Mastery, Universal Design, and "Hidden Physicists"
Evans and Selen from the University of Illinois-UC have a paper in Phys Rev PER about mastery learning. They designed a novel type of online homework, focused on the idea of mastery, and randomly assigned university students to either the mastery homework or the traditional approach (something like WebAssign). The evidence suggests the mastery approach was better, but not overwhelmingly so. For university students, especially those who have learned how to learn physics, mastery homework seems to have a small effect size.
There's a great a paper in The Physics Teacher where a team of New York physics teachers tackle an interesting dimension of the standard cart explosion lab. The paper is paywalled, but the authors welcome your emails if you'd like to get a copy or discuss their work. Write to George E Hassel (ghassel@siena.edu) or Darren Broder (dbroder@siena.edu).
Inquiry-based pedagogy and culturally-responsive instruction are two essential sectors of our discipline, but if you're like me you might have worried about the degree to which they can coexist. Does inquiry presuppose the empiricism of Western science, for example? With plenty of examples (see "Findings") Julie C Brown addresses this question wonderfully with a metasynthesis of relevant studies in JRST. Her conclusion is that combining these two approaches opens up a rich space of activities, discussions, and examples to use in class.
I'm a recent arrival to the United States, and trying to learn as much as I can about the complex issue of race in this country. To that end, I've really appreciated this blog post by Jon Greenberg. There's no particular physics content, but it's caused me to think a lot about my practices as an educator.
Andrew Morrison has been tweeting about 3D-printed physics demos, and reminding us all that we should be moving toward universal design. Learning tools that can be used by anyone will be more useful for everyone. He also suggests that college instructors seek out their disability services office. At my university, for example, I found out last week that our Disability Resources & Services will subtitle videos we use in class --nice!
This week's TeachBetter podcast features Eric Brewe talking about modeling instruction in physics. It's a great discussion and worth checking out if you've curious about modeling instruction.
Stephen Hawking's PhD thesis is now available online, and is quite readable for anyone who has taken a graduate-level general relativity course.
"I have to use my physics education every single day. And I love that." The Canadian Association of Physicists has a video series in which "hidden physicists" in physics-related careers talk about their jobs and careers. This is definitely something worth showing to your students.
On YouTube, the Physics Girl does a good video about fluidized beds.
And, seen on Twitter....
Tiffany Taylor posted a videos of her broomball obstacle course and simple electrostatics apparatus. Frank Noschese posted pictures from a lab where students determine Young's modulus for a marshmallow and one where students find the acceleration for "pull-back" toy cars. Eric Walters does projectile motion using marshmallow shooters. Moses Rifkin is collaborating with PE and dance teachers. Jenny Morris does an accelerated-and-constant-velocity practicum. Joshua Wood is looking at the Magnus effect on a kicked ball. And this gif shows a 1980s-era car colliding with a modern car: it'd be a good stimulus for Newton III-related discussion.
There's a great a paper in The Physics Teacher where a team of New York physics teachers tackle an interesting dimension of the standard cart explosion lab. The paper is paywalled, but the authors welcome your emails if you'd like to get a copy or discuss their work. Write to George E Hassel (ghassel@siena.edu) or Darren Broder (dbroder@siena.edu).
Inquiry-based pedagogy and culturally-responsive instruction are two essential sectors of our discipline, but if you're like me you might have worried about the degree to which they can coexist. Does inquiry presuppose the empiricism of Western science, for example? With plenty of examples (see "Findings") Julie C Brown addresses this question wonderfully with a metasynthesis of relevant studies in JRST. Her conclusion is that combining these two approaches opens up a rich space of activities, discussions, and examples to use in class.
I'm a recent arrival to the United States, and trying to learn as much as I can about the complex issue of race in this country. To that end, I've really appreciated this blog post by Jon Greenberg. There's no particular physics content, but it's caused me to think a lot about my practices as an educator.
Andrew Morrison has been tweeting about 3D-printed physics demos, and reminding us all that we should be moving toward universal design. Learning tools that can be used by anyone will be more useful for everyone. He also suggests that college instructors seek out their disability services office. At my university, for example, I found out last week that our Disability Resources & Services will subtitle videos we use in class --nice!
This week's TeachBetter podcast features Eric Brewe talking about modeling instruction in physics. It's a great discussion and worth checking out if you've curious about modeling instruction.
Stephen Hawking's PhD thesis is now available online, and is quite readable for anyone who has taken a graduate-level general relativity course.
"I have to use my physics education every single day. And I love that." The Canadian Association of Physicists has a video series in which "hidden physicists" in physics-related careers talk about their jobs and careers. This is definitely something worth showing to your students.
On YouTube, the Physics Girl does a good video about fluidized beds.
And, seen on Twitter....
Tiffany Taylor posted a videos of her broomball obstacle course and simple electrostatics apparatus. Frank Noschese posted pictures from a lab where students determine Young's modulus for a marshmallow and one where students find the acceleration for "pull-back" toy cars. Eric Walters does projectile motion using marshmallow shooters. Moses Rifkin is collaborating with PE and dance teachers. Jenny Morris does an accelerated-and-constant-velocity practicum. Joshua Wood is looking at the Magnus effect on a kicked ball. And this gif shows a 1980s-era car colliding with a modern car: it'd be a good stimulus for Newton III-related discussion.