Bulletin of the American Physical Society
Fall 2019 Meeting of the Ohio-Region Section and the Michigan Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers
Volume 64, Number 15
Friday–Saturday, October 11–12, 2019; Flint, Michigan
Session C01: Physics Education I |
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Chair: Nita Kedharnath, University of Michigan Room: Kettering University Academic Building 4101 |
Saturday, October 12, 2019 8:24AM - 8:36AM |
C01.00001: Evidence-Based Teaching: Inquiry-Based Labs, Creativity and Curiosity Nenad Stojilovic The main goal of Evidence-Based Teaching, also known as Scientific Teaching, is to improve teaching and learning by make teaching more scientific. This means to engage in teaching in the same way as we engage is science, through critical thinking, curiosity and experimentation, and with the emphasis on students' learning. In this talk I will present some examples of inquiry-based laboratory activities that promote students' creativity, curiosity, and critical thinking. I will also discuss some relatively unknown teaching pedagogies (for example, frequent testing) typically not used in physics classrooms that improve students' learning. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 12, 2019 8:36AM - 8:48AM |
C01.00002: Physics for the Engineering Major Bhubanjyoti Bhattacharya This talk will be based on a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning project that I undertook in 2018-2019. I will describe the steps I took to make my students feel more comfortable with abstraction in my physics classroom, and the ways that I tried to measure some parts of their performance before and after the course. I will share with you some of the results I found from the different assessment tools I used in the course. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 12, 2019 8:48AM - 9:00AM |
C01.00003: Supporting More Authentic Experimenting in an Introductory Lab Helen Mae Cothrel We redesigned our Physics 2 (electricity and magnetism) laboratory course to improve students’ lab experiences while making minimal changes to equipment and topics. The new version of the course includes more opportunities for students to exercise autonomy. We also refreshed our approach to writing by dedicating class time to writing lab reports and having students write short personal reflections regarding each lab. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 12, 2019 9:00AM - 9:12AM |
C01.00004: Graphically Solving Kinematics Problems Michael C. Faleski In introductory physics, the graphs of position, velocity, and acceleration vs. time for an object are made, often with the same information discussed in calculus classes. Activities are developed, experiments are performed, data are taken and representations of the data are made. So, solving word problems with graphs would be a simple extension of the material learned in both math and physics classes… right?? Focusing on the use of graphical solutions for kinematics is discussed along with some observations and results from assessments. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 12, 2019 9:12AM - 9:24AM |
C01.00005: Course Reflections vs. Evaluations Taoufik Nadji The presenter will share the value of the end of semester/year reflections as a course evaluation tool. Examples of students reflections are shared, which shed better light on students' actual learning than what traditional evaluation forms provide. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 12, 2019 9:24AM - 9:36AM |
C01.00006: Age of the Terrascope: An Introductory Physics Perspective Robert Tarchinski Typical Introductory physics courses are devoid of current findings in the discipline. Opening a introductory textbook from 1949, one finds few substantial differences between it, and a text published 70 years later. “Modern physics” is often limited to discoveries and science done in the early years of the 20th century. In this talk, I will summarize some current science; and outline some ideas for meaningful student engagement with these recent publications. The exercises presented can be adapted to meet the needs of a range of difficulty levels in a high school course. I argue that engagement with current physics, is key to meaningful engagement with and building enthusiasm in the discipline. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, October 12, 2019 9:36AM - 9:48AM |
C01.00007: Enhancing Student Success in Biology, Chemistry & Physics by Transforming the Faculty Culture Howard E. Jackson Change is ubiquitous within colleges and universities but sustained and directed change challenging to implement. We have employed a model that reflects recent literature and report the results of implementing several change strategies which demonstrably are providing a sustainable environment for enhanced student learning. The major goal of this effort was to transform the faculty culture across the four STEM departments of Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics in a way that enhances student learning and student success. Two central elements of our approach involve (1) departmental Teaching and Learning Liaisons, who are in some sense informed faculty champions who can provide both departmental and individual faculty support within each department, and (2) departmental informal Teaching and Learning lunches. We discuss selected results including a change in DWF rates in the foundational STEM courses over time with fairly dramatic reductions in the DWF rate in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics with selected reductions in Mathematics. The TLL lunches have resulted in a sharp uptick in the knowledge of teaching literature broadly across faculty and have increased faculty participation in active learning. [Preview Abstract] |
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