Session H3: Physics Education

A Limit on the Applicability of the FCI

The Force Concept Inventory exam, FCI, has been widely used to measure students' knowledge of the conceptual basis of an introductory physics course. It has also been used to differentiate between different teaching methods, laboratory practices, textbooks, and curricula, as well as a measure of an individual instructor's teaching performance. This study examines the correlation between a student's performance on the FCI and their performance on midterm exams throughout a calculus-based mechanics course. The course is designed specifically for first year engineering students. It is found that, despite significant gains on the FCI, the correlation is extremely small for the first exam and even smaller for later exams. This lack of correlation persists whether one considers the FCI score at the beginning or at the end of the course. While this does not necessarily reflect adversely on the FCI as a measure of students' conceptual understanding, it strongly suggests that its use as a determinant of the most effective method of teaching physics to engineering students should be quite limited.   

Measuring learning gain for undergraduate physics courses

Classical learning gains are compared with a multidimensional ability gain chart. Rasch scalable instrument is employed.   

Effect of Online Homework in Physics Learning

Online homework has been around for quite some time and many physics professors are familiar with its advantage and disadvantage. But few presentations at the joint Physics conference in Texas have been given. This talk represents some initial results using online homework in the College Physics classes for the first time at Texas A{\&}M University Kingsville.   

Homework jiu jitsu

I have implemented a new homework scheme in my physics courses that has the students thanking me for the chance to turn in homework as opposed to being obligated to turn it in. In this talk, I'll recap what events inspired this new scheme as well as what I am now seeing in my course evaluations about the homework.   

Electric Field Energy and Configuration (Potential) Energy

While electric field energy is the same as configuration energy in some special cases, in general they are two different concepts. Field energy stands for the energy caused by the existence of the electric field and configuration energy stands for the energy needed to assemble the system. A simple example is for a dipole the field energy is positive according to $U=\int {\frac{1}{2}\varepsilon_{0} E^{2}dV} $ while the configuration energy is negative according to $U=-k\frac{q^{2}}{r}$. Although the apparent conflict has been explained by Jackson, in addition to the detailed mathematical derivation to show that the self energy is involved in the first equation but not in the second, we show that the configuration energy is equal to the field energy minus self energy. The infinity of the field energy of a point charge is avoided by supposing the charge be distributed in a ball with radius $R$. Electron's and proton's radii are calculated in this model.   

Framing the Questions: the Freshman Approach to Special Relativity

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 from a question pool designed to expose students to the many different aspects of special relativity during the freshman course will be presented. Anecdotal experiences and preliminary results from the first deployment of the pool will be presented. Comparisons will be made with other prescriptions for early undergraduate special relativity education reported in recent literature.   

Student Understanding of the Physics of Hydrology

For a full understanding physical hydrology, students must master conservation of mass, Newton's laws of motion, the second in particular, laws of thermodynamics (conservation of energy), and the relationship between flux, resistance, and gradient (analogous to Ohm's Law). Hydrology students do not always relate the specialized laws of hydrology to the fundamentals they learned in their physics class, and mathematical treatments do not always develop a conceptual understanding that promotes transfer. I will report on an extended study of student understanding in an upper division and graduate physical hydrology course, with and without the addition of COMSOL Multiphysics modeling activities in the curriculum. Student understanding was measured with a pre/post assessment and volunteer students were interviewed about their understanding in the course.   

DEEP: High Impact Hands-on Educational program for Physics {\&} Engineering Students at Texas A{\&}M

We will present the results of an innovative program at Texas A{\&}M University that aims to enhance the learning and research experiences of undergraduate and graduate students through their participation in high-profile outreach activities: the Texas A{\&}M Physics {\&} Engineering Festival and the Physics Shows. The goals are to enhance students' knowledge of fundamental physics concepts through collaborative hands-on research and educational activities, to teach them effective communication skills and responsibility, and to enhance their opportunities for interactions with their peers and professors outside the classroom.   

From Research Assistant to Mentor: Outreach Opportunities in Graduate School

Here I present the experiences I've gained by participating in the outreach programs at Texas A{\&}M over the past 5 years. I will review the opportunities available to incoming graduate students and emphasize how faculty mentors can encourage student participation. Different types of outreach and public education will be included from the annual Physics Festival, to the Career Path Group, the DEEP Mentor Program, and the endless possibilities of social media. Unfortunately the stress of graduate school prevents many incoming students from taking advantage of these activities. I will discuss various levels of participation available to students in each arena and emphasize the many positive aspects of interacting with the public.   

Mitchell Institute Physics Enhancement Program for High School Teachers (MIPEP)

The MIPEP is a two-week summer boarding school for physics teachers who had limited training in physics: usually 0-2 credit hours of college-level courses. The school was organized by the Mitchell Institute and Texas A{\&}M Department of Physics and Astronomy during summers 2012-2014. Two weeks of intense training included lectures, physics labs, hands-on demos, tours of various campus research facilities, telescope observations, discussions and meetings with top researchers, and many other physics-related activities. We will review the results of the first three years of the school and plans for the future.