Bulletin of the American Physical Society
9th Annual Meeting of the Northwest Section of the APS
Volume 52, Number 6
Thursday–Saturday, May 17–19, 2007; Pocatello, Idaho
Session E1: Education |
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Chair: Dewey Dykstra, Boise State University Room: PSUB Selway Room |
Saturday, May 19, 2007 2:00PM - 2:36PM |
E1.00001: Research as a guide for improving student understanding of time dependence in quantum mechanics Invited Speaker: The Physics Education Group at the University of Washington is engaged in a long term effort to investigate student understanding of quantum mechanics. One component of this investigation is to examine student ideas about time dependence. We have identified some specific difficulties, developed curriculum to address those difficulties, and implemented the curriculum in junior level physics courses at the University of Washington. An iterative process of assessing and refining that curriculum is underway. Elements drawn from this body of research will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, May 19, 2007 2:36PM - 3:12PM |
E1.00002: Coordinating the Development of Heat and Temperature Facet Clusters with Science Education Standards Invited Speaker: The Department of Physics and the School of Education at Seattle Pacific University, together with FACET Innovations, LLC, have just completed the second year of a five-year NSF TPC project,\textit{ Improving the Effectiveness of Teacher Diagnostic Skills and Tools. } We are working in partnership with school districts in Washington State to use formative assessment as a means to help teachers and precollege students deepen their understanding of foundational topics in physical science. We utilize a theoretical framework of knowledge-in-pieces to identify and categorize common student modes of reasoning in the topical areas of \textit{Properties of Matter, Heat and Temperature }and\textit{ Physical and Chemical Changes. } In this talk, we describe the development of some facet clusters of student ideas in Heat and Temperature. Part of optimizing these diagnostic tools is ensuring that they are consistent with national and state science standards, research on student learning, and assessment practices used in the science portion of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). A strong unifying theme for these standards and assessments is transfers and transformations of energy in all processes of nature, whether they occur in physical, earth/space, or living systems. This approach brings the concepts of heat, temperature, and energy into a broader context than is usually explored in traditional treatments of these ideas in physics. We discuss some challenges in developing formative assessment tools that synthesize and respect these different perspectives. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, May 19, 2007 3:12PM - 3:30PM |
E1.00003: Coffee Break
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Saturday, May 19, 2007 3:30PM - 4:06PM |
E1.00004: Who Benefits from PER?: PER as a component of teacher preparation Invited Speaker: At BYU-I, we have been able to provide authentic PER experiences for about a half-dozen undergraduate pre-service science teachers. Although some interesting experiments have come out of this research group, perhaps of more interest is the impact these experiences have had on the preparation of these students anticipating careers in public education. This presentation will focus on discussing the initially very positive results of this experience and future plans for the possibility of providing this experience for as many of our pre-service teacher candidates as possible. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, May 19, 2007 4:06PM - 4:42PM |
E1.00005: Technology Talks: clickers and gender in the classroom Invited Speaker: Clickers are gaining popularity around college campuses, but research on clicker use in the classroom has been limited thus far. However, the manner in which clickers are used in the classroom seems to vary widely. Mark James$^{1}$ studied use of grading incentive in different sections of astronomy, with students in some sections getting points simply for clicking any answer, and other sections earning more points for clicking the correct answer. In our study, different sections again had different grading schema and groups were recorded periodically during discussions. Two points were given for a correct answer (1 point for incorrect) in section one, and two points for any answer in section two. Similar to James' results, we have found that students in section 1 are more likely overall to choose the correct answer than students in section 2. In section 2, students are more likely to choose the answer they think is correct, possibly because there is not threat of losing points due to choosing incorrectly. Talking amongst group members was encouraged in both sections, and 7 randomly chosen groups were recorded during the semester. There were 3 recording all semester. The recorded data was broken down by gender, in order to measure how gender dynamics affected the dialogue. Preliminary results show that group members were all contributing equally to the discussions, regardless of the overall gender makeup of the group, or the section (and hence the grading scheme). This result seems to be at odds with that found by Adams$^{2}$ \textit{et al. }(2002), which involved classroom observations of student groups. Additional data will be analyzed from this course and further compared to the findings of Adams. \begin{enumerate} \item M. James, \textit{American Journal of Physics}, \textbf{74}, 689 (2006). \item J. P. Adams, G. Brissenden, \textit{et al.} \textit{Astronomy Education Review} \textbf{1}, 25 (2002). \end{enumerate} [Preview Abstract] |
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