United States

2020 has seen a release of multiple exciting new results in gravitational wave science! In this session, we will review these latest discoveries that have opened new windows into understanding the universe. Then we will introduce teachers to activities that can be used in the classroom, both remote and in-person, to introduce secondary science students to some of the major concepts related to understanding and detecting gravitational waves, including the new results! Detectors such as LIGO and Virgo will be examined, as well as the use of Multimessenger Astronomy.

AAPT WM 21

Gravitational Wave Science for the Secondary Classroom: Discoveries and Activities

multimessenger

gravitational waves

coding

The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. The program featured plenary speakers, sessions, workshops and many special activities.

For more information please visit the 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting page at: https://www.aapt.org/Conferences/SM2020/index.cfm.


AAPT SM 20

The 2020 AAPT Virtual Summer Meeting brought together physics educators from around the globe to learn about the latest in physics theory, research methodology and education from leaders in their field. 

technical paper

AAPT® is a strong professional physics science society dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in physical science education.

Winter and Summer National Meetings:
These National Meetings, held each winter and summer, are opportunities for members, colleagues, and future physicists from around the world to:

- participate in physics workshops
- meet and greet other physics educators
- form networks nationally and locally
- engage exhibitors and learn about the latest physics resources
- discuss innovations in teaching methods
- share the results of research about teaching and learning.

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&nbsp;Virtual or simulating experiments are developed and introduced by many organizations to enrich physics experiments within and beyond classrooms. Yet in the rural areas where resources are limits both physics experiment instruments and internet connection, teachers find it difficult to integrate experiments into classroom teaching activities. &nbsp;We analyzed the roles and current situations of simulating experiments in high school physics teaching in China. Evaluated several current running physics experiment simulation software packages. We found PhET is suitable for redeveloping and integrating into an off-line running package, which will benefit experiment teaching in rural areas where internet coverage is poor. The paper presents the approaches of redeveloping. For the sake of generality, we use Java language and HTML language for programming, and use HTML5 technique to integrate the experiments into an off-line running package. Successful on-the-site running shows the feasibility and applicability of redeveloping PhET simulation experiment for physics experiment teaching.

Re-development in Physics Experiment Teaching Using Simulation Based on PhET

Partnerships between our professional organizations and manufacturers are making it much more affordable to bring spatial light modulators (SLMs) into undergraduates' hands. SLMs are one way to shape light, in space or in time, making possible programmable dynamic holograms that actually have corporeal substance, and can play a role in&nbsp;faster-than-light imaging, as&nbsp;well as the use of&nbsp;entangled photon pairs (which cannot really be described as individual particles), such that the photons incident upon the detecting camera have never interacted with the object successfully imaged&nbsp;(which is&nbsp;called "ghost imaging," in reference to Einstein's concern over "spooky action at a distance"); this "spooky" result is achieved by exploiting&nbsp; correlations &nbsp;that are required by conservation of energy &amp; momentum. —&nbsp;Observed phenomena of these sorts prompt students to revise their mental model of what a "particle" is!

Shaping Light in Time and Space

A drinking bird (DB) also known as dunking bird or dipping bird is an interesting and amusing toy, swinging back-and-forth like a simple pendulum.&nbsp; But the drinking bird is an excellent experimental toy for thermodynamics in physics.&nbsp; The field of thermodynamics explains about mechanism of work, heat and energy, temperature, pressure and volume.&nbsp; These quantities are working in everywhere in nature, our daily life, engineering technologies, etc., and a drinking bird is often called a heat engine.&nbsp; It changes heat flows into work very efficiently. So, the drinking bird makes a perfect experimental device for understanding theory of heat and energy (thermodynamics).&nbsp; DB’s mechanical and thermomechanical motion can explain theories and laws of thermodynamics and irreversible thermodynamics.

