W22: Workshop Tutorials: Student-Centered Learning, Australian Style
Co-Sponsors: Committees on International Physics Education
Manjula D. Sharma, School of Physics, Univ. of Sydney,
Kate Wilson and Rosemary Millar
Sunday, Jan. 20
8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
A team headed by the School of Physics at the University of Sydney was successful in gaining a large National Teaching Development Grant for designing and implementing Thematic Physics Workshop Tutorials for first-year physics courses. The Workshop Tutorials have been running successfully at the University of Sydney since 1995 and are now being adopted by other Australian universities. They are based on cooperative learning strategies and seek to improve student learning using especially designed questions and hands on activities. The Workshop Tutorials provide for student-driven rather then assessment-driven learning and are readily insertable into most first-year physics curricula. Evaluations of the Workshop Tutorials show that students and staff value them, and student performance in exams does improve. In this workshop we will introduce you to the Workshop Tutorials, describe how they have been designed and evaluated, and provide hands-on experience of how they work.
W23: Exploring Black Holes: General Relativity for Undergraduates
Edwin F. Taylor
Sunday, Jan. 20
8:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
At the center of general relativity stand Einstein's field equations which, unfortunately, express themselves as tensors. We start not with the field equations but with their central solutions: the metrics that describe curved space-time around nonspinning and spinning centers of gravitational attraction. With only differential calculus and a handful of integrals, we use the metric to answer every possible question about the (nonquantum) properties of space-time near Earth, near Sun, and near a spinning or nonspinning black hole. Simple analysis predicts trajectories of satellites and light around these structures. The metric may tell us about quasars and brings preliminary insights about the history and structure of the cosmos.
W24: Matter & Interactions: A Modern Calculus-Based Introductory
Course
Co-Sponsors: Committees on Computers in Physics Education
Bruce A. Sherwood, Dept. of Physics, Carnegie Mellon Univ.
Ruth W. Chabay, Matthew Kohlmyer, and Kathy Malone
Sunday, Jan. 20
8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
Matter & Interactions is a new, modern calculus-based introductory physics course based on 10 years of research and classroom testing, emphasizing the atomic nature of matter and macro-micro connections. It encourages students to analyze complex phenomena starting from fundamental principles. Students model messy real-world phenomena, making approximations and simplifying assumptions. The first semester (modern mechanics) integrates mechanics with thermal physics; the second semester focuses on electricity and magnetism, and waves. To gain a deeper understanding of the Newtonian synthesis, and to visualize fields and trajectories in 3-D, students create computer models with real-time, three-dimensional animations, even without prior programming experience. Participants will get a comprehensive overview of the course and will sample a variety of student activities, including computer modeling.
W29: Teach Physics by Replicating the Processes of Science
Co-Sponsors: Committee on Research in Physics Education
Alan Van Heuvelen, The Ohio State Univ
Eugenia Etkina, Rutgers, The State Univ. of New Jersey
Sunday, Jan. 20
1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.
How do scientists construct new knowledge about how the world works? The process involves observations, qualitative explanations, more observations to develop physical quantities and relations between them (laws), and testing experiments. As the science community gains confidence, these laws are applied for useful purposes to real-world applications. This workshop will introduce an active-learning approach that replicates this process of science. The approach has been used in introductory college calculus and algebra-based physics courses, high school physics classes, graduate student classes, and preservice elementary education major classes. The approach helps students develop a coherent understanding of the physical world and supports the goals of ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc.) and is consistent with surveys conducted by the American Institute of Physics on the needs of physics students when they enter the workplace.
Last updated 12/20/2001