United States

Our research lab developed the Model-Evidence Link (MEL) activities to support students’ scientific evaluations and judgements when considering alternative explanations of phenomena. For the present study, we tested two astronomy-related MELs--the Moon Formation preconstructed MEL and the Origins of the Universe build-a-MEL--in high school and preservice teacher classrooms. Students engaged in both these activities, completing embedded measures of their evaluations, judgements, and knowledge, pre- and post-instruction. We asked: How do relations between students’ evaluations, judgements, and knowledge compare between the preconstructed MEL and the build-a-MEL? Using a partial least squares structural equation model (SEM), we found that the preconstructed MEL had a stronger relationship between students’ evaluations and post-instruction plausibility judgments, but overall SEM statistical indices showed that the build-a-MEL was more robust in promoting students’ learning. Therefore, for the present study, the build-a-MEL was a better activity for facilitating more scientific evaluations, judgements, and astronomical knowledge.

AAPT SM 21

Comparing Two Scaffolds for Evaluating Scientific Explanations

scientific evaluation

critical thinking

astronomy education

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poster

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.

Teaching Physics by Inquiry Remotely

Computational Modeling is seen as one of the three pillars of modern physics by many. Surprisingly, it is not mandatory in many German school curricula and thus, few physics teachers use it in class on a regular basis. To increase awareness of computational modeling in the local physics teacher community and to investigate the effects of the use of computational modeling in combination with real experiments on students, a science lab was created, that combines computational modeling with an experiment and real-world data to tackle students’ preconceptions in Newtonian dynamics using the software Newton-II. Students from 11th grade take part in the science lab after having discussed Newton’s laws in school. The poster highlights the way in which computational modeling is combined with real world data in four different experiments and the effect of the lab on, among others, students’ conceptual understanding and preconceptions.

Improving Students’ Conceptions Combining Computational Modeling and Real-world Data

The formation of standing wave is accompanied by the generation of wave node and wave abdomen. Different from the transverse standing wave, the longitudinal standing wave also has the thinning part and the dense part. Previous demonstrators of longitudinal standing waves were able to demonstrate these phenomena at a slightly higher frequency (~30Hz), which made it impossible to see how the phenomena changed in density. Except with the help of a strobe or high-speed photography, it would have been a mistake to assume that the wave nodes were and wave abdomens always in the thinning part and the dense part respectively. In this paper, a new demonstrator of the longitudinal standing wave is presented, which can clearly see the periodic density change at the nodes of longitudinal standing wave, the opposite density state at the adjacent node, and the maximum amplitude at wave abdomen with a relatively low frequency (~4Hz).

Demonstrator of low frequency longitudinal standing wave

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

Chromaticity measurement is an interdisciplinary subject and is very complex. Color of object s could be measured accurately by using computer-software with the transmission spectra of grating spectrometer on the basis of the international standard, CIE-XYZ system. The colors can display directly on the computer screen. The experimental result s and theoretical analysis are presented in agreement also in this paper.

Chromaticity Simulation Using Software Program

We have recently restructured our first semester University Physics Laboratory to emphasize comparison of experimental and modeling results throughout almost all the experiments. The students, who also use simulation to a certain degree in the lecture portion of the course with the Matter and Interactions curriculum, write vPython code at glowscript.org to describe the fundamental physics of the interactions studied in the experiments. Students are provided a starter code for each experiment that performs the heavy lifting of creating a scene that resembles the experiment and setting up graphs of important parameters. The students focus on coding the fundamental force relationships as well the equations that integrate force to obtain momentum and velocity to obtain position. They write reports that focus on comparisons between experimental results, modeling outcomes, and theoretical predictions. In this poster we will present examples of several experiments and models that are used in this laboratory.

Integrating Simulation and Experiment in the WKU University Physics Laboratory

Students at Eastern Michigan University who have chosen a physics major or minor are now required to take a course introducing them to scientific computation. Nonetheless, they benefit from intentional and continued practice of newly developed computational skills. Such practice can readily occur in courses such as intermediate mechanics, where the content is more visual and less abstract. I will describe computational exercises used during Winter 2021 to provide students further experience with spreadsheets and GlowScript code. I will also discuss their implementation during virtual course meetings brought on by the global pandemic.

Computational Tasks for Intermediate Mechanics

Following the restructuring of many science classes and labs, teaching the introductory mechanics labs in hybrid mode (with a half of the students attending one lab session and other half attending next session) during Fall’20 and Spring’21 has provided valuable experience in integrating the computation into these courses. The poster will present the use of the Tracker Video Analysis and Modeling Tool for the exciting laboratory experiments in mechanics. The students had the opportunity to set-up and film some of the experiments themselves at home/dorm, and analyze the video yielding results of same or higher quality compared to those experiments done in lab (note that filming was optional as carefully set-up videos for analysis were provided).

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Comparing Two Scaffolds for Evaluating Scientific Explanations

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