Mechanism of a Water Drinking Bird, Thermodynamics and Irreversible Thermodynamics

Many concepts in physics involve abstract ideas that require learners to imagine invisible causes, while interpreting the concrete effects and integrating seemingly ambiguous representations (ERs). The difficulty of this parallel processing often results in learners developing misconceptions and lacking the skills to communicate about these concepts effectively. This paper describes a study that used an augmented reality program (Magna-AR) to help learners see abstract magnetic fields within a real-world environment using the internal magnetic field sensor within mobile devices. Learners were asked to use Magna-AR to construct 3D visualizations of magnetic fields of the Earth and around other smaller magnets. Learners were also asked to draw 2D visualizations of magnetic fields and to identify the connections between various ERs of magnetic fields. A selected subset of the learners also participated in follow-up interviews. Preliminary analyses of these data will be discussed.

Sensing and Representing Magnetic Fields in Augmented Reality

For highly interactive courses regularly&nbsp;using lab equipment, the transistion to remote instruction presents significant challenges. Breakout rooms during video conferences can be quite helpful for discussion, but without shared experiences with equipment, it's not quite complete.&nbsp; And, while there exist many videos and resources online, there are likely details or more salient points you'd like students to consider than what's readily available from the publisher or on the internet. This&nbsp;talk will present lessons learned in creating&nbsp;amateur videos of&nbsp;mock group-work as an attempt to keep the flow and atmosphere of a studio-format&nbsp;class constructive.&nbsp;This is part of a series of talks stemming from the NextGen PET FOLC project. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation grant NSF DUE-1626496.

On Creating Your Own Course Videos to Emulate Group Work

Vernier products have greatly changed how my classroom and lab is run. I have designed my classroom around student access to Vernier probeware so that lab can occur at anytime! In this talk I will discuss how I use some of my favorite prodcuts in class and online (I mean COVID and all). I will highlight the products that in my opinion have impacted student learning the greatest. This will include everything from motion to atomic spectra!

Vernier and My Classroom

After a 30-year physics teaching position at Cloud County Community College in Concordia, KS I retired on the last day of July 2020. Three days of fishing and I went back to work. This time at Bennington, Nebraska, as a High School Physics and Chemistry Instructor. Who were the first people I called once I moved into my new school? Vernier Software, my go to, my clutch performers, my other right hand. From Graphical Analysis to Pivot Interactives Vernier has always been beside me in my career.&nbsp;This talk will be historical, and futuristic, ultimately leading to my newest favorite vernier product, Pivot Interactives.&nbsp;

“Retired, Rehired, Reloaded with Vernier”

Whether instruction&nbsp;is in a face-to-face classroom or virtual, Video Analysis allows students to identify physics in the world around them while collecting some real data. Students don't need any equipment to learn physics and if you teach secondary physics, you know how important it is for students to journal.&nbsp; Vernier's Go Direct Technology allows for real time data collection and partners with Science Journal.&nbsp; This session will give examples of how both of these have been used in classrooms to enhance student understanding.&nbsp;

No Equipment, No Problem

Thermal physics encompasses thermodynamics and statistical mechanics content and is a core upper-division course requirement for most physics degrees. Thus, in order to improve student outcomes in these courses, it is important for both educators and researchers to have a validated method of evaluating student understanding of upper-division thermal physics content. For an assessment like this to be useful, it is crucial that the assessment tool can be easily implemented, easily scored, and provide insightful feedback. In this presentation, we discuss a multiple-response upper-division thermal physics assessment that was distributed in an online format. Initial validation results, average student performance, and feedback for instructors will be discussed.

Initial Implementation of an Upper-Division Thermal Physics Assessment

Assessment results provide valuable information about student learning. Accurately interpreting this information to modify courses is an essential step towards facilitating better student learning. Thus, as part of developing a standardized assessment for upper-division thermal physics, we design theory-based feedback for instructors in which they can trace how well their courses align with learning goals associated with scientific practices. This feedback provides instructors a ctionable information to operationalize scientific practices into their learning goals, thus encouraging not just content knowledge, but how to use that knowledge. In this talk, we lay out this feedback design process with specific examples from our data. This work highlights the importance of actionable feedback for instructors that facilitates explicit course modifications in physics classrooms. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;

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Re-development in Physics Experiment Teaching Using Simulation Based on PhET

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