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Developed at Oregon State University, the Partial Derivative Machine (PDM) is a mechanical analogue to a thermodynamic system that allows students to explore the mathematics of thermodynamics through the more familiar physics of a mechanical system with masses and strings. The PDM has been used to help students learn about partial derivatives, conjugate variables, state variables, collecting experimental data, processes, cycles, and more! This poster will outline uses and benefits of the PDM as well as expand on a few possibilities for using the PDM in the classroom.

AAPT WM 21

The Partial Derivative Machine

paradigms in physics

partial derivatives

thermodynamics

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. 

poster

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External representations play a vital role in doing and learning physics. At this poster, we will discuss a new framework for describing external representations and implications for teaching. First, we identify three aspects that distinguish one representation from another: the conceptual referent, the medium of the representation, and how information is organized in the representation. We then identify structural features of representations that take into account both the form and the function of the representation. We will illustrate this framework of structural features with some examples, including plastic “surface" models of 2D functions and an “arms” representation of quantum states. Based on this framework, we suggest strategies for helping students learn to interpret and use external representations. &nbsp;

Structural Features of External Representation in Physics

The Paradigms in Physics group at Oregon State University is premiering a new dissemination website, https://paradigms.oregonstate.edu.&nbsp; This “poster” will be a guided tour of the new site which includes activities for many upper-division courses, sequences of activities, and homework problems.&nbsp; All of these components have been classroom tested over a number of years in the Paradigms Program and a number of them have been the subject of formal PER studies.&nbsp; You will also find advice about how to facilitate different styles of activities including small group problem solving, kinesthetic activities, visualization activities, and activities using dry-erasable plastic surfaces from the Raising Physics to the Surface project.&nbsp; In addition, we will demonstrate flow charts that demonstrate our learning progression of content for quantum mechanics.

New Curricular Materials Website/Quantum Learning Progression

The Paradigms @ OSU team has developed a series of activities that supports students in reasoning about complex numbers by having students act out those numbers with their arms. The Arms representation is versatile and can be expanded, by grouping students, to include complex-valued vectors. This expansion enables groups of students to represent quantum mechanical state vectors with their arms. The Arms Sequence of activities parallels the progression of OSU’s spins-first approach by starting with complex numbers, advancing through two- and three-state systems, considering time-dependence, and eventually extending to approximate wavefunctions. In this poster we will present Arms as a representation and discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of using Arms to teach quantum mechanics. We will discuss the development of mathematical and physics ideas, cognitive and pedagogical affordances, movement logistics, and the implicit elements of the representation.

Embodying Complex Numbers and Quantum States

The Paradigms in Physics program often incorporates activities that encourage&nbsp;exploration of multiple representations simultaneously. In this poster, we discuss an electrostatics activity that occurs near the beginning of the&nbsp;Static Fields Paradigm. We detail one group's use of multiple representations, including a plastic surface model of the potential due to an electric quadrupole. Our analysis examines the features and functions of the external&nbsp;representations, as well as the order in which the representations were provided to the students. We specifically answer the question of how the representations supported inquiry during this activity.

Surface Models and Multiple External Representations in Paradigms

What makes a physics course uniquely “Classical” in the context of the growing Classical Education movement? From high school physics to liberal arts college core physics, are there particular topics, components, or pedagogies, that must be present in a physics classroom to make it uniquely “Classical”? Does physics in Classical Education require teaching from a particular view of science? Does the “Classical” aspect of the course come in the structure (Trivium cycles, classical Quadrivium framework) or is it simply “traditional” physics with classical pedagogy and classical touchstones incorporated? If so, what are the important classical touchstones? We explore and summarize what authors speaking about physics from within the Classical Education movement say concerning what might make a physics course uniquely “Classical”.

Classical Education Touchstones for the Physics Classroom

This poster describes how design tactics can be used to adapt activities developed for the Paradigms in Physics program to other settings. Design tactics provide practical guidance for&nbsp;developers in designing (and refining) curricular materials in order to meet their specific learning goals. More specific than design principles, design tactics are practical and closely guide specific development processes.&nbsp;We describe the role of design tactics in&nbsp;the context of the ring cycle, a sequence of in-class activities on upper-division electromagnetic theory developed as part of the Paradigms in Physics program. We illustrate how design tactics can be used to adapt activities to different formats and align them with available class components (e.g. small group activity, lecture, Zoom session, homework).&nbsp;By contrasting the original implementation at OSU with two secondary implementations at other universities, we illustrate how design tactics can also be used to adapt activities to different settings.&nbsp;

Design tactics for adapting the ring cycle in secondary implementations

Computational physics courses are becoming an integral part of the undergraduate physics curriculum because they prepare students for their post-baccalaureate career where computational skills are applicable to research and industry jobs. The instruction of computational physics courses varies greatly based on curricular requirements and departmental resources. At Oregon State University, the computational courses are a project-driven laboratory experience. The computational physics lab course is strongly related to the content delivered in the junior-level lecture courses, but they are taught by different instructors so that a non-computational physicist can still deliver the lecture material. In the computational physics lab course, students solve physics problems related to lecture course content using Python and pair programming, a coding technique shown to improve code quality and learning outcomes. We will present the design choices of using the lab structure and the coordination with lecture courses, and the development of the computational physics lab course.

Development and Design of a Computational Physics Lab Course

Sensemaking is a skill valued in the physics classroom as it aids students and expert physicists in drawing connections between varying representations and concepts in order to make sense of what they are learning or teaching. To promote students’ use of sensemaking practices throughout The Paradigms in Physics program we designed a course to explicitly teach students sensemaking skills early in their physics curriculum, Techniques of Theoretical Mechanics. This course covers both classical mechanics and special relativity, giving students experience with sensemaking in two different contexts. By teaching sensemaking explicitly and early, students have a tool box of sensemaking skills to draw on when solving novel physics problems. In this poster we explain the different pedagogical strategies used in Theoretical Mechanics to expand students’ views about sensemaking and help them develop habits that persist throughout The Paradigms in Physics program.

A Sensemaking Foundation for Paradigms in Physics at OSU

At the USAF Academy, 36.4% of the cadets who intended to major in STEM before their first semester ended up graduating in a nonSTEM career. This study investigated factors associated with cadets declaring STEM majors or switching out of them. Of the 3,248 cadets with a declared major at the end of the academic year, 128 switched majors, with the most cadets switching within either STEM or nonSTEM. Twenty-four cadets switched out of STEM, and seven switched into STEM. STEM departers were more likely to have a low GPA and to come from a preparatory school, and were less likely to be scholars, international or ESL students. Cadets who went from undeclared to STEM majors were more likely to have higher Core GPA and SAT scores and were less likely to participate in athletics. STEM attrition must be addressed through academic support and advising before cadets declare a major.

Selecting and Switching STEM Majors at USAF: Associated Retention Factors

The idea of Peer Review is inherent to NextGen PET. Many problems within the curriculum propose a conversation between students where each students defend a different idea. In these cases NextGen PET provides a specific method on how to evaluate the ideas of these hypothetical students. Step 1) Is the information accurate?&nbsp;Step 2) Are all aspects of the argument presented? Step 3) Is the argument presented in a logical way? This semester I wanted to apply this kind of framework as a type of Canvas assignment called Peer Review.&nbsp;Students must complete a rubric regarding a randomly assigned peer's ideas in order to help teach how to evaluate the ideas of others in group discussions.&nbsp; I will present how to set up in the assignments in a Canvas environment and lessons learned during the Fall 2020 semester at Los Angeles Pierce College.

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The Partial Derivative Machine

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