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Physics by Inquiry (McDermott et al, 1996) is a hands-on, inquiry-based curriculum. Students work through the experiments and exercises in small groups, with their understanding assessed at pivotal points in the curriculum. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we taught Physics by Inquiry courses remotely, encountering the challenges of synchronous teaching and learning. This poster will illustrate our strategies and the ways we met the challenges.

AAPT SM 21

Teaching Physics by Inquiry Remotely

remote

inquiry

laboratory

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poster

The abstract nature of electricity makes it a particularly difficult subject for learners to form scientific understandings of the core concepts. One possibility of making such abstract concepts more accessible is using analogical teaching methods. In light of this, a syllabus was developed focusing on the analogy between the movement of charge due to potential difference and the movement of air due to pressure difference. Trials of this syllabus in German grammar schools show a significant improvement in learning gains when compared with traditional approaches. Learners’ qualitative understanding is scaffolded using helpful language, color-coding the electric potential and links to familiar, everyday experiences. The materials used in the previous study have been translated into English and adjusted for use in public schools. Furthermore, additional materials to help structure lessons for less experienced and non-subject-specialist teaching staff are included in lesson packs. All materials will be made available free of charge.

Material Development for Teaching Electric Circuits with the Pressure Analogy

In quantum mechanics, representations of quantum operators in the position or momentum representation is an important concept for students to learn. However, many students have difficulties writing operators in the position and momentum representations. We investigated student difficulties with quantum operators in the position or momentum representation in the context of Dirac notation so that we can use them to develop learning tools such as a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) to help students develop a robust understanding of these concepts. Here we describe the investigation of student difficulties. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

Student understanding of quantum mechanical observables and corresponding operators

In this paper we offer updated versions of two 1970's-vintage open world experiments (one on acceleration, and the other on Poisson statistics). We the discuss prospects for expanding these to a wider range of topics, as well as some of the challenges and opportunities for giving students a more active role in experimental design, and scientific reporting, with help from now widely available electronic technologies.

Bringing new life to open-world physics lab experiments

In support of movements like Black Lives Matter, #ShutdownAcademia, and #ShutdownSTEM, I knew I needed to address social justice issues in my introductory physics classroom as well as increase my efforts to ensure a safe, equitable, and inclusive space for my undergraduate students. Due to the ongoing pandemic, these changes would need to happen in a primarily remote learning environment. This poster will explore the strategies and technology I utilized over the past academic year to create a more supportive, accessible, and inclusive remote learning environment for my calculus-based introductory physics courses. I will be sharing feedback from students and results of formal assessments looking at changes in students’ science identity responses over the course of the year. I will also share my thoughts regarding how a well-designed remote learning environment may provide even more productive discussions on tough topics such as social justice than similar in-person environments.

Exploring Ways to Make a Remote Physics Classroom More Inclusive

Real-time 3D Object Tracking for High School and Undergraduate Physics Lori Shaaban, Akash Prasad, Zane OthmanGomez,Vrushank Gunjur, Ralf Widenhorn Physics lab courses typically focus on analyzing one-dimensional data. Using two-dimensional setups can be time consuming and introduce parallax errors. While one-dimensional data collection is adequate for linear motion, it is now possible to quantitatively analyze more complex systems by setting up a 3D camera. At Portland State University we worked with a group of high school students to develop a python program that tracks and graphs objects in real-time in three dimensions using a Intel RealSense D435i camera system. We created a mix of data analysis challenges and laboratory investigations designed to synthesize student’s prior skills and concept knowledge as well as explore the nature of new situations through kinesthetic learning and optional programming. The poster will describe a set of activities analyzing projectiles as well as a ball on a string moving in a 3D space outside a single plane with a focus on momentum and rotations.

Real-time 3D Object Tracking for High School and Undergraduate Physics

To support physics instructors in improving or modifying physics activities for their courses, we investigate sixty-six research-based activities from eleven different research-based curricula by applying k-means cluster analysis. The best results were found when the program generates three design clusters. We mark these clusters as Thinking like a Scientist, Learning Concepts, and Scientific Reasoning. These three clusters indicate different design goals. In the Thinking like a Scientist cluster, activities emphasize the design of experiments by students, error analysis, reasonableness checking, and making assumptions or simplifications. The Learning Concepts cluster focuses on the prediction of results and experimental observations. The scientific reasoning cluster emphasizes answering physics or math questions that do not use collected data and finding evidence by students to support their claims.

Diverse strategies for design physics activity by investigating research-based activities

We describe a suite of experiments and computations with an adjustable “challenge level” to engage upper-division undergraduate physics and engineering students for periods ranging from two laboratory sessions to semester-long research projects. The end product is a tunable optical sensor for differentiating between fluids with even tiny variations in refractive index: e.g., 1.332 for deionized water vs. 1.334 for 0.5 wt% saline solution. It revolves around a thin gold film on a glass prism coupled to a microfluidic cell. The surface-plasmon-resonance (SPR) phenomenon excited by the incident laser at the gold-fluid interface is exquisitely sensitive to subtle changes in the near-surface environment. Crucially, it also immerses students in the rich physics of metal nano-optics and evanescent waves, in constructing precision optofluidic setups, and in developing analytical (Fresnel equations) and numerical (e.g., finite-element method) computational models to aid in their understanding and engineering optimization of the SPR sensor.

Surface-Plasmon-Resonance Sensing in the Advanced Physics Laboratory

Breaking free from the traditional “cart on a ramp” problem, this session presents a variety of real-world, aviation related, physics-based problems. Focused on the general aviation aircraft, both single-engine and multi-engine, the problems expose the student to application of physics in aviation. The problems span a range of difficulties from simple trigonometry and simple unit conversion problems to more complicated thermodynamic and forces on an airplane problem. The problems come from the aviation world, including examples from aircraft instrument approaches, aircraft turbocharger operations, aircraft drag force in various flying configurations, and asymmetrical thrust in multi-engine airplanes. These problems are targeted to the student in a first year, algebra-based physics course such as AP® Physics 1 and AP® Physics 2.

Real-world Problems for AP® Physics 1 and AP® Physics 2

In the switch to remote instruction at the start of the pandemic, we built off of a framework introduced by Abigail Mechtenberg at the University of Notre Dame. Students could choose whether to conduct an experiment from the lab manual used for in-person instruction or to deviate from that manual and conduct their own investigation. At the conclusion of each experiment, the students submitted a formal lab report. Instructional resources focused on supporting students on developing hypotheses, designing experiment, and on analyzing, interpreting, and communicating their results. An assessment of student attitudes, measured with the E-CLASS, showed a greater shift toward expert-like attitudes than we had previously measured for non-majors labs before the pandemic. We show the results of the assessment and their connection to agency and lab reports.

How agency and lab reports affected attitudes in remote labs

Showcased here (1 of 2 posters) are the details of Kirchhoff's two Laws of Electricity presented via spiral teaching in terms of voltage loops which are scaled per charge and current splitting scaled per time as, respectively, applications of the Conservation of Energy and Mass to students in a way that emphasizes these concepts and further buttresses these laws of physics as universal. Possible student misunderstandings and updated useful suggestions for teachers are included. This poster builds on the oral presentation “Spiraling Conservation of Energy/Mass in Introductory Physics: Kirchhoff to Bernoulli” also at this conference.

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Teaching Physics by Inquiry Remotely

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