Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Mid-Atlantic Section Fall Meeting 2020
Volume 65, Number 20
Friday–Sunday, December 4–6, 2020; Virtual
Session D02: Physics Education Research II |
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Chair: Melanie Good, Pittsburg University |
Saturday, December 5, 2020 9:00AM - 9:36AM |
D02.00001: Prevalence of academic dishonesty in timed online quizzes in introductory physics, and effectiveness of interventions to encourage academic honesty Invited Speaker: Melanie Good Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities have had to transition to online instruction and use online forms of assessment. For large-enrollment introductory physics classes, this situation raises the question of how best to ensure academic honesty. Academic dishonesty can occur in a number of ways, and instructors may use a variety of strategies to address different ways of cheating. Short quizzes may help address the problem of students utilizing third party ``tutoring'' services to upload test question and receive solutions to them, and frequent, short quizzes have been argued to alleviate pressure on students to cheat, since such assessments are lower-stakes than traditional exams. However, short quizzes could still be vulnerable to students violating academic integrity by sharing information about such quizzes. Given the pervasive use of social media, smart phones, and other messaging services such as GroupMe, it is conceivable that sharing of information could represent a significant source of academic dishonesty that may largely be taking place unchecked. In this investigation, the prevalence of this kind of academic dishonesty in two large-enrollment introductory physics courses was explored by the use of planted ``correct'' answers which were immediately revealed to students after they completed taking their quiz. The frequency of use of the planted ``correct'' answer was then measured to determine a baseline level of students who were on the receiving end of unauthorized information sharing. Interventions to promote academic honesty were then administered and a subsequent quiz with a planted ``correct'' answer was used to measure the effectiveness of these interventions. Finally, the prevalence and ways in which students provide quiz information to other students was probed. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, December 5, 2020 9:36AM - 10:12AM |
D02.00002: Everyone's a Maker: Utilization of a Makerspace for all Degree Programs Invited Speaker: Jaskirat Sodhi A makerspace is a collaborative workspace where engineers, designers, scientists, students, and hobbyists can create, fabricate, tinker and bring their ideas to life. Makerspaces are becoming more common in schools, public libraries, and higher education institutions. These spaces are meant to provide their community access to a wide variety of equipment ranging from basic hand and power tools, electrical components, 3D printers, and laser cutters to industrial-grade machinery such as CNC machines. Makerspaces in an educational setting enable students to tinker and learn through hands-on projects, which in turn help develop skills such as creativity, curiosity, teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving. A common misconception is that makerspaces are only meant for engineering or engineering technology students, so this talk will focus on "clearing the air": Everyone is a maker and can use a makerspace facility! Ideas will be discussed on 1) How simple prototypes made in a makerspace can be used by instructors to demonstrate STEM (particularly science and mathematics) concepts and 2) how to make "making" part of your course by integrating makerspace projects, that will promote student problem-solving and innovation. This work was done in collaboration with Justin Suriano and Ashish Borgaonkar [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, December 5, 2020 10:12AM - 10:24AM |
D02.00003: Schrödinger’s Original Quantum Mechanical Solution for Hydrogen Jeremy Canfield, Anna Galler, James Freericks In 1926, Erwin Schr\"odinger wrote a series of papers that invented wave mechanics and set the foundation for much of the single-particle quantum mechanics that we teach today. In his first paper, he solved the Schr\"odinger equation using the Laplace method, a powerful but rarely taught technique. This method lets one examine quantum mechanics from a complex-analysis perspective. This method is useful to consider when teaching quantum mechanics, as these techniques can be widely used, unlike the standard Frobenius method. No one has carefully gone through the arguments that Schr\"odinger used in this paper; instead it is often just stated that the solution was adopted from Schlesinger's famous differential equation textbook. In this talk, I introduce the Laplace method for solving differential equations and discuss how this method can be used to solve for the energy eigenfunctions of the hydrogen atom, following Schr\"odinger's original solution, with all the necessary details. This talk is based on work presented in a paper of the same name from Galler, Canfield, and Freericks, forthcoming in EJP. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, December 5, 2020 10:24AM - 10:36AM |
D02.00004: Physics Unlimited Summer School 2020: Lessons Learned. Pavel Shibayev As part of our nonprofit's efforts to engage students in the US and around the world in learning physics through innovative practices and to supplement their classroom instruction (or lack thereof, as is the case in 40{\%} of US high schools that do not offer physics classes), we have organized a virtual summer program this past August, consisting of two parts: a summer school and a summer camp. The former constituted a three-week series of nine innovative lessons in general physics, hosted by three volunteer instructors - students~from Harvard and UC Berkeley - live via Zoom and recorded for students from different time zones. The latter involved a series of over twenty facilitator-led online networking sessions for participants from nine countries, in addition to career panels. Our free pilot program was well-received, and we plan to organize new iterations specifically targeting underrepresented groups, including incarcerated learners at correctional facilities. [Preview Abstract] |
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