Room: Brace Laboratory 211 (UNL) |
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 2:00PM - 2:30PM |
3A.00001: New Pedagogy in Introductory Physics and Upper-level AMO Courses Invited Speaker: In recent decades the need for science education has expanded in its scope and grown in its importance. We need to reevaluate science teaching to see how it can better meet these needs. Scientists often abandon the powerful intellectual tools they routinely use in their science when they go to teach science. They fall back on tradition and highly subjective judgments of the instructor (known in other contexts as ``superstition”). I will discuss the advantages of approaching the teaching of physics like a physics experiment. This approach includes: collecting and utilizing valid quantitative data (both one’s own and those from the research of others), using quantitative statistical analysis to extract information from experiments involving imperfectly controlled degrees of freedom, and taking advantage of useful new technology. This discussion will include a review of some of the key findings of researchers about how people learn in general and how they learn physics specifically, and how these findings can be used to improve teaching practices. As time permits, I will also cover some surprising results my education research group has found on the study of how student beliefs shape and are shaped by their physics classes and the effective use of technology. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 2:30PM - 3:00PM |
3A.00002: Photon Quantum Mechanics Experiments for Undergraduates Invited Speaker: We have developed a set of laboratories for teaching the fundamentals of quantum mechanics to undergraduates [1]. At an elementary level the experiments are used to explain quantum interference via Feynman's arguments of distinguishability of alternatives. At a higher level the experiments are used as exercises in state vector manipulation: superposition, state projection and two-particle entanglement. The laboratories rely on correlated photons produced by spontaneous parametric down-conversion. The apparatus fits in a 2'x4' optical breadboard. [1] E.J. Galvez et al. Am. J. Phys., 73, 127 (2005). [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 3:00PM - 3:20PM |
3A.00003: BREAK
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Tuesday, May 17, 2005 3:20PM - 3:40PM |
3A.00004: Web-based Homework and Quiz Systems Invited Speaker: Mastering Physics is a Socratic tutor designed to help students learn introductory physics. The tutor poses problems and then comments specifically on about 1/2 of all wrong answers, even though most responses demanded are analytic expressions. Students can request hints (some of which are sub-problems), and work through the list of hint titles at random. In a typical problem there are 10 round trip interactions between tutor and student, raising the percentage of students who get the answer from $\sim$60\% on the first try to over 90\% after tutoring. This is Mastery Learning – where student time and effort are increased to achieve learning rather than the grade decreased to indicate that the learning is incomplete. Mastering Physics is also a homework administration system that aids the instructor in preparing an assignment by indicating (in the problem library) the difficulty and duration of each problem and of the overall assignment. At MIT doing Mastering Physics has been shown to correlate much better than written homework or going to recitation with scoring better on the final exam in May than that student did on the final in December (which is why the student was repeating the course in the spring). At Arizona State, Mastering Physics increased the class’ normalized gain on the Force Concept Inventory from 21\% to 40\% the year it was introduced. [Preview Abstract] |
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 3:40PM - 4:00PM |
3A.00005: Web-based Homework and Quiz Systems Invited Speaker: |
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:00PM - 4:20PM |
3A.00006: Web-based Homework and Quiz Systems |
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 4:20PM - 5:00PM |
3A.00007: Personal Response System in Large Introductory Physics and Astronomy Classes Invited Speaker: |
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 5:00PM - 9:00PM |
3A.00008: RECEPTION
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