Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Joint Spring 2014 Meeting of the Texas Sections of the APS, AAPT, and Zone 13 of the SPS
Volume 59, Number 2
Thursday–Saturday, March 20–22, 2014; Abilene, Texas
Session F1: Physics Education |
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Room: Hunter Welcome Center AB |
Friday, March 21, 2014 2:30PM - 2:42PM |
F1.00001: ATE Workshops for Physics Faculty Thomas O'Kuma This talk will report on a project for two-year college and high school physics teachers. It will include data from the recently held workshops that are part of this project, follow-up activities conducted by the participants of this project, and some interesting information from the project. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 2:42PM - 2:54PM |
F1.00002: Student Understanding of the Contributions of Women in Physics Jill Marshall Despite their underrepresentation in the field, particularly in professional positions, women have made critical contributions to physics. Still, many physics students are unable to name a woman physicist other than Marie Curie and describe her work in any detail. This presents an equity issue, as access to role models has been shown to mediate access to careers. To remedy this, efforts are underway to create an article pack on women in physics from The Physics Teacher, the American Journal of Physics, and other sources, as a resource for physics teachers. To evaluate the need for such a resource, I administered an assessment of knowledge of the contributions of women in physics to pre-service secondary STEM education teachers, many of whom will ultimately teach physics. The results are compared with a prior survey of preservice elementary teachers and general education students. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 2:54PM - 3:06PM |
F1.00003: Interdisciplinary materials science projects used for linking physics and chemistry courses Andra Troncalli, Bradley Smucker The problems facing society are vast and more complex in scope than any one discipline. As educators we approach these problems from and teach students from specific disciplines; however, an interdisciplinary approach provides students with an opportunity to approach problems in a more integrated way. Last fall, we linked our Advanced Laboratory (upper level physics) and our Inorganic Chemistry (intermediate chemistry) classes. For part of the semester the students worked within their specific discipline and received in depth instruction from their professor. The interdisciplinary link between the two courses was achieved through projects in materials science, specifically high-temperature superconductors and carbon nanotubes. Some of the lectures were held with the combined classes, exposing students to an approach from the other discipline. The laboratory provided an excellent opportunity for meaningful student cooperation: the chemistry students synthesized materials, while the physics students characterized them. Their results were gathered into four posters, each poster authored by both physics and chemistry students, and a poster session allowed for the dissemination of the results to the greater campus community. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 3:06PM - 3:18PM |
F1.00004: Report on Pilot Project Implementing New Texas General Education Requirements in Physics Course Jim Sizemore The new general education requirements will require faculty to assess our courses and will be potentially time consuming. I piloted this assessment regimen in an introduction to physics class and report the results. While the results are preliminary they were encouraging. A survey instrument was used to assess teamwork which I will discuss. The instrument to assess other outcomes will also be discussed. Reporting is time consuming and reporting aggregate statistics, in contrast to individual student records, will save a great deal of faculty time -- between a factor of 6 to 15 or more reduction. Analysis of this time savings will be presented. Also to be presented is why the ``shotgun'' reporting and analysis of individual student records is likely to be ineffective due to confounding with several other factors. In other words, it's a bad experiment design. In conclusion I will present two examples of better experiments to acquire the information desired -- a study using aggregate data and a study focused on a subset of the student population. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 3:18PM - 3:30PM |
F1.00005: Kinetic Energy Lost in Inelastic Scattering William Madigan Introductory physics texts typically explain the loss of kinetic energy in perfectly inelastic collisions as being due to the production of sound, heat and deformation. While this is certainly true, it is an incomplete description of the process. It would seem of greater pedagogical benefit to explain that the energy deficit is due to the work done in bringing the colliding objects to rest in their center-of-mass frame. By the time they encounter conservation of linear momentum, students have already come to terms with the Work-Energy Principle, so they are equipped to address this topic in detail. In this presentation, the work required to bring two masses to rest in their center-of-mass frame will be shown to be the correction term required to make the inelastic scattering total kinetic energy expression an equality. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 3:30PM - 3:42PM |
