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The electric field is one of the more abstract concepts taught in introductory physics. Introductory E&amp;M courses often start by introducing Coulomb’s Law—an expression for the force between two point charges—before eventually defining the electric field as a ratio of the electric force to the charge on a “test charge”. This definition can result in some confusion among students; for example, students often have difficulty with the idea that the electric field is independent of the “test charge”. We decided to switch the order in which these topics are taught in a calculus-based introductory physics course: first introducing the electric field as the cause of electric forces, and later introducing the electric field caused by a point charge. We will share some pedagogical affordances of beginning E&amp;M in this fashion as well as some observations from our initial implementation.

AAPT SM 21

Teaching Electric Field before Coulomb’s Law

electricity

instruction

pedagogy

Join us in exploring emergent themes in PER as a scholarly endeavor and as a research community!  Since its inception, PER has served as a confluence of discipline, theory, research methodology, practice, and application.  How have these facets and the interplays among them been fruitful for physics education globally, regionally, locally, or otherwise?  And, how have our successes and interactions influenced the very nature of PER itself?
Following the lead of AAPT for the summer meeting, PERC 20/20 was virtual. Enjoy browsing the content.

PERC SM 20

The electric field is one of the more abstract concepts taught in introductory physics. Introductory E&M courses often start by introducing Coulomb’s Law—an expression for the force between two point charges—before eventually defining the electric field as a ratio of the electric force to the charge on a “test charge”. This definition can result in some confusion among students; for example, students often have difficulty with the idea that the electric field is independent of the “test charge”. We decided to switch the order in which these topics are taught in a calculus-based introductory physics course: first introducing the electric field as the cause of electric forces, and later introducing the electric field caused by a point charge. We will share some pedagogical affordances of beginning E&M in this fashion as well as some observations from our initial implementation.

technical paper

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For the past several years, leadership from the Physics and Astronomy disciplinary societies have been working with AAAS to launch the SEA Change Project in our fields, specifically Physics and Astronomy departments. Beth Cunningham will provide an overview of the Physics/Astronomy disciplinary committee and outline its history, including how members of Physics and Astronomy have influenced the AAAS Disciplinary Awards.

Physics & Astronomy SEA Change Overview and History

SEA Change is an institutional transformation initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The initiative aims to support diversity, equity and inclusion in STEMM. Through a collaboration with the physics and astronomy community efforts are underway to build a departmental level assessment for these fields to complement the institutional level awards structure managed by AAAS.

The Origins of SEA Change

The use of games in the classroom is an excellent pedagogical tool to improve student engagement, enjoyment and mastery of course material. The recent advent of low-cost, standalone virtual reality headsets in particular offers the opportunity for educators to create highly immersive and engaging learning experiences. The so-called MDA (Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics) framework from game design theory, provides an excellent framework for developing these new forms of educational opportunities. This work will discuss the use of the open source Unity physics game engine along with the C# scripting language and low-cost commercial game assets to create a STEM themed virtual reality escape room for the tetherless Oculus Quest 1/2 VR headsets. In addition, recommended workflows and design methodologies will be presented.


Creating Virtual Reality STEM Escape Rooms

Humans think and communicate using auditory, gestural, and visual information to co-create and convey meaning. Notably, learning can be more effective with multimodal input and feedback such that complementary cognitive resources can be accessed. For technology-enhanced learning, this means that expanding learner input – what learners actively do – and feedback could bring about novel learning opportunities and advance inclusive learning. In this work, we design and investigate multimodal STEM interactive simulations that are inclusive to learners with and without sensory and/or learning disabilities. Through surveys with educators and interviews with K-12 and university students with and without visual impairments or learning disabilities using PhET Interactive simulations, we share our design process for learners utilizing an array of input and feedback modalities, exploring how learners might ground their mathematics and science learning through bodily movement, and expanding the possibility of input and feedback modalities PhET sims supporting learners to engage in collaborative learning tasks together.

Beyond the visual: Multimodal design of physics interactive simulations

Swarmnotes is a new strategy for note-taking and coaching in an online classroom environment, in which students and the instructor collaboratively edit an online whiteboard. In this talk, we will demonstrate the logistics of Swarmnotes and demonstrate several uses of this flexible tool including Peer Instruction with multiple-choice, open-ended, or draw-a-diagram formats; handouts with gaps; derivations in which students take turns doing the next step; and notating-the-notes during and after class.

Swarmnotes for Live Collaborate Note-taking: Logistics and Uses

Swarmnotes is a new strategy for collaborative note-taking in an online environment. In this talk, we present student perspectives on the benefits of Swarmnotes from interviews of all students in a small Quantum Mechanics class. Swarmnotes has had a dramatic impact on the way students learn and take notes. It ensures strong conceptual understanding in which misconceptions have a remarkably short lifespan, through the availability of immediate correction from peers and the instructor, made less threatening by the collaborative process. Edit access for all class members allows each individual student to contribute to and benefit from the insights of the entire group during and after class. This method also builds skills in teamwork as students observe and coach each other as they learn.

Swarmnotes for Live Collaborate Note-taking: Student Perspectives

Computer simulations can provide an efficient and low-stakes way for students to discover and apply scientific principles. However, until recently it has been difficult to customize simulation parameters for particular students so that each student is exploring a virtual space that is unique to them. Such customization can make the exploration more authentic and may discourage direct copying of other students' work. The arrival of PhET-iO allows not only this type of customization, but also allows autograded questions based on each set of unique parameters.

Customizing student experiences by pushing randomized values to simulations

Due to COVID-19, remote physics instruction has become ubiquitous. This research examines which practices are highly impactful for creating social connections between teaching assistants and students in synchronous remote settings. We recorded interactions between students and teaching assistants in introductory physics active learning problem solving sessions and coded teaching assistant behaviors for types of social practices (e.g., addressing students by name or expressing empathy about course workload). By administering a validated survey of social alignment to students at the end of their recorded sessions, we were able to determine which practices were most impactful to students’ feelings of social connection with their instructors. The results of this study have implications for training teaching assistants in facilitating remote problem-solving sessions.

Teaching Assistants’ High Impact Social Practices in Remote Physics Recitations

A classic lab activity for electrostatics involves mapping out 2-D equipotentials on semi-conductive paper, allowing students to probe the shapes of electric fields and potentials. But what can be done for distance students or students who cannot attend a hands-on lab? To address this, we developed a graph-matching challenge in which students must lay out charges to produce a desired field and/or potential. The simulation activity runs entirely in Excel and features 3-D surface plots that are visually more stunning than the flat line drawings proposed in most textbooks, and arguably more evocative than the deliverables produced in the traditional lab. We discuss technical details and student reaction.

Equipotentials-matching challenge: an alternative to the classic plotting lab

This is a follow up on a paper presented during the summer 2020 virtual meeting. We have now completed 20 problems integrated into the expert TA system as the Physics Video Analysis Collection. Students in my introductory classes in fall 2020 solved these problems as part of their homework assignments. I also had a student from that class look at all the problems and we have and new hints and feedback, common wrong answers identified as suggested from the student perspective have been added. These changes have improved on what was already an excellent pedagogical experience. I will show them in the expert TA system, focusing on pedagogy not available in more traditional problems and I will also report on student experiences in learning from them.

Teaching Electric Field before Coulomb’s Law

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