Conveners
(DPE) M2-5 - Case Studies, Writing, Literature, and Reasoning in Physics Education | Études de cas, écriture, littérature et raisonnement dans l'enseignement de la physique (DEP)
- Miranda Schmidt
Measurement and uncertainty are important concepts that show up across a standard physics curriculum, from laboratory instruction to quantum mechanics courses. Little work, however, has examined how students reason about uncertainty beyond the introductory level and has generally focused on a single perspective: students' procedural reasoning about measurements. Our team has developed new ways...
Laboratory courses are a fundamental part of physics education with proficiency in scientific writing being one of their key learning outcomes. While research has been conducted into how to teach this skill in various STEM field, no such effort has been reported for physics. We attempt to address this by measuring the impact of the (WIT) program on student self-reported confidence in a variety...
Schöllkopf and Toennies first demonstrated the existence of Helium dimer by making use of matter -wave interference (Journal of Chemical Physics, 104, 1155 (1996)). The concept of a molecule being comprised of two helium atoms is perhaps a surprise to students, based on their secondary-level chemistry knowledge. The process used by Schöllkopf and Toennies to demonstrate the existence of...
Multiple choice questions are a common valuable teaching and evaluation tool in large-enrolment introductory physics classes across North-American universities. However, they do not provide students with the opportunity to construct and formulate their own ideas. It is desirable to enrich student experience with the activities that reduce the reliance on multiple choice questions, while...