Calculus-based Introductory Physics Course Research Articles

Impact of peer interaction on conceptual test performance

We analyze the effectiveness of working in pairs on the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism test in a calculus-based introductory physics course. Students who collaborated with a peer showed significantly larger normalized gain on individual testing than those who did not collaborate. We did not find statistically significant differences between the performance of students who were given an opportunity to formulate their own response before the peer discussions, compared to those who were not. Peer collaboration also shows evidence for the co-construction of knowledge. Discussions with individual students show that students themselves value peer interaction. We discuss the effect of pairing students with different individual achievements.

Investigation of students’ reasoning regarding heat, work, and the first law of thermodynamics in an introductory calculus-based general physics course

Students in an introductory university physics course were found to share many substantial difficulties related to learning fundamental topics in thermal physics. Responses to written questions by 653 students in three separate courses were consistent with the results of detailed individual interviews with 32 students in a fourth course. Although most students seemed to acquire a reasonable grasp of the state-function concept, it was found that there was a widespread and persistent tendency to improperly over-generalize this concept to apply to both work and heat. A large majority of interviewed students thought that net work done or net heat absorbed by a system undergoing a cyclic process must be zero, and only 20% or fewer were able to make effective use of the first law of thermodynamics even after instruction. Students’ difficulties seemed to stem in part from the fact that heat, work, and internal energy share the same units. The results were consistent with those of previously published studies of students in the U.S. and Europe, but portray a pervasiveness of confusion regarding process-dependent quantities that has been previously unreported. Significant enhancements of current standard instruction may be required for students to master basic thermodynamic concepts.

Can an Analysis of the Contrast Between pre-Galilean and Newtonian Theoretical Frameworks Help Students Develop a Scientific Mindset

This study examines a course in which students use two writing activitiesand collaborative group activities to examine the conceptual structure ofthe calculus-based introductory Physics course. Students are presented withtwo alternative frameworks; pre-Galilean Physics and Newtonian Physics. Theidea of the course design is that students would at first view the frameworksalmost in a theatrical sense as a view of a drama involving a conflict of actors;Aristotle, Galileo, Newton and others occurring a long time ago. As participantspassing through a series of interventions, the students become aware that theframeworks relate concepts from different parts of the course and learn to evaluatethe two alternative frameworks. They develop a scientific mindset changing theiroutlook on the course material from the viewpoint that it consists of a tool kit ofassorted practices, classified according to problem type, to the viewpoint that itcomprises a connected structure of concepts.

Developing Critical Thinking in Undergraduate Courses: A Philosophical Approach

This paper is centred on twentieth century philosophers of science. I will examine how they have influenced current physics educational research by others and myself. I will also examine how I have introduced a study of these philosophers in several courses including the calculus-based introductory physics course on optics and modern physics. Students study one philosopher all semester as a group project and report regularly on how their philosopher would view the subject matter of the course. As a consequence of this use of philosophers of science, the students seem to have made a marked improvement in their critical thinking skills and in their grasp of the underlying concepts of the subject matter of the courses.

Work and variable force: A classic chain problem

Problems involving the work done by a variable force are an interesting component of the calculus-based introductory physics course. Because of logistical problems, however, such problems have not often been treated experimentally. The use of a force transducer interfaced with a computer provides the means of making such an experiment more accessible to introductory-level students. This note describes a variable force problem for which the calculated work may be easily compared with the experimentally measured values.

Thermal physics in the introductory physics course: Why and how to teach it from a unified atomic perspective

Heat and thermodynamics are traditionally taught in the introductory physics course from a predominantly macroscopic point of view. However, it is advantageous to adopt a more modern approach that systematically builds on students’ knowledge of the atomic structure of matter and of elementary mechanics. By focusing on the essential physics without requiring more than elementary classical mechanics, this approach can be made sufficiently simple to be readily teachable during five or six weeks of an ordinary calculus-based introductory physics course. This approach can be highly unified, using atomic considerations to infer the properties of macroscopic systems while also enabling thermodynamic analyses independent of specific atomic models. Furthermore, this integrated point of view provides a deeper physical understanding of basic concepts (such as internal energy, heat, entropy, and absolute temperature) and of important phenomena (such as equilibrium, fluctuations, and irreversibility).

The IUPP and the introductory calculus-based physics course

The IUPP and the introductory calculus-based physics course

Using digital video analysis in introductory mechanics projects

During the first semester of our calculus-based introductory physics course sequence, students work in small groups on mechanics projects. Many teams choose digital video analysis for projects involving mechanics. We discuss the management of collaborative projects and schemes for critiquing collaborative papers and assigning individual grades. We also describe some of the more interesting projects. Finally, we offer some advice on how to find the information needed to create good digital video movies.

The IUPP evaluation: What we were trying to learn and how we were trying to learn it

During two academic years (1991–1992, 1992–1993), four new model curricula for the college-level, calculus-based introductory physics course were tested. A total of nine colleges and universities around the country participated in this test. This paper provides an overview of the evaluation process. The evaluation was independent—that is, it was not linked to the model developers or to the sites, nor was it directly implemented by the group that sponsored the project, the Introductory University Physics Project. At each site, we set out to study both ‘‘model’’ and ‘‘comparison’’ sections of the introductory physics course. There was a pre- and post-test, and some limited use of in-class questionnaires. Faculty members and roughly 10% of the students were asked to keep journals. Each test site was visited by an evaluator at least twice during each academic year. This paper provides some of the background necessary to assess the results of the IUPP evaluation. Some evaluation results from the 1991–1992 field tests are included in the following paper [R. Di Stefano, Am. J. Phys. 64 (1), 58–68 (1996)]. The main body of our results, including those focusing on the 1992–1993 trials, will be presented in later papers.

The Air Force Academy Instructor Workstation (IWS): II. Effectiveness

This article discusses the results of measuring the in-class effectiveness of a computer controlled instructor workstation (IWS). The IWS was used in an introductory calculus-based physics course. It provided computer control of the presentation of videodisc scenes in support of the lecture. We found no significant difference in the performance of the students, but did see a significant improvement in their attitude. Instructor reaction was generally favorable. We also discuss the pedagogy used in developing the lessons, and the design of the evaluation.

Student understanding of the work-energy and impulse-momentum theorems

Student understanding of the impulse-momentum and work-energy theorems was assessed by performance on tasks requiring the application of these relationships to the analysis of an actual motion. The participants in the study were undergraduates enrolled in either the honors section of a calculus-based introductory physics course or in the regular algebra-based course. The students were asked to compare the changes in momentum and kinetic energy of two frictionless dry-ice pucks as they moved rectilinearly under the influence of the same constant force. The results of the investigation revealed that most of the students were unable to relate the algebraic formalism learned in class to the simple motion that they observed.