F1.00006: Case Study into Project Based Learning and Curriculum Timothy Renfro, Tikhon Bykov, Wayne Keith An approach and ongoing process to creating and operating project based learning experiences and classes, as inspired by The National Science Foundation, American Physical Society, American Association of Physics Teachers, and Association of American Colleges and Universities at a small liberal arts college over the past 6 years, in the aspiration to capture and educate ``Makers,'' ``Doers'' and ``Creatives.'' Students want not only to learn theory but also how to apply their work. Their expectations are not limited by experience or practicality. So how do we harness this into a constructive means to develop projects in collaborative assignments, project based learning classes, social club projects, and senior research/capstone? I will discuss our experience and how we have approached this matter in our department. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 3:42PM - 3:54PM |
F1.00007: Accelerated Reference Frames in Special Relativity Lionel D. Hewett One common misconception of Einstein's special theory of relativity is that it applies only to inertial frames of reference. Therefore, the resolution of the Twin Paradox is often explained by asserting that special relativity is valid only for the twin remaining on the earth and not for the twin in the accelerating spaceship. This presentation addresses that misconception, demonstrates that special relativity is certainly valid for accelerating frames of reference, and illustrates how the accelerated frame of the twin in the spaceship also resolves the Twin Paradox. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 3:54PM - 4:06PM |
F1.00008: Development of Integrated Physics Identity in a Learning Assistant Program Eleanor Close, Jessica Conn, Hunter Close The physics department at Texas State University has a relatively new Learning Assistant (LA) program along with reform-based instructional changes in our introductory course sequences. We are interested in how participation in the LA program influences LAs' identity both as physics students and as physics teachers; in particular, how being part of the LA community changes participants' self-concepts and their day-to-day practice. Our analysis of self-concepts is informed by the physics identity framework developed by Hazari et al. (2010), who found that physics identity predicts intended choice of career in physical science; our analysis of practice is informed by Lave and Wenger's theory of Communities of Practice (1991, 1998). Themes emerging from our data include self-perception of increased competence in communication as well as in physics learning and teaching; increased enjoyment of participation in physics activities; and a new sense that being wrong is a healthy part of the process of learning physics. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 4:06PM - 4:18PM |
F1.00009: Impressions of a faculty member teaching undergraduate mathematical methods for the first time David Donnelly At Texas State University, Mathematical Methods is taught as a junior level class, and is one of the first classes students take after completion of the introductory sequence. I am teaching the class for the first time during the spring semester after having experience teaching at the introductory level and at the senior level. I am finding that the assumptions I made regarding student preparation prior to the class are quite different from what I am encountering. I will share some of the things I have found, and the things I am doing to address student needs. [Preview Abstract] |
Friday, March 21, 2014 4:18PM - 4:30PM |
F1.00010: A better method to perform a Coulomb's Law experiment Jim Sizemore Often physics labs omit an experiment on Coulomb's law due to the difficulty of measurement and discharge of objects prior to obtaining good experimental information. Observing that ordinary latex balloons retain their charge over long periods of time I used this characteristic to design a lab where students confirm the inverse radius squared relationship of Coulomb's Law. No new equipment is required with the possible exception of latex balloons. Other equipment needed is usually available in most physics labs and consists of conventional lab stands, thread, tape, and meter sticks. One charged balloon is fixed to a lab stand and is moved during the experiment while a second charged balloon hanging from a string responds to the Coulomb force and the response measured. Actual students performing this lab obtain valid results most of the time and some of those results will be presented. Using this method, charge remains constant throughout the experiment, measurement errors are significantly reduced, the effects is easily observable with the naked eye, students are able to perform a better experiment, and as a result student's understanding of the inverse radius squared law improves. Further improvements are possible and will be discussed. [Preview Abstract] |
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