2–7 Jun 2019
Simon Fraser University
America/Vancouver timezone
Welcome to the 2019 CAP Congress Program website! / Bienvenue au siteweb du programme du Congrès de l'ACP 2019 !

Reforming Intro Physics Labs to Focus on Innovation, Creativity, and Scientific Skills

5 Jun 2019, 10:45
30m
SCC 9051 (Simon Fraser University)

SCC 9051

Simon Fraser University

Invited Speaker / Conférencier(ère) invité(e) Physics Education / Enseignement de la physique (DPE-DEP) W1-2 Teaching for Physics Skills Development (DPE) | Développement d'aptitudes pour l'enseignement de la physique (DEP)

Speaker

Dr Mats Selen (University of Illinois)

Description

Approaching a question without fear; coming up with an idea; designing an experiment; understanding assumptions; interpreting data; reasoning from evidence. Many physicists would claim they do this for a living, and most would be delighted to observe this behavior in their students, yet for a variety of reasons this is often not what we encourage in our introductory physics labs.
We have developed a portable wireless lab system with the goal of putting simple yet powerful tools in the hands of every student, and we are currently implementing a new design-based approach to our introductory physics labs based on this tool. Our students invent experiments and acquire data both in and out of the classroom, and share their data with each other and with instructors using an integrated cloud based repository. This new approach is allowing us to shift the focus of our introductory physics labs toward creativity, critical thinking, and communication.

Primary author

Dr Mats Selen (University of Illinois)

Presentation materials