United States

In a five-year multi-institutional study, we have administered a small set of pre-college mathematics problems to nearly 7000 students enrolled in introductory college physics courses. We found consistently that over 30% of students have considerable difficulty with basic algebraic, trigonometric, and graphing operations, with symbolic representations posing a particularly notable obstacle. We will present our most recent findings, including substantial evidence that student performance on even a small set of these types of problems may be able to provide early warning of probable weak course performance.

AAPT WM 22

Pre-instruction math quiz may predict students’ physics course performance

problem-solving

mathematics

reasoning

Join AAPT and Physics Educators worldwide in developing and strengthening your professional connections by attending the 2021 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting. AAPT meetings are a great way to reflect on your teaching, recommit to best practices and re-energize your career with new research, products, and techniques.

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technical paper

This meeting is a great opportunity to explore sessions and workshops designed with your professional development in mind. Present your research and exchange ideas on the latest in teaching and pedagogy. Participate in a wide range of events, activities, plenaries, and so much more, connecting you with peers and colleagues who share your commitment to excellence in physics education.

Space exploration is a naturally interesting topic to many people. With the advances in spacecraft propulsion methods, it is possible for humans to study distant celestial bodies. Students can investigate the benefits and challenges of both human and non-human travel to space through different means. In this study, we investigated ways to help students understand space exploration. Two activities, Migration to Mars and Solar Sails, were designed for an undergraduate astronomy course taught online during the COVID pandemic. Students completed the activities in groups of four. One activity per group was submitted to the course management software followed by a quiz that students answered individually. Quiz responses were coded to check students’ understanding of the activities and the extent to which they were able to describe information relevant to space exploration. Students generally understood the value of uncrewed missions and the fact that solar sails use sustainable energy.

Students’ Understanding of Factors Related to Space Exploration

Investigating the physics of music is a reliable way to engage many of your students. A sonometer is a traditional device for learning about the physics of string instruments. The new PASCO sonometer adds new features to this classic experimental apparatus. These features make it quick and easy for students to gather the data they need to answer questions about wave properties, resonance, and standing waves in strings. The PASCO sonometer can be used with modern sound sensors and FFT analysis to measure frequency or "old school" with tuning forks. This presentation will introduce the new PASCO sonometer features, explain how to use it to collect data, and describe several experiments that can be performed with it. Student handouts and teacher guides will be provided.

Experimental Inquiries with the New PASCO Sonometer

The Drop Tower at Portland State University allows investigations of the behavior of physics demonstrations when the acceleration due to gravity goes to zero for 2.1 seconds. Does this cause a chaotic pendulum to transition into non-chaotic behavior or does chaos survive this short transition into weightlessness due to being in a non-inertial frame of reference from free fall? This question will be answered by viewing one of the many demonstrations in the Drop Tower Physics YouTube Channel, and the theoretical reason for this behavior will be discussed.

Chaotic Pendulum in Free Fall

Did you know? Half of STEM majors are interested in teaching as a profession, and STEM students of color are more interested in teaching as a profession than their White counterparts. If we want these students to consider majoring in a STEM field, it is important to include teaching as one of their career options when entering the major.&nbsp; In this presentation we will share updates on the Get the Facts Out Project including data to support the above claims, new handouts with salary and cost-of-living information for teachers in hundreds of school districts, a new professionally made short video series, and new single-slide conversation starters. We will also share what we learned from a GFO half-day mini-conference where we heard from faculty in physics, chemistry, and mathematics about what they would like to see from GFO in the future.

Increasing the Number and Diversity of Majors by Advertising Teaching

Kudu.com is a web-based online platform that provides customizable textbook content, engaging videos, and auto-graded online homework questions. Homework questions can be used to conduct live clicker sessions where students use phones, tablets or laptops to respond as instructors see instant results. Instructors can add their own questions and access questions uploaded by others. They can edit the content, sequence, and structure of the text and embed additional videos and links. Up to now Kudu courses were used only by universities like UCLA and UC San Diego. A new AP Physics 1 course was added this year and is free for high school instructors and students to use. Skeptical? Kudu.com guarantees the AP Physics 1 course will remain free in perpetuity. This presentation will go into detail about the AP Physics 1 course's features and how to access and use them.

The Free AP Physics 1 Course on Kudu.com

This session will show how cell phones can be used in active learning for students in physics and engineering. We will discuss some of the common apps which can be used and show examples of models which can be developed through active learning (POGIL) styled experinces for students. These cell phone sensors allow students to record, analyze and develop mathematical relationships which help to build core conceptual models in physics students at all levels.

Using Cell Phones to Develop Core Physics Models in Students

Research suggests that students in introductory courses struggle to understand an operational definition of electric field based on the expression E=F/q. To investigate factors that impact student reasoning, we developed sequences of questions that ask students to predict how (if at all) variables in the expression are affected when specific changes are made to experimental setups. (For example, when a new test charge is used, or a new source charge is used.)We have also explored the extent to which reasoning approaches identified in this context persist in other contexts involving multi-variable expressions. Dual process theories of reasoning (DPToR) have been used as a theoretical framework in this investigation. The talk will discuss how DPToR served to guide the design of the questions and as a framework to interpret student responses.

Student Reasoning with Multi-variable Expressions

The focus of this project is to analyze how teachers employ writing and discussion as argumentative practices in science classrooms and how, in turn, their students learn to participate in these new practices as opportunities to learn science content. We define the teaching and learning of argumentation as a diverse set of situated ways of using spoken and written language (and related semiotic systems) for articulating a warranted perspective. This involves events such as the exploration of a topic, inquiry, advancement of knowledge, dialogue with others articulating alternative positions, the construction of social relationships both among those co-present and between authors and readers as competitive or collaborative. This paper analyzes data collected during a two-week instructional unit on Newton’s Third Law in an accelerated secondary physics classroom. Data collection methods include video recordings, in-person observations, and semi-structured interviews with the instructor and students.

Scientific Argumentation in the Secondary Physics Classroom

We report on the incorporation of computational exercises into a single semester general education and the efficacy of the inclusion. Computation is an effective tool for creating deep conceptual understanding, connecting concepts with mathematics, and introducing prediction in science. Fifteen spreadsheet-based computational exercises were introduced into the course as active learning activities and were collaboratively completed. Student learning pre to post was measured with the TOAST and LPCI, with pre to post correctness gains of 20% were measured on the TOAST and 29% on the LPCI. Qualitative data was collected in the form of free response surveys to investigate student learning, attitudes toward computational exercises, and overall perceptions of the course. Student responses toward inclusion of computational exercises were positive. In addition to the overall results from the TOAST and LPCI, student responses to individual questions were analyzed for patterns of correct and incorrect responses and correlations between questions.

Effectiveness of computational exercises in a general education astronomy course

Dual process theories of reasoning suggest that humans reason using System 1 (heuristic) and System 2 (analytic) thinking processes. The aim of this research is to develop question sequences that serve two purposes: 1) to identify physics students with relevant content knowledge who nevertheless relied on System 1 thinking on a “target” question, and 2) to help students recognize reasoning inconsistencies and activate System 2 thinking effectively to override initial incorrect responses. Screening and target questions are used to identify students making reasoning errors, and intervention questions are designed to alert students of the need to reevaluate their reasoning. Students then have an opportunity to re-answer the target question. Data from recent iterations in calculus-based physics courses at the University of Washington will be discussed.

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Students’ Understanding of Factors Related to Space Exploration

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Instructional implications of findings on students’ mathematics difficulties

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Students’ Understanding of Factors Related to Space Exploration

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Instructional implications of findings on students’ mathematics difficulties

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