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We have made the use of smartphone applications a centerpiece of our efforts to reform the introductory labs in both our calculus-based and algebra-based classes. Students use smartphone applications in experiments completed in the lab (Bluetooth paired with sensors) and at home (using the native sensors in the phone). This has allowed us to reduce crowding in the lab, to give students a greater sense of agency in the experiments that they do, and to incorporate more sophisticated “data handling” in the learning goals for the labs. This talk will give an overview of the project and highlight several examples of labs in which smartphones play a prominent role.

AAPT WM 22

Smartphone applications as part of an introductory lab reform project

smartphone

laboratory

physics

Join us in exploring emergent themes in PER as a scholarly endeavor and as a research community!  Since its inception, PER has served as a confluence of discipline, theory, research methodology, practice, and application.  How have these facets and the interplays among them been fruitful for physics education globally, regionally, locally, or otherwise?  And, how have our successes and interactions influenced the very nature of PER itself?
Following the lead of AAPT for the summer meeting, PERC 20/20 was virtual. Enjoy browsing the content.

PERC SM 20

Since its inception, PER has served as a confluence of discipline, theory, research methodology, practice, and application.  How have these facets and the interplays among them been fruitful for physics education globally, regionally, locally, or otherwise?  And, how have our successes and interactions influenced the very nature of PER itself?

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.

Physics students can enjoy learning soft skills that will be useful for future professional careers. Enhancing soft skills will help physics students to have successful careers. We would like to explore the possibilities to embed emotional intelligence into physics classrooms.

Embedding Emotional Intelligence into Physics Education

This research focuses on data collected from Canvas on grades, participation, page views and student activity with the course material from one synchronous section and one asynchronous section of an introductory astronomy course. The course was participation based with chapter quizzes, tutorials, tutorial quizzes and written assignments. No exams were given. The analysis of the correlation between participation per week and grades per week was made, showing that engagement with the course material and canvas did not impact grades. There was no established relationship made. Students that interacted the most or the least, still received grades that were scattered. For the synchronous and asynchronous sections, as the semester progressed, the average page views decreased. However, when studying the average participation per week, the synchronous class had no specific correlation but the asynchronous section had a steady, linear increase.

Trends Seen In an Introductory Astronomy Course Graded on Participation

Educational evaluation is of great importance to teaching and the development of students. This paper will give some testees a survey of college physics-optics, using 2PL and 3PL of Item Response Theory to analyze and providing thoughts on optimizing the system of learning and teaching. The result shows that advanced ability oriented questions fit well with inspecting and ability building, and fill-in-the-blank test has a higher priority over multiple-choice question. Students are commonly short of advanced ability, and they should focus on the development of intermediate ability and make progress steadily. Teachers should pay attention to complex concepts, trying to lead students and innovate teaching method. Students should emphasize habit training and develop correct overlooks on the world, life and values.

Study on attainment of learning-objectives and practical-effects in introductory-physics course

The standard view is that space and time act together, putting aside the energetic component, leaving STR to valid paradoxes over it. GTR clears this up and deals, inclusive, with accelerated frames of reference, where energy acting over spacetime is the essential part of the GTR equations. Still, the primary attention is over, the challenge to imagine Minkowski's 4-dimensional spacetime. Their representations commonly express a curved space &amp; time consequence of energy over spacetime instead from its origins, the equivalent moving space by the presence of proper energy and surrounding ones.

An Intuitive Way to Understand Curved Spacetime

The arm and shoulder is a major part of the body, but unfortunately, not a lot of related simulations are available. Through GeoGebra, we developed an interactive simulation of forces of a human arm and shoulder—which these force vectors include the muscle of the bicep and deltoid, and the forces on the shoulder and elbow joints. This simulation helps us understand Newton’s Second Law and the concepts of torque and equilibrium as a learning tool, which can be used in physics classrooms. With further development, this simulation has the potential to be implemented in hospitals and in sports science.

Simulations of Shoulder and Arm

At-home wave mechanics are demonstrated with the inexpensive iOLab sensor system and a slinky. A suprising result is demonstrated by measuring the standing wave speed of a slinky. The wave speed does not appear to increase with Hookean tension on the slinky The reason is the slinky's linear density also changes in direct proportion with its stretched length. This counterintutive result can be easily explained conceptually and mathematically, providing students with a richer understanding of wave mechanics [Huggins]. Most importantly this experiment is easily accomplished at home, even without the iOLab, using a ruler and kitchen scale. The results of this activity from an introductory physics UNE Spring 2021 virtual online course student presentation are provided. Elisha Huggins, Speed of Wave Pulses in Hooke's Law Media, The Physics Teacher, 142 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1119/1.2840977

The Simple Slinky Wave Speed

This pandemic-motivated lab was created to explore ideas of&nbsp;buoyancy, static equilibrium, and experimental uncertainty for the introductory physics student. The unknown density of an object was determined by weighing it in and out of water. A make-shift scale was created using a ruler and nickels. Particular attention was paid uncertainties of measurements with the propagation of error carried out using Python.

Determining density with water, a ruler, floss, and some nickels

Based on a mechanical analog to a particle trapping technique, the Paul trap, a lab has been developed to train scientific thinking and experimental problem-solving. It also works to illustrate an important concept in many areas of modern physics. The mechanical trap will together with a simulation give students an introduction to the concept of particle trapping. The lab has been developed to contribute to the ever-important task of making high school physics more interesting, to get more students pursuing careers in STEM, and increasing scientific literacy in the public. Using a design-based approach to developing the lab, its effectiveness on student learning and interest is probed using qualitative and quantitative methods, and initial findings from the study will be presented.

The Mechanincal Rotating Saddle Trap in High School Physics Education

Providing students the opportunity to explore cultural aspects of cosmology (such as those of Indigenous, non-Western, or marginalized groups) can be a powerful way to foster safe spaces within astronomy. We are investigating the impacts of such a project, used in an upper-division course but adaptable to introductory astronomy. Students’ written reflections and oral interviews suggest that their interest in cosmology specifically and astronomy in general was strengthened by studying and presenting on the cosmology of a non-dominant culture or narrative. They reported surprise in the number of ways where the cosmological beliefs of their selected culture aligned with current science, within the limitations of available technology of the time. Students also reported that engaging with the projects made them feel like the astronomical community would be welcoming of them, even if they are not from the majority demographic, and that it supported goals of continued astronomical learning.

Investigating the Impacts of a Cultural Cosmology Project

To make physics relevant to non-traditional students and English language learners, I introduced children’s literature books and other reading materials into my class in the Fall semester. “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”, “Ricky the Rock that Couldn’t Roll”, “Pheasant and Kingfisher”, Never Play Music Right Next to The Zoo”, and “Hurricane Ida” were some pieces of literature my students read. The students could relate illustrations and text to physics contents, including electricity, projectiles, mechanical waves, motion and force, and observe physics in their everyday experience. Mixed with projects, students find my class exciting, show interest in the course and are motivated to learn. Moreover, this pedagogy effectively replaced pandemic screen learning, where over fifty percent of my class failed. My students use project grades to offset a failing traditional test in this face-to-face teaching since both have the same weight. Currently, most of my students are passing.

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