How We Restructured Intro Physics Program

1. How We Restructured Intro Physics Program Interpreted by Yuichi

2. Where We StartedThe Introductory Physics Courses 4 lectures/week50 minutes200 students Disconnected lab2 hours/week16 students No recitation sections Not a popular course to teach or take!

3. To restructure • Goals of Physics Classes were re-evaluated. • Survey with “clients” such as engineering departments which require Physics for their students, and potential employers – industries, government agencies, … • Pedagogies were also re-evaluated.

4. Modified survey in response to CBS Curriculum Committee What Do Other Faculty Want? • Goals: Calculus-based Course (88% engineering majors) 1993 4.5Basic principles behind all physics 4.5General qualitative problem solving skills 4.4General quantitative problem solving skills 4.2Apply physics topics covered to new situations 4.2Use with confidence • Goals: Algebra-based Course (24 different majors) 1987 • 4.7Basic principles behind all physics (e.g., Newton’s Laws) • 4.2General qualitative problem solving skills • 4.2Overcome misconceptions about physical world • 4.0General quantitative problem solving skills • 4.0Apply physics topics covered to new situations • Goals: Biology Majors Course 2003 • 4.8Basic principles behind all physics • 4.3General qualitative problem solving skills • 4.2Use biological examples of physical principles • 4.1General quantitative problem solving skills • 4.0Overcome misconceptions about physical world • 4.0Apply physics topics covered to real world situations • 4.0Know range of applicability of physics principles • 3.9Analyze data from physical measurements

5. Private Sector Gov’t Labs High Schools Employment Problem Solving Interpersonal Skills Technical Writing Management Skills Adv. Computer Skills Spec. Equip. & Proc. Business Principles Statistical Concepts Knowledge of Physics Advanced Mathematics 0 50 0 50 0 50 Percent Reporting Frequent Use Survey of Physics Bachelors, 1994-AIP

6. What we chose to focus • Problem solving • Conceptual understanding of Physics • Good goal in its own right • Should help in solving physics problems

7. Goals we gave up • Be familiar with a wide range of physics topics. • Understand and appreciate “modern physics”(e.g., solid state, quantum mechanics, nuclei, etc.). • Understand and appreciate the historical development and intellectual organization of physics. • Formulate and carry out experiments. • Analyze data from physical measurements. • Use modern measurement tools for physical measurements (e.g., oscilloscopes, etc.). • Program computers to solve physics problems.

8. “Process of Moving Toward a Goal When Path is Uncertain.” Problem Solving a la Martinez • If you know how to do it, it’s not a problem. (Exercise vs Problem) “Problem Solving Involves Error and Uncertainty” A problem for your students is not a problem for you. M. Martinez, PhiDeltaKappan, April, 1998

9. How can we teach problem solving? • By its nature, problems cannot be solved following recipe. In other words, we cannot teach algorithm to solve problems. • Then what should be the tools to solve problems? • Heuristics • Effective use of algebra • Equations don’t have to be solvable individually. • Assigning variables to anything you are interested in, and relating them to your target/known quantities is a good thing to do. • Metacognitive Skills

10. What did you learn about Heuristics from Martinez? • Means - Ends Analysis • identifying goals, • breaking down problem into smaller parts • identifying their sub-goals • Working Backwards • step by step planning backward from desired result • Successive Approximations • Rough draft to final manuscript. • In physics, levels of approximation and evaluation • External Representations • pictures, diagrams, equations, re-statement

11. Physics-specific Heuristics • Try to apply General Principles of Physics based on Conceptual understanding • Students need to learn to judge • Applicability of principle • Relevance of principle • What part of the “system” or whole • Geometric relations (a2+b2=c2, sinθ=b/c, …) • “common sense” relations (ω=2π/T, …)

12. Algebra – its effective use • Multiple equations can be used together and solved. • Importance of finding enough equations, disregarding if they can be solved individually to find intermediate solutions • Importance of defining variables (intermediate goals) which are not the target or unknown variables in the problem. • With them, often equations can be found using physics principles.

13. Metacognitive Skills: • Managing time and direction • Determining next step • Monitoring understanding • Asking skeptical questions • Reflecting on own learning process

14. Discussion session • This can be on Friday before or after demo • Preparation before class • Opening move • Coaching • Closure

15. Preparation before class • Create appropriately complex problem so that • Heuristic and metacognitive skills are important for success • Plug-and-chug approach will not work • Good students cannot solve it individually • Arithmetic (exercise for most students) is not too complex • Whoever write the problem, it would be ideal if the team discuss pros and cons of the problem based on the above criteria.

16. Opening move • Brief: less than 5 minutes. • Establish rapport – small talk before start, greetings, etc. • Emphasize the focus of the day • Newton’s Law, Energy conservation, Ampere’s Law, etc. • Real focus is how to apply them in problems • Choosing the system where the law applies – an object or system of objects • Confusion between, for example, time intervals and times

17. Coaching • Choose the most urgent group needing coaching (monitoring/diagnosing) • Deal with the group (< 5 minutes) • Deal with the next urgent group • … • When 1 is needed, go back to 1 • If common problem is found during 1, may address to the whole class.

18. End closure • Reserve at least 5-10 minutes for this. • Decide what part of the solution (focus on qualitative features) each group present on board. • Based on your observation during the coaching • Summarize qualitative features of successful solution(s). • Summarize typical unsuccessful paths and what the results were, how they fell short of the final goal. • Summarize typical misconceptions (confusion between velocity and acceleration, vector and scalar,

19. Lab sessions • Before lab • Opening • Small group discussion to produce final solutions • Closure of problem solving • Experiment • Closure of whole process • Another lab problem: return to 2.

20. Before lab • Team chooses lab problems to cover and decide the focus of the lab. • Ask senior TA about possible pitfalls. • If there is pre-lab quiz, analyze the results which can be used for opening move. • Solve Warm-up Questions and pre-lab quiz questions. • Go over all the lab, taking data, noting any computer problems you encounter and tricky points.

21. Opening move / Group solution • Very similar to discussion sessions

22. Solution closure • Decide what part of solutions groups present on board. • No need to discuss what is right and what is wrong. Describe qualitative features of various solutions

23. During experiments • Watch out for • dysfunctional groups. • Lack of exploration, which leads to • Too few data points, • Data outside the plotting range • lousy data (careless measurements), data without any qualitative checks • Lack of understanding of fitting parameters both to describe data and predictions • Program/equipment malfunctioning

24. Final closure • Re-iterate what physics concept/its application the lab was about. • If some students did not get where their predictions went wrong, if any, they understand where they went wrong. • Make sure students know what their experiments should have shown them.